President Gamal Abdel Nasser
By Adnan Mouhiddin
President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt: a man with much utopia but less reality.
President Nasser reminds me of a man whose heart cried for the hungry and deprived people but ended up burning the kitchen and subsequently the house when he tried to cook and feed them.
Every time I address him I find myself obliged to separate between my heart and my mind. On personal level, President Nasser was a disaster to the history of my country (Syria) and my both paternal and maternal families with his arbitrary nationalization laws and the suppression of political parties and freedoms.
However, President Nasser was what I may call as the last Middle Eastern politician with integrity, fairness, clarity and courage. He died, while in power, with 60 Egyptian Pounds (EGP) in his pocket and some 2000 EGP in his bank account. That was all he owned and left for his family. He is the first and the last president in a third world country to admit a failure, genuinely resign and have his resignation refused by his nation who forced him back.
Rest in peace, President Nasser; in the memory of your “23 July 1952” revolution, which I would have resisted if I lived back then.
Syriology 