With the vision, message, and goals of any leader, there must be a clear secure plan enforced with the utmost firmness. There should be co-operators who can quickly become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Their role is to alert the leader about issues that require prompt action.
Moreover, the leader must steer clear of the system of severe centralism in making decisions, as it hinders even the simplest decisions from being materialised.
In order to achieve these goals that the leader has set for his country, especially with the great lack of resources in many vital fields, he must overcome the challenges using new innovative ideas. These ideas can save him time and money, and they are usually already available or come forth after inspiring the spirit of persistence and determination in the hearts and minds of creative individuals, resulting in amazing new ideas, because necessity is the mother of invention.
Sometimes, after a leader sets his plans and development and service programmes, in order to implement his vision in cooperation with specialists, all of this must be associated with creating hope in order to assure people that the tasks can be done. Of course, these plans should vary in nature, as there must be long-, medium-, and short-term plans, with some flexibility in order to keep them in line with developments that may occur in the future.
In order to achieve our targets, we must begin by building Egyptians themselves. Yes, actually building Egyptian humans. The challenges are many and large, and we must first have humans who have received prior care and attention in order to be able to later build a country that is on par with others.
Egyptians require education, health, and housing first. So when we set forth with our plans, we must first consider morals as a priority during the years of primary education, because the issue is serious. We must also launch a national project to restore humane treatment in hospitals. At least one public hospital should be built in every governorate using funding from the companies and factories working in each governorate (this is their duty towards their communities).
This, however, must take place in the framework of the law, as is the case in most countries of the world that oblige companies and factories working in specific communities to allocate part of their profits to develop the community.
While designating the plans and programmes, they must prioritise the Egyptian citizen—whether morally, health-wise, or scientifically—and promote the rule of the law equally above everyone without exceptions. Only then can we claim we are on the path to create hope.
We must, however, understand that the creation of hope is a double-edged sword. The vision could either be clear with firm plans and programmes to spread hope and belief that miracles can happen, or the vision could be feeble, lacking actual plans and implementation. The latter is when hope will be lost in a manner that will have major harmful repercussions for everybody involved.
The cumulative experience of peoples and countries is large, and we can learn many lessons from it. Many countries have been able to make major comebacks after severe catastrophes, as was the case with Germany, Japan, and China, in addition to other countries that have provided special attention to their human resources, and to morality at large, as foundations for their development.
If morals collapse, so too does the whole of society. Morals are the cornerstone of civilisation.
This reminds me of a great story about an incident that took place in Germany after World War II. Germans used to stand in long lines to receive their tiny rations of food after the war. One of the men tried to skip the queue to take food before the rest of those standing in the line, using his physical strength to do so. A woman yelled at him, saying: “Wait for your turn, we may have lost the war, but we have not lost our morals.”
The foundation any society is morals and principles; it is the most important thing. Anything else can follow later.
The bottom line is we need someone who creates hope, and brings with it the actual implementation of plans, services, and development programmes. The creation of hope is a science and a goal that can, by itself, create miracles that help overcome many of the challenges that the people face.
May God protect Egypt and its people.
Abdallah Al-Moghazy is the former assistant to both Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and former prime minister Ibrahim Mehleb. He previously served as the spokesperson for President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s electoral campaign. He also held a position on the Youth Advisory Council for the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, and was a spokesperson for the Al-Wafd Party.
