Dr. Hossam Badrawi Official Website
In the framework of our institutional desire to participate positively in building the future of Egypt, I hosted through the Association “Dreamers of Tomorrow and Those Who Work for It” on its twentieth anniversary, in partnership with the Union Party – hearing sessions for young people, representatives of political parties, NGOs, the private sector, and some people with experience in youth work, In addition to some young researchers and the assistant minister of youth, Youssef Wardani, a civil society initiative structure was proposed to them to support the state in its orientations towards youth.
The goal is to support the state within a framework we agree on, in light of new social, cultural and political changes, where the same trends should not be repeated without revision, waiting for different results.
This is an effort by civil society to present it to decision makers, hoping that it will be an addition and support for Egypt’s vision for the future.
Changing the ideological premises governing dealing with young people
The main pillars of the July Revolution of 1952 depended on the state agencies playing the role of guardian over the ideas and visions of the youth, and the intervention of the regime and its ruling popular organization, whatever its name, in defining the goals of working with the youth, and marginalizing the role of the youth or other opposition groups in Yemen.
I have been associated with trends judgment by using young people to serve the political goals of the system at each stage, as in ahdy President Nasser and adoption of an event to organize the vanguard of the youth organization and then President Sadat in pushing the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic groups to counter Nasserism inside universities, which ended with his assassination by them and policy.
Attempts to reunite the youth were also made, and did not continue, during Mubarak’s era, the most important of which was the Horus experiment, which was adopted by the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports.
And then in the period of the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 regulation it was adopted Brotherhood youth Brotherhood and Salafis, to impose the ruling control system on the street from the village to the civil and crystallized movement in the besieged city of media production and control, and then besieged the court’s constitutional and prevent its members meeting, and in the use around the Republican Palace in order to confront the demonstrations, and create a semi-regular army parallel to the police apparatus that imposes obedience and punishes those who differ from their ideology.
However, we think that this vision, which its proponents thought was valid during the ruling period, during the three eras of the July Revolution, then the Brotherhood’s era, the transition period has not yet begun. The sharp diversity of ideas and visions witnessed by society represents a serious challenge in itself, and an opportunity at the same time.
Therefore, it becomes necessary to formulate a new public policy for youth that state agencies are committed to, and the parties concerned with drawing and implementing this policy and the youth themselves participate in its formulation. Without elaboration of this policy, becomes Egypt’s future experience of democracy in danger in light of a sense of sectors large youth marginalization and deprivation, and the absence of criteria of merit and competence in the selection of leaders, youth, and in the light of the neutrality of the state apparatus (except security) in the face of the increasing appeal of extremism and violence ideas for all categories It is necessary to confront and deal with the severe political and religious polarization that exists in society.
The formulation of this policy collides with a number of obstacles and challenges:
Challenges facing the development of the state’s youth policy:
The first challenge is who has the right to set the state’s youth policy.
We ask ourselves this question related to the right to change the culture based on that national policies for young people, should not be single-orientation, and that it should be the development of a new culture based on respect for the representation of the role of civil society Bjmaیath civil, which can accommodate volunteer work, and its parties political, special aspects and sector Profit and not-for-profit.
The origin is the creation of a natural base of young people that respects considerations of merit and competence to hold public office, away from direct state interference in employment (except in limited limits).
Empowering young people have a comprehensive sense is not limited only to the availability of discriminatory quotas but also to climate create opportunities (and the function of the state to create opportunities rather than employment), and open the doors of competition transparent among young people and to create the state of this climate and promote equality of opportunity and equality. The challenge is to bring stakeholders together. The invitation of the executive branch of the ruling with the participation of parliament and civil society, the broad sense of this gathering is the best ways may be to be a youth policy with a minimum of compatibility and let each political expression party for privacy as long as it deems not inconsistent with the Constitution and the law.
The second challenge revolves, around the lack of attractiveness of the subject of vision development and public policies for many youth groups, which hit the boredom of the large number of modern theoretical youth problems and the required solutions, especially in the absence of a guide simplified revenue arising from the application of this policy to all groups of young people, and simplified language Fits the needs of each segment of them.
Some think that there is no need to develop state policies for young people, because they represent 60% of the people, so all state policies are directed at them anyway.
The third challenge is the rooting of a culture of dependence on the state, the father and the mother, which spends, supports, employs and guarantees, which has become impossible in all economies of the world, not to mention countries that spend more than they produce.
The fourth challenge is a dual challenge, represented by:
Due to the small number of youth NGOs that are entrusted with discussing and implementing these policies, if they are established, and the lack of confidence of the ruling regime in these few associations and the fear of security in the lack of participation in any youth activism.
This challenge also includes the absence of a legislative framework that allows the participation of Internet activists and actors in youth initiatives in an institutional capacity away from their personal selves.
The fifth challenge is the lack of sustainability of any policy in Egypt, a period sufficient to achieve its objectives even in the framework of the rule of a single system under governments changing in one system and are changing with it .. policy than necessary when developing youth policy, the development of the framework will ensure sustainability.
The sixth challenge is the extreme centralization of the Egyptian state, which prevents the state parties from decentralized organizations, associations and formations from effectively contributing to serving the youth, and from practicing any policy.
This includes the challenge VII, the philosophy of formation government in Egypt, which makes various ministries islands isolated from each other often, so the youth policy may require the inclusion of education files, culture, media and youth in one pot speak the same language and support each other in identifying children and young people and to work on Instilling positive values in them.
The eighth challenge is the difficulty of attracting and rallying young people around a vision that speaks of pluralism, respect for difference and the exchange of power in front of visions that use ignorance and need in attracting young people to a scrupulous ideology.
