MANY CRIMES IN EGYPT ARE COMMITTED IN THE NAME OF SOCIAL JUSTICE!

Al-Tahrir Newspaper, June 18, 2015

Caste is a concept that strongly appeared in Marxism literature, which went to deny its existence as a normal human interaction at theorization level and called to eliminate the inequality among people at application level. It considered this stratification calls for a conflict at individual and society level, determined that the class struggle governs and controls human relations at all levels. Hence, it considered that this conflict is inevitable in societies and should eventually lead to eliminating the classes from these communities and domination of only one class, Proletariat.

In this orientation, communism and its affiliates decide that ownership should be common for this class and all are equal, in terms of social status. Everyone works for the state and individual initiatives should benefit the society, not the individual. Hence, the application went to extremes, delivered a fatal blow to individual initiative and created a ruling class smothering the society under the pretext of protecting the working class in which all are equal in lack of private ownership and poverty.

Capitalism dealt with this concept from another prospective. On the one hand, it admitted this stratification on theorization level and worked toward consolidating it on application level. Capitalism also granted individuals freedoms unconditionally, made them the sole owners of their gains, with no one else having a right in these gains except through taxing systems that ensure that the rich pay a percentage of their profits to the whole society, and took strict measures against those who evade paying these taxes. On the other hand, it prevented the state from intervening in individuals’ behaviors and considered the control of the powerful and the rich was the law that governed societies and people relations. Capitalism, in its American extreme form, considered that its existence depended on the economic power of corporates and individuals protecting that philosophy by controlling the regime, even in the form of democracy which the power of money and economic interests became in control of its destiny to varying degrees.

I was concerned about the subject of class stratification and justice since I was a university student, 1969-1974, debating with communist and left-winged colleagues, as their presence was affecting the political life, after a decade that witnessed an Egyptian political orientation that tends to the left and depends on the Soviet Union in confronting the capital, Israel-supporting, historically-representative-of-the-colonizer west. I was in that time, and is still the product of 5 factors in my cultural, social and political formation. The first is the great affectivity of high level of education, efficiency, individual initiative and private sector and their positive effect on development due to my family formation. The second is the significance of wealth’s social dimension, by virtue of the philosophy of my late father who instilled the value of justice in me. The third is the effect of public education and media on my cultural structure as a student in Orman public school, then a student in medicine faculty with colleagues from various social classes, with no discrimination. The fourth is my relation as a junior in Al-Ahly football team and its fans from all classes. The fifth is my research, passion, reading to Mr. Al-Akkad, Prof. Taha Hussein and Abdel Rahman El Sharkawi, since the beginning of my secondary school.

Due to my passion for knowledge in the 70s, the beginning of reappearance of Islamic political movement along with the left-winged movement at university at that time, and my desire and curiosity to argue with them, I also researched the Quran position from class stratification phenomenon to know where it stands. First, for I was confused. Second, because I wanted to use their reference in debating. That enriched my mind and conscience and at the same time interesting. My convictions began to be formed and acquired by science, cohabiting and experience gaining.

As I used to, I kept my papers and notes about this stage of my life. Twenty years later, when my son asked me to assist him in a research he had at university about the same subject from Islamic philosophy prospective (my son was in Duke University, U.S.). I referred to my papers while I was a student, researched further with deeper maturity and recalled many Quran verses assembled by others that indicated the social stratification phenomenon among people. These verses include:

“Do not covet what God has given to some of you in preference to others”, Surat Al Nisa’: Verse 32.  “God has favored some of you over others in livelihood”, Surat Al-Nahl: Verse 71. “See how We have favored some of them over others”, Surat Al-Isra’: Verse 21. “It is We who have allocated their livelihood in this life”, Surat Az-Zukhruf: Verse 32. These verses, and alike, acknowledge a real fact which is that God favored some people over others in all kinds of preferences. God favored them with livelihood, some are poor, others are rich, favored them with body, some are strong, others are weak, favored them mind, some are knowledgeable, others are ignorant and favored them with morals, some have good morals and others have bad morals. I refer to the verse that I personally love and my understanding for it is changed as my knowledge increases and my intellectual maturity grows, “God does not burden any soul beyond its capacity”.

Then, the Quran acknowledges people stratification phenomenon. It does so for a wise purpose. If people were all at the same level of livelihood, no one would have needed the other and there would have been no reason for doing good deeds.

Philosophically, life cannot go on without this stratification as it is essential for the diversity of roles required to inhabit this earth. If all people were duplicates, life would not have been established as required, many works would have remained undone. He, who created life and wanted it to continue and grow, created efficiencies and preparations as different as the roles required to be played.

