By Philip Whitfield
CAIRO: In a few syllables Egypt’s election spiraled into a quagmire. Imagine the Orlando Sentinel editor’s face when the latest copy dropped from Cairo. Maggie Michael’s comprehensive, accurate AP report only needed trimming to fit the page and a headline: Egypt’s rising Islamists present vision for sin-free tourism: no booze, bikinis.
Editors all over the world followed suit. New era Egypt is indelibly engraved on the globe. The copy has flowed: Tourists don’t need to drink alcohol when they come to Egypt; they have plenty at home, a veiled Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Azza Al-Jarf, told a cheering crowd of supporters across the street from the Pyramids.
The crowd chanted: Tourism will be at its best under Freedom and Justice.
A leader in the tourism industry told me Egypt’s tourism is being marketed round the world on the 6 o’clock news.
Momentous events are defined in snappy sound bites. In John F. Kennedy’s day the average news clip lasted 2 minutes. Most recently leaders emerging from earth-shattering summits can expect 8 seconds to sum up mountains of debate.
Those who write clearly have readers; those who write obscurely have commentators Abraham Lincoln said.
The man whose Gettysburg address was delivered in two minutes — 10 sentences, 272 words — defined the then-raging American civil war in two phrases: All men are created equal … a new birth of freedom: government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Now the Islamists are tripped up in their own obfuscation. In the first round Islam Is the Solution did the trick, a terse, to the point slogan meaning whatever you want it to.
They should have left it at that. Opening their mouths in front of crowds and correspondents has exposed rifts and ambiguity.
Speaking to a conference of tourism workers in Aswan on Monday, the Salafi Al-Nour Party spokesman Nader Bakar said they would ban serving alcohol to foreigners and Egyptian citizens alike if they came to power.
The Salafis would allow tourists to drink liquor they brought with them from abroad and only in their hotel rooms. Bakar went on to say that Al-Nour Party would establish a chain of hotels that would function in compliance with Islamic Law, while banning beach tourism, which, he said, induces vice.
At his Maadi headquarters the chairman of Al-Nour, Emad El-Din Abdel Ghafour trots out trope, embellishing liturgy. Separating religion and state is not acceptable, he says. Civic does not mean secular.
How would the Salafis get the economy moving? Thoughtful planning, he replies.
Pressed about life under the Salafis, he says: We cannot oblige anyone to do or not to do anything.
That’s undeniable. What people fear is giving them the opportunity to implement punishments meted out where Salafis exert influence: Saudi Arabia and under the Taliban.
Mohamed Morsi, president of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), told Al Ahram on Saturday that his party didn’t plan on banning alcohol in hotels and at tourist resorts or, for that matter, prevent Egyptians from drinking liquor in their homes.
Make of it what you will. During elections candidates spray balm on the crowd they’re facing. Consistency is a virtue rarely found on the hustings.
And in government nowadays. Britain’s governing coalition of conservatives and liberal democrats frequently speaks with a forked tongue — this week over Europe.
Probably the most divisive issue in the British parliament is whether or not foxes should be hunted. Imagine that. The unspeakable chasing the inedible, according to Oscar Wilde, could split Cameron’s coalition asunder.
The point is politicians go into politics to press their agendas. Cameron knew when he went to Brussels to oppose the EU’s bailout he’d no wiggle room. His backbench is loaded with Shire Tories — he’s one himself.
They’d rather tallyho, drink a stirrup cup and break every bone in their body falling off horses than give the French the time of day.
Seymour Lipset, who died five years ago, was one of the leading political scientists studying social stratification, left right and center. Much feted by American academia, his “Conditions of the Democratic Order” came up with a significant conclusion that’s apposite in Egypt today.
Lipset pointed out that while the lack of a rich, complex frame of reference connects low status with a predisposition toward extremism it doesn’t necessarily suggest that the lower strata will be authoritarian.
It implies they will choose the least complex alternative.
During a lifetime’s research around the world, Lipset catalogued extremists proposing simple solutions for complex problems. Lipset was one of the first proponents of the “Theory of Modernization”, which holds that democracy is the direct result of economic growth.
The more well-to-do a nation, the greater the chances that it will sustain democracy, he said.
It’s both reassuring and worrying that political scientists have a grip on the cause and effect of social evolution on political power.
It’s reassuring that Egypt is not entering totally unknown territory. It’s worrying to think that democracy has little chance of taking root unless the economy thrives.
More likely it succumbs to dictators.
The interim government clearly hasn’t a clue what to do. On Sunday the prime minister said the economy was worse than anyone imagined.
On Monday the cabinet came up with a plan: cut red tape, build new satellite cities and help Iran to build car factories in Upper Egypt. All three ideas deserve a dissertation.
Students of logic can analyze the cabinet’s statement: GAFI will pursue its efforts to catalyze economic growth through full coordination between investors and the various state departments.
Better go to the DVD store and rent a James Bond movie to brighten the mood.
You’ll recall in “Casino Royale” OO7, so concerned to ensure his martinis were just so, being asked after he’d lost millions playing poker: Shaken or stirred?
Now penniless and less persnickety the once highfalutin, urbane swaggerer looked up and replied winsomely: Do I look like I give a damn?
Philip Whitfield is a Cairo-based commentator.
