Do you remember, Mr. Minister? The last time I saw handsome, smiling and polite officers was in some old Egyptian movies. But do you know, Mr. Minister, that this charm and this happiness date back to the monarchy, when white was white and black was black? What has happened? One day, I was leaving the newspaper headquarters. I got on my car and phoned a friend of mine who was waiting for me to tell him I was on my way. I was stopped by a police checkpoint some 150m away from the building. I hadn't fastened the seat belt and my driving license had also expired two months before. A lieutenant colonel asked me for my driving license. "Why?" I asked. "It's my right" he answered. "It's also my right to ask you why." "Don't you know there's a new traffic code?" I said with a challenging tone: "Come on, tell me how much I have to pay and let me go". "I want to see your driving license, first". "I don't have it now. Actually, I've got it, but I'm not going to show it to you". "Pull over" he said. I did and got off the car. "Take it, but I'll get it back in an hour" I said. Meanwhile, the lieutenant colonel had been joined by two other officers and a group of soldiers. "You won't get it back" the major said. "We'll see" I replied. After reading the data on my driving license, the captain said: "Let me work in the press!" "Any time" I told him. "Your driving license has expired" the major said. "I know" I replied. "Alright. I'll pretend I haven't seen it. But you've got to pay a LE50 fine for the belt". I paid, got on the car and drove off. That day, I was stopped by chance by two other checkpoints and the same play was rehearsed in both cases. "The driving license has expired". "I hadn't noticed it". I pay LE 50 and start swimming once more in a sea of cars. You may say it is normal for the Egyptians to be in such chaos, Mr. Minister, and I agree with you. However, you can't deny that your ministry is responsible for this. I hope I am wrong, but it seems to me that these checkpoints, with their rules, notebooks, officers and soldiers, have not been able to eliminate or at least reduce this chaos. Now, the goal has become to protect them as they are a source of financing for the ministry. More strangely, the responsibility for this chaos is perhaps the only thing that the police and the citizens have in common, as the relation between these two parties is instead marked by fear and disrespect. Whenever someone starts talking to an officer, the latter touches his gun, curses, insults that person and, briefly speaking, enjoys himself with him or her.
Yet, all police officers are normal people. They go to the movies and have fun like anyone else and they used to be pupils and students like all the rest of us. However, once they wear their uniform, they become frightening. Let me ask you - and I hope I am wrong: why does each party deal with the other as if it were an enemy until the contrary is proven? Why doesn't the Ministry of Interior prove it is indeed the contrary, while it does not spare any effort to apply the slogan that the police are at service of the regime?
Is there any officer telling you, Mr. Minister, that there is a psychological barrier between officers and the people and that the relations between them now really deserve to be "normalized"?
