What has happened?
When nations try to answer a history question, they write what has happened just as it did, and then people – across different generations – come to learn what has happened.
It is true that (what has happened) can be considered through many accounts, which may contradict, but at the end, a common denominator can still exist between all novels, major events, and the most influential personalities.
We, Arabs, like the saying (history is written by winners). In fact, history is written by both the winners and losers, but the Arabs do not read, and if they read, they read the novel imposed by the alien, and do not put an effort in collecting the different stories of the events.
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For each and every major event you will find different stories, and if you just give enough attention you will be able to know the truth, or at least a large part of it, and you will be able to discover lies, legends, illusions … etc.
The problem is when each group or generation records history, they aim to show evidence of its innocence and purity, and to conceal all its faults and mistakes, in this case history is falsified, but … Is there a problem in falsifying history?
Some think that falsifying history is a theoretical problem. They view history as a mental math problem or as an information contest solved by nations. Or even as a decorative wallpaper that gives beauty to the room and has nothing to do with the durability of the wall itself.
The reality is, history is a continuum with no breaks.
The present moment is a chain in this series, and there is no way to correct the mistakes of the past if we do not know what had happened with the former generations.
The most realistic scenario is that the next generation will fall into the same mistakes of the former generation, all because a generation had decided to whiten its page and not to write what has happened. they decided to hide their mistakes and sins, and to give themselves a fake honour, and an undeserved medal.
History is the centre point of the present, and many of the disasters of the present are only an extension of history.
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Every generation has its mistakes and its achievements, therefore, pointing out a particular generation as responsible for the whole load of mistakes will be full of exaggerations in most cases. However, this does not negate the fact that we are facing a difficult historical problem, that is to say that we have now the Arab spring generation whom has been denied the experience of the generations that preceded them.
The Arab nation has gone through decades of military coups, but the generation of the Arab spring, who had the chance to grip this situation, has lacked the historical experience and the required knowledge, just because the previous generations decided to cover their mistakes and sins.
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n Egypt … each political group has documented what happened between July 1952 and March 1954 as they wanted … or more accurately … in a way that presents them as heroes, and to show their group as a hard-working national leadership that had faced persecution as well as Internal and external challenges and conspiracies.
You will find little difference between authority and opposition in this matter!
The supporters of Abdel-Nasser do not recognize the overuse of power and authority that Nasser practiced, nor do they see his corruption and misdeeds, which created a state of masters and slaves, and led to a crushing defeat that still dominates us today.
The leftists do not recognize their trade-offs in order to get out of prison and to participate in power (in some way).
The Islamists do not want to admit that their quest for power had caused them to lose a lot of their principles, so they did not admit that a great man like Sayyed Qutb had blessed the death sentences of those who disagreed with him.
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If each of these groups had honestly quoted and documented (what has happened), we would not have been where we are today.
If (what has happened) at that time was well documented, some of those who were biased to the military side at the beginning of the revolution might have been a little cautious, and would have learned from what had happened to Mr Qutb.
If some of those who accepted and blessed the military coup in 2013 have read the end of a man like “Senhoury” they might have reconsidered their choices.
If some of those who are biased to capitalism in the name of the left knew what had happened in the 1960s to the Egyptian left…. maybe some of them would have become more alert (I am just saying)!
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The purpose of this article is not to cry on the spilt milk, it is an article written only for the future … The future is the history of tomorrow!
Therefore, I say … it is the duty of the Arab Spring generation to faithfully record (what has happened) since the outbreak of the Jasmine Revolution in late 2010 and that the goal of this blogging should be to record events as they are, not as we wish, to be a reflection of what has happened on the ground rather than a birth certificate of a leadership we like, or a death certificate of a stream we dislike.
This can be one of the greatest gifts we can give, firstly to ourselves, secondly, to our children, and finally, to the humanity … because our experiences are not only ours, but a profound experience that is worth being taught and generalized.
One of the strangest things that can happen is to focus on the chapter of victory, and to forget that victories are born only from the womb of defeats.
There is no great victory in the whole history was not preceded by many defeats!
I know that many efforts have been made to codify the Arab Spring revolutions, yet, they are not enough, and still need more and more scrutiny, expansion in narratives, and the purification of political biases.
Most of the January revolutionaries have discovered that Egypt is under military rule too late, some of which have only recently discovered this, although it is was clearer than to be explained. How has such a fact, which has dominated our lives for more than six decades, disappeared?
It disappeared because a whole generation has decided not to say (what has happened)!
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Translated by Dr. Iman Salama