Though the Quran acknowledged this human phenomenon, it did not stop there but sought to reduce this stratification as much as possible. At economic inequality level, it requested the rich to support the poor and offer him help. As God said, “And give from what We have provided for you”, Surat Al-Munafiqun: Verse 10. At this level, the Quran neither sought to contradict with the different and variant nature on which God created people, nor sought, as some ideologies and politicians do in Egypt currently, to stir up a class against another, but rather took a balanced position to establish a society on basis of balance among its classes. The purpose is not impoverishing the rich, but helping the poor, fulfilling their needs and getting them out of poverty.

On the other hand, the Quran requested the poor not to wish what God favored others over them, as God said, “Do not covet what God has given to some of you in preference to others”. God praised the poor for their dignity saying, “The unaware would think them rich, due to their dignity. You will recognize them by their features. They do not ask from people insistently.”, Surat Al-Baqarah: Verse 273. God also requested people to seek livelihood and work hard to earn it, so He said, “It is He who made the earth manageable for you, so travel its regions, and eat of His provisions.”  Surat Al-Mulk, Verse 15.

At intellectual inequality, the Quran requested a knowledgeable one to show his knowledge, not to withhold it from people and direly threatened those who do so. He said, “Those who suppress the proofs and the guidance We have revealed, after We have clarified them to humanity in the Scripture—those—God curses them, and the cursers curse them.” A knowledgeable one is demanded to teach others his science and not to suppress it.

In return, the Quran prompted the uneducated to seek knowledge, distinct between the knowledgeable one and the uneducated, indicating praising the first and blaming the second, as God said, “Are the blind and the seeing alike? Do you not think?”, Surat Al-An’am: Verse 50, He also said, “Are those who know and those who do not know equal?”. The Quran requested the uneducated to ask the knowledgeable one. God said, “So ask the people of knowledge, if you do not know”, Surat Al-Nahl: Verse 43. The uneducated is demanded to learn and not to remain ignorant.

The philosophy of the Quran, as I understood it, acknowledged that the universal life is based on the rule that “We created all things in pairs” Surat Adh-Dhariyat: Verse 49. Based on this comprehensive rule in constructing the universe, God created male and female humans. He granted each of them its defining characteristics so that each of them can perform certain functions, neither for his/her own benefit nor for a certain gender, but for the benefit of the human life that is built, organized and meets its characteristics and fulfill its purpose through this diversity between both genders, diversity in characteristics and diversity in functions. Through this diversity, diversity in costs, shares and positions is created in favor of this great institution, which is life.

Hence, the philosophy of Islam established the social life based on people stratification. It has never occurred, to this day, that all people have equal livelihood, even in the artificial communities which are controlled by directed ideologies. When the wheel of life spins, it definitely makes some people serve others, “and We elevated some of them in rank above others, that some of them would take others in service.” Surat Az-Zukhruf: Verse 32. Taking others in service, from the Quranic prospective, does not mean superiority of a class over another or an individual over another, as all humans take each other in service, not in the sense of slavery, but as in the sense of nature of needs, capabilities and skills. Life goes and runs through everyone. They serve each other in every situation and circumstance. Those with limited livelihood are in the service of the wealthy and vice-versa: The wealthy serves to invest money and create jobs so others may work and earn their daily bread. Livelihood difference is the thing that serves this for that and that for this in the life cycle. A worker serves an engineer and employer. The engineer serves the worker and employer. The employer serves the engineer and the worker likewise. All serve succession in the earth with this difference in talents and preparations and inequality in functions and livelihood.

The Quran, as it acknowledges this inequality among humans, does not call for deepening and organizing it. It simply acknowledges the eternal truths in the nature of this existence. Even difference in religion, characteristics, cultures and language is a part of human existence constants. Anyone who tries to eliminate this difference, makes the community one and same version of his ideas and traditions and determines the community culture fights the human nature and hinder the psychological and mental development that the communities that enjoy diversity have, as Egypt.

I would like to set that Islam’s philosophy, according to my understanding, acknowledged the people stratification phenomenon, considered it one of the necessities for the continuity of this life and at the same time called for reducing this stratification as much as possible, but did not seek to eliminate it, as this will eliminate one of the life’s laws.

From this point, I revert to the concept of social justice, about which politicians and revolutionists vaguely talk, of the income distribution and implicit accusation of those who make profits of dishonesty, tendency to public ownership, reverting to public sector, even if it incurs losses, out of the desire for equality in poverty to attain justice!!

