Dr. Hossam Badrawi Official Website
Dialogue: Ahmed Abu Saleh and Ayman Adly
Education.. is the main entry point for development in Egypt
I support the appointment of political ministers, not technocrats
“Abdul Nasser” left Egypt in a low state… and “Sadat” was an exceptional genius
June 30, a popular revolution against the Muslim Brotherhood’s militias
He is one of the pioneers of enlightened thought in Egypt. Everyone agreed on his integrity, love for his country, and support for political and democratic openness. His record is full of work and diligence. He is the eminent doctor, thinker and seasoned politician, Dr. Hossam Badrawi, who does not know the meaning of failure, and confirms that education is a haven for countries. for development.
Badrawi reveals during his interview with Al-Wafd that his statements before January 25, 2011, emphasized the danger of capital marrying with power, a matter that he warned a lot of, but no one responded to.
During the dialogue, Badrawi stressed the importance of science and education, and pointed to the important role of the state in developing the current generation, spreading a positive atmosphere and real interest in young people, and working to pay attention to the soft power of culture, art, media and knowledge, because it promotes peoples for a better future. To Egypt, and to the text of the dialogue.
< Tell us about the beginning, upbringing and birth in the city of Mansoura?
<< Mansoura is a major part and component in the life of everyone who was born in it, and it is a country with a special taste, and people have a special character, the Nile Corniche, its beauty and tranquility, as well as the cultural depth of Mansoura in the fifties era, it was full of wonderful schools that brought out generations of community leaders, as well as At the same time, her beautiful and calm nature was reflected on her children. When I traveled, I met a genius scientist, a pioneer in blood research from Mansoura. I also met a writer and poet from Mansoura, as well as a respected journalist writer, who is also from Mansoura. This country plays an important role in all of our lives.
And when we moved from Mansoura to Cairo in 1961, there was a kind of special communication between the spectrum of society coming from Upper Egypt, Damietta and Mansoura, and Mansoura established some values in us that continued with us in the journey of life. In front of Shajarat al-Durr Park, which disappeared, and Mansoura Sports Club, which disappeared, and their place is now the Faculty of Medicine, and I was five years old when the 1956 war occurred. The form of life in Mansoura affected my sentimental, and I think it affected everyone who lived there, and Mansoura, in my opinion, has the most beautiful corniche in Egypt, and the most beautiful place to live in.
< What do you say about the importance of developing education and building the Egyptian person?
<< First, when I was in Parliament and nominated myself for the Education Committee, the party asked me not to run for the Education Committee, and I told them that I see this committee as the main entry point for development in Egypt, and they asked me to run for the Health Committee. We are a family that owns one of the largest hospitals in Egypt, and we have a private health insurance company. I see that this is a conflict of interest, and they say that I am crazy.
And my entry into the Education Committee was of my own free will, and I believe that life is all choices. You choose at every moment in your life to take any path, and my presidency of the Committee was one of the most important five years in the life of education in Egypt, as we developed a complete and comprehensive strategic development plan for education, Clear, specific goals, and specific time limits, but unfortunately, successive governments did not take them.
This takes me to a main point, where some say you were within the ruling party, I tell them that I was within the party that is supposed to be ruling, but the National Party throughout its life was not a ruling party, who rules Egypt is the Republican Palace only, and all players are marginal, otherwise it would have been The cabinet comes from the party, and my opinion was taken of the ministries concerned with its affairs, and this did not happen, and there is a saying by Dr. Youssef Wali, Secretary-General of the National Party in 2001: “Oh my sons, what you know is wrong, remove the prestige from around the government and Egypt must rule the rule My center, and the ministers can’t come to the Education Committee while they are worried and afraid, we are here in Parliament, the party is running elections, not changing policies.” Without changing the current situation, and there are always those who benefit from it, and the beneficiaries are not necessarily bad, but they think that this is the entrance to stability and the entrance to safety to remain as we are and not change, although change is the basis of stability, and development is the basis for continuing the competitive game in the world who runs fast to forward.
< How do you see the experience of education currently in light of the sweeping attack on the Minister of Education?
<< It is fortunate that I attended development plans worldwide and was responsible for education in the former ruling National Party for 10 years, and the Education Committee of the former People’s Assembly for 5 years and was summoned from the current system, and I am honored that I was the head of the committee that formulated Egypt’s current plan (20-30) In the field of education, which was announced by the President of the Republic, and it is the strategic plan for human development in Egypt, and it is a very respectable plan. Between the past, the present and the future with an open mind about what is happening and what is happening now is partially good, but it does not touch the plan that has been developed and which talks about governance, digitizing schools, creating personality and competitiveness.. He is only talking about introducing new educational systems in the first primary and nursery schools and talking about digital tests There is a theory that says, “If you change the examination system and the assessment system, what was before it will change to suit it.” But is the application of this talk part of Egypt’s vision of the 20-30 plan as a whole? No, we’re just implementing part of it. This effort is good, but is it effective?
