Obituary: A free market warrior (1930-2005) , one of Egypt's longest-serving prime ministers, passed away last Friday after several months of battling with illness. President Hosni Mubarak and a bevy of current and former senior officials attended Sedqi's funeral at Al-Rashdan Mosque in Nasr City. Dubbed the "architect of Egypt's economic reform", Sedqi headed three cabinets between November 1986 and January 1996. While steering the country towards a market- oriented economy, Sedqi attempted to balance the need for fundamental reform with the state support that millions of Egyptians depend on. Sedqi was born in Tanta, a bustling Nile Delta city, on 23 August 1930. He obtained his BA in law from Cairo University in 1951. He and his classmates have been called the university's "luckiest graduates", with dozens later occupying top official posts. In 1958, Sedqi obtained a PhD in economic and financial sciences in France, where he met his wife Ursula, a German who was also studying there. For the next 20 years, Sedqi taught law at Cairo University, gradually nudging into the spotlight. In 1980, he became a cultural counsellor at the Egyptian Embassy in Paris. A year later, he was picked to head the Central Auditing Agency, a watchdog body supervising government and public sector spending. Sedqi's tenure as prime minister coincided with several tumultuous events. The 1991 Gulf War, which hit Egyptian tourism hard, combined with a major earthquake in October 1992, helped catalyse a sharp economic crisis. A long-running conflict between security forces and Islamist militants that left 1,000 people dead also played a part. Sedqi himself was the target of an assassination attempt in 1993. Although his motorcade was targeted, Sedqi escaped unscathed; the attack killed a 12-year-old schoolgirl and wounded 18 other people. Sedqi's primary challenge involved guiding Egypt's painful transition to a market economy. In charge of an International Monetary Fund austerity plan that saw many state- owned enterprises sold off to the private sector, Sedqi came under heavy fire from the press, and other opponents of this massive privatisation drive that ended with thousands of lost jobs. Opposition newspapers often vilified Sedqi for cowing to the dictates of international financial institutions. Sedqi, nevertheless, did manage to reduce inflation rates by up to 20 per cent, and raised foreign exchange reserves to a record $22 billion. When he was honoured with the state merit award for social sciences in 1995, Sedqi donated the LE5,000 prize to an outstanding scholars programme at Cairo University's Faculty of Law. He also received the prestigious French legionnaire honore award in 1984 for his books on economy and financing. Sedqi headed the government-affiliated Specialised Councils economic think tank from 1996 until he died. Although he suffered a severe heart attack late last year and was treated in Egyptian and French hospitals, Sedqi continued to work when he could. In 2001, with prices on the rise, Sedqi was reportedly asked to help then prime minister Atef Ebeid's government find its way out of a deep economic crisis. Known as a modest, dedicated and serious workaholic, Sedqi was grim-faced in nearly every photo. "When will you be happy?" a journalist once asked him. Sedqi's answer: "When I see Egypt outrunning other countries in progress." By Mustafa El-Menshawy
