Nobel Prize laureate Ahmed Zewail charts a 21st century course for Egypt, reports Gamal Essam El-Din In a hard-hitting lecture at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on 29 July, the winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize for Chemistry Ahmed Zewail said he was far from optimistic about the future of development in Egypt. "The country," Zewail, told an audience of politicians, cabinet ministers, high-ranking officials and more than 1,000 citizens, "is in desperate need of comprehensive reform. Currently Egypt is like a sick man, suffering from a host of ailments." Under the title "A Journey for the Future", Zewail's lecture sketched a way out of crisis. Egypt, he said, must move away from a stifling bureaucracy and religious fatwas towards democracy. It should foster freedom and creativity and greater respect for the rule of law. Zewail accused Egypt's intelligentsia of wasting time and effort in "imposing an ideological agenda on the country". "It would be better to focus on space exploration or landing on the moon than waste time in discussing the differences between Nasserists, Wafdists, socialists, etc," said Zewail. Zewail stressed the urgent need to reform Egypt's education system. "Education in Egypt is still based on rote-learning rather than encouraging innovation and free thinking," he lamented. "It is impossible," he noted, "for a university with 125,000 students to offer an advanced level of education." Yet Egypt remains rich in "human wealth". "We have a lot of gifted scientists, economists and politicians who represent the real wealth for the future." He advised an end to the tendency to mix religion with science. "Let me emphasise that this flood of religious fatwas and mixing religion with science never achieve results in progress." He urged Egyptians "to develop a new vision of religion advocating enlightenment, creativity and freedom of expression". Born on 26 February, 1946 in Damanhour, capital of the Nile Delta governorate of Beheira, Zewail said that like most Egyptians religion formed a cornerstone of his upbringing. "But I was able to capture the spirit of Islam which promotes rationality, logic, freedom and enlightenment rather than ideological sclerosis and an antiquated mode of thinking," he said. "I spent hours in the mosque of Ibrahim El-Dessouki, where I would do my schoolwork." El-Dessouki is the Sufi cleric after whom the Delta city of Dessouk, near Damanhour, is named. Zewail said he was able to achieve success "only after I went to the United States where I enjoyed a climate free of bureaucracy and rich in freedom". Zewail won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry. In 1999 President Hosni Mubarak presented Zewail with Egypt's highest state honour, the Grand Collar of the Nile. Zewail, who became a naturalised citizen of the US in 1981, is currently a member of Barack Obama's Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Zewail explained that Obama formed PCAST to ensure that America kept its pioneer global role in science and innovation. He said he has been doing his best since 1997 to promote a culture of science and technology in Egypt "as the only way to achieve progress and the renaissance that will see Egypt occupy the 21st century position it deserves". The eminent scientist said he still hoped to see a university for technological sciences founded in Egypt, but lamented that some people thought the costs of such an institution prohibitive. "A country that has the will for progress should not consider technological advance a burden," he said. "There is a lot of money in Egypt," he continued. "More and more I see luxury cars and palatial villas." Zewail said that he would continue to try and convince leading officials that upgrading education and technological research is the only way to change the face of Egypt. "I wholeheartedly believe that the scientific and technological progress engineered by emerging economies such as China, India, South Korea and Malaysia was fostered by their promotion of education reforms, creativity and the willingness to reward gifted people." At the end of Zewail's lecture Ghad Party leader Ayman Nour, who has vowed to contest the 2011 presidential elections, said he would welcome Zewail standing as a candidate. Such a move, said Nour, "could only benefit the political life of the nation".