“I suspect”.
< How do you keep people’s love?
<<First of all, saving time, and knowing that everyone has time, and we have the space that allows us to be present, contribute and help, and I am a man who does not work alone. For example, the “Takatuf” association hands over to the state a fully built and equipped school every seven months in the poorest places. I draw up the plan and general direction, and people who have love, passion and ability to give work on it. We have also trained nearly 25,000 students in government schools. Like 800 schools, and these matters are not announced to the public, although this matter is useful, as the good thing is prepared, and we did not take a single dime from the state, and this role takes place within a disciplined scientific framework, and financed by us and from civil society, the “Dreamers of Tomorrow” association. I love an association to my heart, as it talks about young people and how they face their life after graduation and their desire for a job opportunity, marriage and integration into society. In the old days, you used a large group of The great Illuminati, because I am convinced that soft power in Egypt is the force that should be taken care of, and I worked within the framework of the Library of Alexandria and the National Competitiveness Council, and I thank the Ministry of Planning because it agreed, after ten years, to deal with a national, non-profit, national institution, and we produced a report global competitiveness with its international standards, and a competitiveness report will be issued at the governorate level according to standards agreed upon with the state.
< Corruption is the most dangerous obstacle to development… What are the solutions to address it?
<< Corruption is a floating word, and it is an impression. A long history of obstructing the interests of the citizen, so preventing and combating corruption does not lead to good management of institutions. If there are 7 million employees working in state institutions, and they do not need more than one and a half million employees, then we make of these employees who impede work and make the performance of the service take longer time. With less efficiency and higher cost, yes, we need the governance of the management of state institutions, so corruption is limited because you are resisting it from its origin.
< In 1991 you were elected to the Al-Ahly Club.. What did Captain Saleh Selim represent to you?
<<First of all, Captain Saleh Selim, may God have mercy on him, was a charismatic personality, and because he had great self-confidence, he surrounded himself with stars. What is said about him is that he is a dictator in decision-making. He, Abdel-Majid Mahmoud, Ibrahim Al-Moallem and state advisors, each one in him performs his work and duty to the fullest, and he has never disrupted the growth of those around him, and his strong personality was limiting chaos, and this takes us to an important matter. Freedom without strict application of the law is chaos.
<You had an important role in the ranks of the National Party, and you were a supporter of political openness. Have your convictions changed after these years?
<< “What if?” It is the title of an article I wrote in 2010, in which I said: The main issue is to have a justice system that is complete in time and judgment, and a system that applies judgments without selectivity. The weak and I do not apply to the rich, “what if” still exists until now, and it is the two wings of the state. The first wing is to have an apparatus of justice executed in time and judgment, and a device that applies rulings without selectivity, and the other wing is building the human being through education, media and culture.
< Using the youth to change reality.. How was this call met?
<< There are those who accepted this invitation and there are those who rejected it. The Egyptian youth are always accused of recklessness and intolerance, and through my experiences and my tours in schools and universities. To wonder why they are like this, they are like this because the state administration did not give them sincere attention, and opportunities should have been created for them and they are working on compatibility with these opportunities, so that he has the responsibility, for our youth and our people possess genes from civilization that appear when necessary.
<You made many statements in which you warned against marrying power with money in 2009. Did businessmen reject the matter?
<< He was not rejected by businessmen, and the refusal came from the government apparatus, so when he was offered to take over the Health Committee of the People’s Assembly and I said that there was a conflict of interest, they considered me crazy, and some businessmen who entered the government before January 25, 2011 were very successful and respected men Very, but their position in this place is a cause of conflict of interests, and it is known that successful people are the ones who achieve success, but we must take into account the impression, and the impression in politics becomes true even if it has no proof, the belief that there is corruption does not need proof, because the crowds You are right, but civil society, including NGOs and the private sector, has the right to be part of the state’s administration, as long as there are standards, accountability, and transparency, as long as the person will not benefit from his position for his personal interests.
<After the 2010 elections, you mentioned that the National Party lost to the opposition. What was your reaction after you believed your prophecy?
