AUCToday's Special Feature On Alumni Participating in Egypt's Governance

Since his days as an undergraduate student at AUC, Sameh Makram Ebeid ’75 has been a fighter. At the time, the Student Union did not exist; instead there was a high board made up of a president and a representative of each class. Makram Ebeid helped in transforming the high board to what is now the Student Union. He was the first elected SU president in 1973 and led what he remembers to be the first strike at the University. “We wanted the University to close so students could support Egypt in the October War,” he said. “The administration refused, but was pressured to shut down the University for 15 days. Female students went to the hospitals to work with the wounded, and the males helped with the war effort in any way they could. The success of the first strike really showed how strong we were as a student body because we acted together.”

Elected parliamentary representative of the Red Sea governorate, Makram Ebeid’s main concern is not only the welfare of his constituents, but Egypt as a whole. The drafting of a modern constitution is the key challenge. “If the new constitution protects the freedom of the individual and his or her welfare, I will consider myself a success,” he said. “I will spare no efforts to see a national debate that will lead to a national consensus on the constitution.” Budget is also a priority. “This is the most immediate problem,” he explained. “Egypt has a huge financial deficit, and foreign currency reserves are being depleted. We need a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Egypt.” Makram Ebeid’s dream for the country is to be a free, secular, civil and moderate society. “In the long run, I hope Egypt will become a new Turkey or Malaysia and rise to be the true leader of the region,” he said. “To do that, we must all unite and work together –– secularists, liberals and moderates. It is not beneficial to be fragmented. Together we stand; divided we fail.”

“I feel proud and honored,” said Ahmed Said ’85, elected representative of the Kasr El Nil district. It is one of the best things that has happened to me in my life to be part of such a dramatic and historic phase of Egypt’s history. People like myself never thought this moment would come.” Said is co-founder of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, part of the Egyptian Bloc, an alliance of liberal and social democratic parties that advocate for a democratic and secular state. Like Makram Ebeid, he led a strike at AUC in 1983 against an increase in tuition fees. “I was elected as SU president a few weeks after I led the strike, which was quite big at the time,” he recalled. With the daunting challenges ahead, Said describes the parliamentary elections as the easy part. “The difficulties start now,” he noted. “This post-revolution parliament is critical because it will shape the country’s future for the next 50 years.” Said’s main objectives in parliament are the constitution and cooperation with fellow parliamentarians. “I do not want the constitution to control the freedom of the people; this will be my major fight,” he said. “I also want to see the liberals and Islamists collaborate together under one roof.” He added, “I am here to make a positive change. It’s time to build modern Egypt. It will take a long time for us to taste the flavor of democracy, but I am an optimist by nature and have high hopes. We will get there.”

As the keynote speaker in the midyear commencement this February, Ziad Bahaa-Eldin ’87, representative of the Assiut governorate, member of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and AUC trustee, expressed his desire for Egyptians to look past the “chaos of the present” and focus on the morality that he hopes will be at the heart of a new Egypt. He sees the key challenges as preexisting inequities and intolerances. The first is about women, who “have suffered bullets, humiliation and attacks, but continued to speak, shout and sing in the name of their own and every other citizen’s rights.” Despite this, women are represented in parliament by only 2 percent.

Bahaa-Eldin described the other two challenges to Egypt’s future as religious persecution and the “intolerable injustice” that has created a large pool of underprivileged people, especially among his constituents in south Assiut,
where “the vast majority of the families are desperately poor and dangerously vulnerable.” Looking ahead, he sees the future of the country in Egyptians fighting for their basic rights.

“We must settle for nothing less than a vibrant democracy, one that respects individual rights and freedoms, and that protects our rights to think, to speak, to assemble and to be politically involved,” he said. “We must also insist on our economy being free, competitive and dynamic while also being fair, transparent and sustainable. And we must expect to live in a safe and secure environment, but one that is protected not only by an accountable and neutral police force, but more importantly, by a sense of dignity and ownership by all Egyptians.”

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