The challenge is not to society accustomed to this «boom of democracy» stemming from the success of revolutions in the past 4 years as well as the presence of concrete for young people who belongs to the currents of liberalism and religious political, and left on the scene, whether Square popular, or cyberspace, which yard is filled with this presence. The danger also lies in the failure of the different parties to become accustomed to the presence of the other, and not to represent them in a party so that the people choose from among them, and their reliance on a lot of electronic fabrication to distort the other.
In the same context, there are challenged not to return state agencies concerned with youth and security on intellectual pluralism and its attempts to limit its role, either steer youth work themselves and impose their ideology of belonging to the regime incumbent on the various sectors of the youth, and either consider all the different enemy necessitates fighting.
Challenge IX: the lack of values in dealing societal and create dichotomies opposite between religions and even within the framework of the same religion and the absence of the foundations of citizenship and choose not to believe the legitimacy of institutions and resorting to the street to take what he thinks he the right of violence and vandalism to express their demands and needs.
The importance of having a public policy for youth:
1- We see the necessity of having a holistic vision for dealing with youth, based on an ideology and a well-defined content of how to create the modern secular state approved by the country’s constitution, in which young people enjoy equal opportunities and equality regardless of their political, religious or intellectual affiliations.
Generalizing the country’s vision and policies is important, but developing programs that serve all segments of society and allow for a fair distribution of spending is important and vital.
2- Therefore, we have to define the age group we mean by young people, which was evident in the hearings we conducted with various groups of stakeholders including them.
The stage of secondary and higher education, ie the age group from 14 to 23 years, is a special stage because young people are in the framework of educational institutions, and it is impossible to reach them. It is an age stage that has its characteristics related to biological growth, emotional rush, and the desire to experience everything. For this stage, it is necessary to think that the Ministry of Education is the main partner in it with the family, directly or through the media.
As for the age group from 24 to 35 years, it is a stage with different characteristics, where the search for work, independence from the family and the creation of a new family begins, and increases or decreases. This stage age very dangerous, Valfrag the Sیmlah definitely something, and to reach them becomes more difficult because it will depend on attracting them to organizations, civil, whether civil societies or parties, political or attractive gatherings of extremist thought using their frustrations and eclipse hopes to create chaos and lack of faith in the legitimacy nor the state The modern civilization that we seek.
This age group must include policies and projects, training, equipping, creating job opportunities, preparing and financing them to start entrepreneurial businesses that will bring them a decent living. In this age group, public transportation, dignified interaction with state agencies, housing, the possibility of marriage and the creation of a new family, affect them.
3- Taking into account all of the above, the main areas in which it is necessary to take measures to empower these young people should be determined according to their age characteristics.
Vision:
Enable the country’s youth to reach their full mental, physical and spiritual potential, and through them enable Egypt to achieve its development vision and find its rightful place among the peoples of the world.
In order to achieve this vision, five general goals were monitored to achieve them, specific priorities within each goal and the policies to be presented and implemented in each priority, goals and priorities within each goal.
Put it in the following way:
Goals:
1- Creating productive forces capable of sustainable addition to the Egyptian economy.
2- Developing a strong, healthy, technologically-enabled youth generation that is proud of itself and the history of its country, responsible, respectful of citizenship, creative and enlightened, and capable of regional and global competition.
3- Implanting a set of positive values specific to the youth’s conscience and belonging to the Egyptian homeland.
4- Facilitating the participation of young people in voluntary civil work and civil associations at all levels of the country’s administration.
5- Supporting disabled youths or those who are at risk of health risks in integrating into society and ensuring that they are not marginalized.
In each of the goals we have and in each policy of each ministry, it is important to set the following eleven priorities.
1- Belonging to Egypt and its modern civil identity *
2- Education from childhood to higher education and lifelong learning.
3- Promote positive social, religious and cultural values.
4- Creation of employment opportunities and skills development.
5- Building a readiness for entrepreneurship.
6- Health and a healthy lifestyle.
7- Sports (exercise and fun).
8- Community participation and volunteer work.
9- Inclusion and involvement of youth in politics and governance.
10- Respecting the principles of equal opportunities, based on competence, merit and positive work values.
11- Communicating with the outside world and increasing competitiveness.
■ The modern civil state The building of the modern civil state is a pillar of choice for the identity of the state and work to consolidate its pillars with respect for all citizens’ beliefs, religions and freedom within the framework of its practice of law.
The civil state we mean here is a state that preserves and protects all members of society regardless of their national, religious or intellectual affiliations. There are several principles that should be available in the civil state and that the lack of one of them is not fulfilled the conditions of that state that the most important that State on peace, tolerance and acceptance of others and equality in rights and duties, so as to ensure the rights of all citizens, and the most important principles of the State Civil is not subject to any individual with a violation of his rights by another individual or another party. There is always a supreme authority, which is the authority of the state, which individuals turn to when their rights are violated or threatened to be violated. It is the state that applies the law and prevents the parties from applying forms of punishment themselves.
Of the principles of state civil confidence in the contracting process and the various exchanges, as well as the principle of citizenship, which means that the individual does not know his profession or religion or Baqlیmh or his wealth or his authority, but a definition of legally socially as a citizen knows, that is a member of the community has rights .. and duties, it is equal to them with all citizens and the most important principles of the State civil they are not founded by mixing religion and politics, it is also Ataady religion or rejected Although religion remains in the state civil factor in building ethics and create energy to work and achievement and progress, as is rejected by the civil state is the use of religion to achieve political objectives, it is incompatible with the principle of pluralism on which the State civil, as this may one of the most important factors that turning religion into divisive and controversial subject and interpretations may keep him out of the world of holiness and enter it into the world of worldly narrow interests as well as the principle of democracy, which prevents To take the state by force through an individual or An elite, a family, an aristocracy, or an ideological tendency.
