الوفد وخصومه

by Marius K. Deeb, ماريوس كامل ديب

DEEB, M,: PARTY POLITICS IN THE WAFD AND ITS RIVALS, 1919-1939 [HARDBACK], OXFORD, 1979, viii 452 p, Encuadernacion original, Nuevo,

Genres: Politics

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Ehab mohamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب مميز جدًا ويقدر إنه ينظملك فوضى وإضطرابات الحياة السياسية في مصر في الفترة من 1919 حتى عام 1939 عن طريق تقسيم تلك الفترة لثلاث فترات زمنية يقوم \في البداية بسرد سياسي لأحوال تلك الفترة يليها تناول وتحليل للأحزاب المصرية التي كانت على الساحة من خلال عرض التكوين الإجتماعي والتنظيم السياسي والأيدلوجيات لتلك الأحزاب وبالرغم من جماعتي مصر الفتاة والإخوان المسلمين لم تكونا أحزاب رسمية إلا إنه ناقش أسباب ظهوره وتنظيمها وأيديلوجيتها أيضًا.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The objective of Marius Deeb’s Party Politics in Egypt is to study its eponymous subject during the interwar period from a high political perspective and assess the relative strength of the Wafd as compared to other political parties, as well as the palace and the British. Each of his four sizeable body chapters follow roughly the same format: a section that provides some context is followed by a narrative that outlines the political developments as a whole, then an examination of the Wafd through its social base, organization, high command, and ideology, and finally a review of the other important parties of the era. The overall picture that is painted is the gradual cooptation of the Wafd’s support base by other parties.

The author begins with an introduction that outlines the scope and theoretical foundations of his study. Although acknowledging the Wafd as the most important organization overall, he declares his intention to study all of political parties of the era, defining a political party in this context as a group that has popular support, can realize its objectives vis-à-vis the colonizing power, and receives a non-dismissive response from the colonizer. He then argues that “the main determinants of a political party […] are doctrines or principles, organization and social basis”, which will become the fundamental units of analysis for his study. He defines Egypt as an economically stratified society between the upper, middle, and lower classes, each of which had their own internal divisions, and postulates that colonial parties generally evolve in three stages “pressure groups to national movements and then to political parties”, a process that he observes throughout his narrative, particularly for the Wafd, but also for the other organizations.

Deeb’s first body chapter examines the period from 1919 through 1923 as one of popular uprisings and the emergence of the nationalist movement. The narrative of this era covers the transformation of the Wafd from a local movement, that intended only to send a delegation to the World War I peace talks, into a broader liberal nationalist organization. Nonetheless, it remained relatively informal and unorganized during this time and, although it supported the lower classes, a large portion of its membership was the upper ones. Its two defining features during this era were its demand for complete independence and the popular and democratic basis of its power. The author then introduces some competing parties, most notably the Liberal Constitutionalist Party, which was founded in 1922 by the King in order to support him, although it also found favor with the British colonial authorities. The Liberal Constitutionalists were mostly large landowners and members of the urban middle class, whose main objectives were to promulgate a constitution and serve as an alternative to Pan-Islamism. The Watani Party, which was the earliest of the Egyptian nationalist movements, also desired a constitution and independence, but had a strong urban base and less support overall, with most of its more popular policies coopted and improved upon by the Wafd during the 1920s. The socialist/communist movements were not particularly significant, with their membership consisting primarily of foreign members of the urban middle class and petty bourgeoisie.

Deeb then looks into the era between 1923 and 1930, when the contests between political parties were at their prime. They were part of a triangle of power that also included the palace and the British, but the former did not play much of a role during this period, while the latter were focused on protecting their own interests. The Wafd increased its popularity in the countryside, but retained its power base in urban areas and benefited from strong organization. Its leadership, however, remained static, which hindered the introduction of fresh ideas and progressive action. It continued to focus on immediate political independence, but also made more of an attempt to emphasize its socio-economic agenda. The Liberal Constitutionalist Party changed little, but shuffled its support between the palace and the British based on the prevailing political tides, and thus earned limited genuine popular support. The Ittihad Party, meanwhile, emerged as the organization that was more consistently supportive of the king. The Watani Party found that its most successful candidates were the rural notables, and thus it shifted its focus to the countryside, while the Communist Party suffered from political oppression and the cooptation of its support base by the Wafd.

The author’s next chapter reviews the period between 1930 and 1935, when collusion between the king and former Wafd member Ismail Sidqi led to an increase in the power of the palace. Sidqi, supported by his Sha’b Party, helped promulgate a new constitution that increased the power of the monarchy at the expense of parliament. This catalyzed more power struggles between the three major political entities, although the British were relatively content to step back during this era and allow developments to play out. The Wafd changed very little during this period and their traditional program played well with the population, particularly as it responded to the circumstances of the economic depression. The Liberal Constitutionalist Party also remained the same, although some of its support was stolen by the Sha’b Party, while the Watani Party continued its decline and the Ittihad Party entrenched its support for the king.

