Egypt Looks To The Future With One Eye On The Past

It's an election that hinges on many issues: a more Islamic government or a secular

one; a military leader or a civilian; a continuation of the revolutionary ideals born during the demonstrations in Tahrir Square in early 2011, or a retreat to what came before.

But it also reflects a debate about the history of the most populous nation in the Arab world and the five presidents who led it since independence from British rule in 1952.

Two of them, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat, were military officials who took part in the Free Officers movement that overthrew the monarchy of King Farouk, but each tried to mould Egypt into a new republic with a starkly different ideology.

Nasser sought to bring justice to Egyptians by destroying the aristocracy and improving the lives of ordinary people through socialist ideas. He inspired a generation of Arabs with a nationalist project for the once dominated people of the region to rise up and unify.

Sadat changed directions, opening Egypt up to free-market reforms and crafting a foreign policy aligned with the West.

Hosni Mubarak, toppled amid a popular uprising last year that set the country on a new path, is considered an acolyte of Sadat. Mubarak in large part continued with Sadat's policies. The National Democratic Party that Mubarak chaired - and which is now disbanded - was created by Sadat.

The rise of businessmen politicians also began under his regime with Osman Ahmed Osman, a relative of Sadat's through marriage. He was the founder of one of the largest construction firms in the region, a prominent member of parliament and a government minister.

Several of the current presidential candidates served in some way or another under Mubarak and worked within the system that he presided over.

The Islamist political candidates - especially Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, the moderate physician, and Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood member running on a campaign centred on an Egyptian "renaissance" of improving the economy and creating a system that spreads wealth more justly - are perhaps the only contenders to offer substantial new ideas. Islamists believe that Islamic principles and Sharia are the best tools to rule the country. published by Egypt holidays

While the others say they have new ideas for Egypt, they identify themselves with those who have ruled before. Hamdeen Sabahi, for instance, says he is a Nasserist. His campaign is leftist, but it has also sought to tap into a portion of the population that longs for Egypt's return to the position of influence and dominance in the Arab world that it had under Nasser.

Amr Moussa, the former foreign minister, is seen as a devotee of Sadat's ideology: let the free market do its work and keep relations with the US strong.

Ahmed Shafiq, the former air force commander, portrays himself as a "strong hand" needed for a chaotic Egypt - an image that rings true with Egyptians who believe the uprisings should be a momentary aberration in the continuation of the succession of military leaders.

Egyptians are having to reach into their political memory, as much as they are searching for new ideas, when it comes to electing a president, said Mahmoud Rached, head of the human-rights division of the Arab League.

"One of the challenges of the revolution is that it came without a cultural revolution," he said. "This revolution came without ideas

published by Egypt travel

by: Egypt holidays

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