THE tremendous support Nasser received following the 1967 defeat lasted him less than a year with violent student and worker riots erupting in February 1968. On February 21, an Egyptian military tribunal passed out verdicts against senior officers of the Air Force accused of dereliction. With only fines and demotions, the sentences were viewed by many as extraordinarily light (at least compared with the very harsh sentences passed less than four years earlier on Ikhwan leaders and plotters). The public had expected dismissal and jail sentences, and the more radical elements of the Arab Socialist Union members and remnants of the Ikhwan had even demanded execution. The lenient sentences sparked off violent demonstrations, first by the workers of a war production plant in Helwan (a southern Cairo suburb). A chain reaction resulted in sympathetic strikes and protests by most factory workers in and around Cairo. So violent were these strikes that they prompted clashed with the anti-riot police and many casualties were reported on both sides. Students joined the workers, attracting passers-by. This was the first time for nearly a decade that students took to the street. Riots continued unabated until February 27. On February 24, students (mainly from the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University) headed towards the premises of the National Assembly (Parliament) in the heart of Cairo. They were permitted to select a few of them to submit a petition to the Assembly Speaker (then Anwar el-Sadat). They listed their grievances and demands, which focused on the democratisation of the country and accountability for those who were to blame for the 1967 disaster, and the state of the nation following the defeat. The student delegation expressed fear of government retribution, but Sadat personally assured them that no harm would come to them. In a pacifying gesture, he gave them his personal telephone number, asking them never to hesitate to call him if they would be harassed. Amazingly, there was no such harassment on the part of the Nasser regime, which was used to brutally suppress opposition ever since the attempt on his life by the Ikhwan in 1954. Apparently, it was Nasser's orders not to harshly deal with demonstrators, particularly as their protests were cloaked in nationalist sentiments and a genuine concern for the country. In the meantime, the students demonstrating outside parliament shouted slogans against what they termed 'the police state' and denounced 'Heikal's lies', in reference to the assuring statements the then Number One journalist used to publish in his weekly articles in Al-Ahram, of which was the editor-in-chief. [email protected]
