Newspapers were recently filled with headlines about President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi's meeting with the Council of Ulema (Religious Scholars) of Egypt to discuss, among other topics, the crisis of conscience and the decline of morals in Egyptian society. I have mentioned before that we have cared more about bricks than about people, more about constructing buildings than about building character. President Al-Sisi is like a person who is keen to build a factory, a company or a restaurant for his children, but is not as keenly focussed on educating them and bringing them up properly. The president has “spoken” at length on morals. He has criticised the media, discussed the need for a religious revolution, and stressed the importance of education and family planning. But he has “taken decisions” to build roads, dig the new canal, pass a new investment law and other such matters, which are important but not as important, in my opinion, as the task of building the Egyptian human being. On some matters, President Al-Sisi applies public relations logic. He has gone on record as telling the people that he is displeased with some of their types of behaviour and practices, but he does not take direct decisions about this. In fact, he sometimes says, “I don't want to intervene” on matters that have a bearing on the development of the Egyptian person. On matters related to national projects, such as digging the new canal, he applies public policy logic. He holds meetings, discusses options, amends laws, issues specific orders with timeframes and budgets, and personally follows through on implementation. This, it should be stressed, is unquestionably praiseworthy and appreciated. But more important, or at least equally important, Mr President, is the need to build people, in keeping with that ancient adage: “We're the ones who make money; money doesn't make us.” If we examine the experiences of Asian nations we will find that they devoted great attention to building their national character, in terms of values and skills. If a massive earthquake struck South Korea and levelled it to the ground (God forbid), the country would rebuild itself in a matter of a few years. This is because the South Korean person is sound of body, sound of mind, capable and ready to apply him or herself. Were a similar disaster to strike Egypt (again, God forbid), everything we have built in your era, Mr President, would be lost. We know how to repair a motor, but we do not know how to open the driver's eyes to the mistakes he made that caused the motor to break down to begin with. The late prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, once said, “My role is not to change Singapore, but to change the Singaporean people so that they can change Singapore.” This is the approach taken by reformers in all societies, from the prophets to the leaders of modern states. Do we know the characteristics that we would like to see embodied in the Egyptian person ten years from now? No. Yet we know the length, width, depth and other specifications of the new Suez Canal. Have we held a conference on the “construction of the Egyptian person” along the lines of the economic conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, every session of which was attended by the president? No. Why? Because we care more about bricks than about people. Because the state does not perform its educational function with the same degree of concern and attention with which it performs its security and developmental functions. But it will not succeed in these latter two functions unless it tends more fully to its educational function. If we are as convinced of the need to build people as we are of the need to build structures, then I suggest there are five categories of core or dominant values that we should agree never to violate, or to tolerate being neglected, and that the state should work to install in the Egyptian mentality. First of these are essential economic values that lay the foundations for innovative activities, calculated risk and feasibility studies; professional dedication and development; the investment mentality: saving money and avoiding waste; pride in personal achievement and in the Egyptian product; wages keyed to production rather than to academic certificates; safeguarding public moneys; a patriotic private sector and social responsibility; and the importance of foreign investment and respect for the rights of tourists who come to Egypt. Second, the political values that we should focus on in the process of rebuilding the Egyptian person are political and legal equality, participation, respect for the rights and freedoms of all, respect for differing opinions and rejecting accusations of treachery, prioritising the general welfare over personal or narrow interests, and striving for radical solutions rather than palliatives. Third, behavioural values: integrity and rejection of bribery and corruption, aesthetic appreciation, personal hygiene and public cleanliness (refraining from littering, for example), and the culture of apologising for one's mistakes. Fourth, social values: focus on the quality of people, not the quantity: stop the phenomenon of runaway reproduction; non-discrimination and non-degradation of others; collective action; respect for the rights of others to a clean environment free of noise and visual pollution, and the right of all to the use of public space (safe and secure streets and homes); respect for the rights of the weaker segments of society (the elderly, the poor, etc); to be rich is not necessarily to be corrupt; and to differ in creed is not necessarily atheism. Fifth, knowledge values: the value of research and study, as opposed to blind conjecture and uninformed authoritativeness; openness to new ideas and a willingness to familiarise oneself with them even if one does not accept them; the value of the acquisition of knowledge and reading; rejecting negative attitudes towards the outside world and the notion that everyone/everything from abroad is an enemy or unacceptable; rejecting stereotyping, bias and prejudice on the basis of class, opinion, creed, religion or dress; and critical thought and decision-taking based on sound reasoning and scientific evidence. In light of the five value categories above, the state has five types of discourse that it can bring to bear in the process of building the new Egyptian person: political discourse, religious discourse, media discourse, cultural and artistic discourse, and educational discourse. Using these instruments will not cost the state more than it is currently paying. It is not a question of additional outlays but rather of redirecting resources to serve a cause that is larger than the narrower interests of individuals or a collection of vested interests. Yes, we can — if we resolve to succeed. I stress again: there can be no new Egypt unless we build a new Egyptian person. The writer is a professor of political science, Cairo University.