Hence, we should have a philosophy and vision of justice before engaging in minor measures that may lead to impoverishing the entire community in pursuit of attaining this justice. Policies of public expenditure and taxes are one of the community means to achieve the goals of attainment of justice in the community by balancing between sustainability of the success motive, making profit and the requirements of public expenditure, which I will illustrate below.

I see there are two different philosophies addressing social justice. The first addresses social justice as a result that must be achieved, disregarding the fairness of means, as communism did and as some politicians in Egypt now call for. The second addresses social justice as the equality of opportunity and rewarding the effort,  and at the same offering everyone certain services and rights such as education, medical care, public transportation, sanitary and clean water, disregarding the income inequality, in addition to expenditure on justice institutions (judiciary), homeland defense institution (the army), and law enforcement institutions (police). This is the philosophy closest to my mind and conscience in attaining a certain limit of rights, rewarding the deed and recognizing variety and difference in capabilities and livelihood.

Studies and experiments proved that economic policies that support investing in human powers and equality of opportunities contribute more to promoting the economic growth, employment and social justice than just taking from the wealthier to distribute to the less wealthy. Except for the transitional or direct social policies that should target the marginalized groups such as the disabled, the elderly, the sick and the orphans, as well as remote areas that do not have developmental sources, the public expenditure policies on empowerment and equality of opportunities should be the key policies to include all community groups in economic growth, employment and income growth.

Since Adam Smith, the father of modern economy, economic policies of different forms confirm that “work, production and efficiency” are the base to achieve the income redistribution. International experiments point out that the public expenditure policies are the first tool to redistribute the income towards achieving an economic growth based on more just employment; the tools that achieve equality and transparency of opportunity among human powers. Equality of opportunities occurs through expenditure on basic education system that does not differentiate between the poor and the rich or the marginalized, on basic medical services system that does not differentiate among classes, on decent public transportation means to go to work by investing in the infrastructure, on transparent business environment that prevents monopoly, protects small business owners and incorporates them in production process, on creating decent job opportunities and on generating income for their families. If the government does its role in laying the foundation for equal opportunities that are available for everyone transparently, everyone will contribute, through their work, to achieving economic growth and income growth for all workers by reaping the fruits of economic growth that every worker contributes to, i.e. every hard worker will get a bigger piece of the cake. Through the results of this growth, the opportunity will be provided for redistributing a percentage of growth to marginalized individuals, as they are defined. At this point, we should understand that the burden of attaining social justice, in this concept, lies on the shoulders of the state as rights regulator and guarantor, the citizen who is rich to use his/her money in creating new job opportunities and the worker through his/her diligence and proficiency to achieve more income and welfare for himself/herself, his/her family and community, according to the Quran verse, “We will not waste the reward of those who work righteousness.” Once again, the positive philosophy is manifested in the Quran verse, “God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves.”  This rests the burden of change upon the shoulders of the individual and his/her efforts, not upon God, let alone the state!

Such policies directed to achieving economic growth and attaining social justice require large resources, competent management and a state and policy makers’ clear vision. Here comes the role of the second angle of public fiscal policies, i.e. tax policies. Once again, economists encounter the problem of attaining economic justice through a system that is fair to taxpayers and their work efforts. Establishing a competent and fair tax system encounters several challenges in the developing countries, in which small and informal businesses that do not contribute to taxpaying have the biggest share in economy, in addition to many self-employed people who evade taxes within a poor un-empowered tax system, hence, incapable of official computation and collection by receipts. For example, in Egypt we find less than 10% of enterprises pay more than 80% of taxes. It is not just due to incompetency of the collection system, but also as these individuals and small enterprises are out of regulation and follow-up radar.

The economic theory assures the significance of expenditure through “production possibility frontier”, meaning that public expenditure on various activities that target empowerment, equality of opportunities and social solidarity in its philosophically conventional form and as I understand from our religion and the international experiments should be within the limits of the state’s abilities. Expenditure without consideration of macroeconomic balances leads to inflation. This result harms the poor more than the rich. We see that the Quran urges spending according to the financial capability in the holy verse, “The wealthy shall spend according to his means; and he whose resources are restricted shall spend according to what God has given him. God never burdens a soul beyond what He has given it. God will bring ease after hardship.”

Economists agreed on the significance of expenditure assignments for revenue assignments. The purpose of taxes is to cover the public expenditure items that the community agrees that they attain social justice. Taxes are neither the purpose in itself nor a punishment to the rich for just making profits. The state is a non-profit organization. Hence, the required levels of tax revenues vary from a state to another, depending on its ability to provide the services the community determines. The public expenditure sets the purpose of social justice originally. Taxes play a vital role in achieving such a purpose.