<<By God, my sayings before 2011 were the ones that saved my neck from the guillotine that overthrew all these, and thank God that my words, statements and positions were documented that made me cross this stage with my head held high, and people have confidence in what I say, and my convictions remain that change in Egypt is necessary. To be from the inside and not from the outside, and I’m still convinced
Building is better than demolishing, and I am still convinced that we have golden opportunities for the peaceful transfer of power, which is the only way to development. If power in Egypt is transferred only through revolutions and death, every time we start from scratch, Egypt is a very strong, large, and civilized country.
< Which is better for Egypt .. a government consisting of technocrats or politicians?
<< The minister’s job is basically politics, and everything starts with politics. The minister’s job is not technical or executive. Only the technocrat is fit for the first deputy minister. The political job has a public, and you have to take this public by your side and not antagonize it. crises until the public becomes a party to solving the problem, and not the cause of the problem, because when the minister speaks, his words reach inside and outside, and a statement can raise him to the sky, and he can be sent down to earth.
< When you are asked about Egypt abroad, what do you say?
<< There is no country in the whole world that has knowledge of its name other than Egypt, and there is no country in the world that does not study part of the history of Egypt, nor is there a civilization built by free people like Egypt, and there is no country whose history precedes religions except Egypt, and there is no people carrying Genes like the Egyptian people, and although during the 1500 years they lost many of them, they are still rooted in the people and are waiting to be detonated.
< What do you say about President Gamal Abdel Nasser?
<< He was certainly a leader, inspiring and charismatic, but the judgment on him was cumulative, as he left the rule, the Sinai was occupied and the country was broken and the situation was low on all levels.
< What do you think of what the Nasserites say that at this time Egypt needed a just dictator?
<< This talk is very dangerous because the need for a dictator stems from poor governance, which considers freedom “chaos” and dictatorship in the world sometimes has benefits and negatives, such as China, Malaysia and Russia, but it kills personal freedom and at the end of it is always either chaos, defeat or fall.
< What do you say about President Anwar Sadat?
<<President Sadat was a genius who was able to change what was around him and convince him of what he wanted. During his rule, extraordinary and exceptional changes took place. He prepared an indomitable military force, and was able to restore the political parties to the scene again, and despite Egypt’s victory in the October War, it was destroyed. Economically, he entered negotiations and signed a peace treaty with the Israeli enemy.
Those who do not have imagination do not deserve to be politicians, so Sadat is flying outside the flock, but he made a grave mistake by injecting society with the virus of religious extremism in a desire to resist leftist extremism, which cost Egypt a lot of loss of Egyptian identity, and his life ended in a dramatic scene at the hands of Who gave them the kiss of life, and unfortunately the world is now under the influence of this theory by fighting an extremist current with another extremist current, such as agreeing to the Jewish state in return for the Islamic extremist state, and the truth is that we need a modern civil state in which power is transferred within a framework of freedoms that are regulated by law.
< What about President Hosni Mubarak?
<<President Mubarak ruled Egypt in a situation that was extremely difficult: an Arab boycott, a bad economic situation, and internal and external debts, but he overcame them and was able to get out of these crises step by step, but he made a serious mistake when he sat in power for 30 years and did not allow peaceful trading In my opinion, this was the main reason for his downfall, opening the door to liberties a little, and not working towards complete justice.
< Some say that the Egyptian people are not qualified for democracy?
<< I wrote an article about the fourth generation of democracy, with the aim of good governance. History says that every political system that emerged has an opposition or different political system, and an interaction arises between the two that shows a new need, we are at a time when Western countries are heading towards extremist Yemeni democracy, which is feeding Dictatorship in the East, because they believe that the model of democracy has failed in these countries.
< Do you support the existence of a party for the President of the Republic?
<< I am with the president’s political party. Historically, if the president announces the establishment of a party, the majority of parties will join it, except for parties that have a different ideology.
< What about a year of Brotherhood rule?
<< During the year of the Brotherhood, I wrote a lot against them, but I am against the idea of erasing the name of a president who came in elections, and the people came out against him because he harmed democracy by setting himself up as an executive ruler and a legal legislator and immunizing all his decisions through the constitutional declaration he issued. He also worked to create Brotherhood militias that attack The Constitutional Court prevents media professionals and channels from entering the Media Production City and storming the Wafd Party, and what we know of agreements with Hamas, Qatar and Turkey, called that this ruling does not continue with the will of the people in the June 30, 2013 revolution. So it is a popular will with which the armed forces agreed to stop the bleeding of what was happening In Egypt, and directing it to a position that we are not satisfied with, and I wish the research centers to conduct research and studies on each period of rule in Egypt, so that we can take the best from it and avoid its negative aspects.