Thus, the taxes role in attaining social justice is fulfilled by efficiently financing the areas of public expenditure in a manner that is fair to the poor and the wealthy alike. Taxes are fair to the poor as participatory and symbiotic, meaning that the poor has a share in the income of each hard-working person that participates a specific percentage of his/her income for public expenditure to support social solidarity and equitable access to opportunity. It is fair to the wealthy, as well, as it achieves the economic efficiency. It does not eliminate the work motive or result in investment outflow and creating new job opportunities. We should take into consideration that Egypt competes other countries in attracting investment to the Egyptian market, as our self-capacity, currently at least, cannot create a million job opportunities a year, to absorb the increasing needs of overpopulation. (The number of newborns in Egypt is 1.6 million per year). Investment growth and taxes collection from its profits contribute to providing services and the business atmosphere that enables everyone to produce, create and grow. The more the ability to work, produce and make profits is, the more the grow rate and economic cake are and the wider the tax base is, meaning that tax revenues increase due to the increase in the number of employees on the one hand and the increase in the incomes resulting from economic growth from the other hand. Hence, it becomes clear that the tax policy should achieve an optimum combination of economic efficiency and social justice.

According to my unprofessional understanding, taxes have 3 main types: taxes against income, taxes against consumption and taxes against service users. In industrial countries the greatest share of financing comes from income tax, then consumption tax of different types such as sales tax and added value tax, as these countries consider consumption taxes unfair as it is collected against the commodities that the poor and the rich buy in the same percentage. The only way to be exempted from this tax is “non-consumption”, i.e. avoiding purchase. The poor may avoid purchasing milk and meals to children, subsequently; the poor are affected by it more than the rich. Thus, the rate of this tax must vary according to the product type and how it is useful or harmful to the community for attaining justice.

In Egypt, consumption tax represents the greatest share of the tax revenues. It achieves the purpose of revenues increase without fulfilling the solidarity objective. For example, if the government seeks to attain social justice through the tax system, it should restudy the current tax combination and mechanism of making the optimum combination of economic efficiency and social justice. However, it should start with how expenditure can attain the required social justice, then what the optimal tax combination that achieves balance between the economic efficiency and fairness to taxpayers, and social justice is.

I believe there are several principles that govern preparing the optimal tax combination:

Benefit principle: The beneficiary of the service pays for the benefit cost, whether the service is electricity, water or high way. If a local council decides to build a new road, it should be funded by deficit/ domestic debt (government borrowing through bonds and notes). Fees will be collected from users. Income tax may not be collected to fund such a road from the incomes of those who may not benefit from the road.

Ability-to-pay principle: The more the ability to gain is, the more the tax withheld from income is, without exceeding the investment incentive. The State shall grant the investor legislation sustainability, otherwise the concern of regimes change will be a direct reason either to make a quick profit and escape or going to other countries that permit this sustainability and respect the accounts of profit and loss in which the predetermined tax value exists.

There are taxes to stimulate an economic behavior and benefit from positive factors such as levying tax-inclusive on using environmental pollutants such as coal and gasoline. Its return is to be used in medical services and subsiding some medications, vaccines and baby meals, as they have positive effects on enhancing baby health.

The most significant factor for attaining justice is the efficiency of the tax collection management system. It started its course since the legislative amendment of 2005, which I began to notice that it has been retracting in the last few years, the return of tax collectors’ pressure which had begun to disappear in the beginning of an era of trust between Tax Authority and citizens. That will drain a considerable portion of the amounts paid out of the State legitimate framework.

Social justice is attained by providing a citizen’s rights of public services, as I said: in education, medical care, public transportation, infrastructure, applying the law to everyone and achieving equality of opportunities for every citizen based on his/her capabilities and skills, not only on his/her existence. All what is mentioned here requires financing from the community, competent management from the government and control over public expenditure to achieve its declared objectives. If a government hires over-employment, releases unrealized profits or abuses to shut down a factory or a production unit, it may please a group in the community but definitely it will violate the social justice philosophy of all in favor of a group, even if the government has the right from its point of view.

By this article, though I am not a specialist and I speak the language of a citizen that studies   and examines what is politically circulated currently, I wanted to share with my opinion and understanding of expressions that are circulated and explained in a meaning other than their meaning, resulting in the contrary of what is intended. Many crimes in Egypt are committed in the name of social justice!