Finally, Deeb delves into 1935-1939, when the Wafd began its rapid decline in terms of popular support, as other parties were more willing to adopt its positions and act as a progressive force that could adapt to changing conditions. The Wafd has secured its hegemonic position over Egyptian mass politics by signing the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, but the growing failure of the Wafd to actually improve conditions in Egypt and move towards complete independence led more radical groups to gain prestige at its expense. Ideologically, the Wafd changed very little, but students, rural dwellers, and Islamists all began to see their needs addressed better by other organizations. The demise of the coalition between Sidqi and the palace, and the subsequent decline in power for the latter, led to the increasing disintegration of the Sha’b and Ittihad parties, which benefitted the Liberal Constitutionalists to a small degree. The Watani Party was all but irrelevant by this point, with its grassroots support going to Islamic-based organizations such as Misr Al-Fatat and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Overall, Party Politics in Egypt provides a lengthy, but comprehensive narrative of the era’s politics. Although it is, ultimately, a high political analysis of the period, it does push the British into the background of the Egyptian story and attempt a social history that, for the time, would have been relatively novel. Furthermore, it lacks the Orientalist feel of many works of its day. Although the work is long, it is not particularly dense, and the recapitulation is good enough that it can serve as a valuable and accessible resource for scholars seeking to acquire a better understanding of the era’s political developments. A brief recapitulative conclusion to each chapter, rather than an abrupt ending, would have been very helpful in getting across his overarching themes and arguments, but overall it lays a good foundation for examining the history of this era from a more popular political perspective.

[أحمد · Rating 2 out of 5]

المقارنة حتمية!، فهذه الميلشيات المسلحة التي ستبدأ في الظهور علانية بعد تذكرة النائب العام لنا، تشابه إلى درجة التطابق تنظيمات القمصان الزرقاء التابعة لحزب للوفد والخضراء التابعة لحزب مصر الفتاة،، فتنظيمات القمصان هذه كانت بالفعل تنظيمات شبه عسكرية، وتمثل الذراع العسكري لهذه الأحزاب، ودافع عن وجودها "مصطفى النحاس" رئيس حزب الوفد نفسه، عندما هاجمه البعض وطلبوا منه صراحة أن يعيد الحزب إلى نشاطه السلمي لا العسكري، بعد أن وصل عدد المنضمين لهذا التنظيم شبه العسكري إلى ثلاثين ألف عضو، فقال النحاس بهدوء:


يتعين للـوفد أن يكون في وضع يتيح له الدفاع عن نفسه وعن حزبه إذا ما هوجما




فالمبررات تتكرر، فمن أجل زعم حماية المقرات الرئيسية للحزب، قبضت أفراد من جماعة الإخوان على نشطاء سياسيين مناهضين لها، وقامت بتسليمهم إلى الشرطة بتهمة محاولة الاعتداء على مقرّ الحزب الرئيسي، رغم أن النشطاء كانوا حينئذ على بعد أكثر من أثنين كيلو متر من مقر الحزب

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/node/156...


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ولكن للأسف التاريخ يتوقف عند هذا، هذه التنظيمات شبه العسكرية الخضراء والزرقاء ، لم تستمر طويلا ولم تتهيأ الظروف لها لتمارس دورها الكامل الذي كُوّنت من أجله!، فهي ازدهرت خلال الفترة الأخيرة من حياة الملك فؤاد وقراراته المعاندة، ثم وفاته بعد ذلك، ومرور قرابة عام قبل أن يبلغ الملك فاروق سن الرشد لحكم مصر، فلما أن تولى الملك فاروق الحكم، وبعد فترة يسيرة كانت الآمال بالغة إلى حدها الأقصى ومتفائلة بالملك الشاب وحسن وجهه وسرعة بديهته وكياسته، فكانت الظروف مطاوعة لتنفيذ قرار الملك الشاب بحل هذه التنظيمات شبه العسكرية على الفور، ولا ندري!، ربما إن كان الملك فؤاد المكروه من الشعب هو الآمر بحل هذه التنظيمات، ربما لاشتعل الوضع أكثر


ولكن الآن الجو مهيّأ



وقال طرفة بن العبد:


يا لكِ مِنْ قُبّرَة ٍ بمعمرِ

خلا لكِ الجوّ فبيضي واصفِري

ونقري ما شئتِ أن تنقّري

قد رحلَ الصيادُ عنكِ فابشري

ورُفعَ الفخ فماذا تحذري







ولكن مهلاً، هناك إضافة:

لا بدّ يوماً أن تُصادي فاصبري



وفي رواية أخرى:

لا بد من صيدكِ يوما فاصبري



:D



ما يهم!، أكثر ما أدهشني في هذا الكتاب هو أن "سعد زغلول" كان يتوقع ويأمل زوال الملكية ما بين لحظة وأخرى، فالمصريون كانوا على بغض قديم لأسرة "محمد علي" الحاكمة، وكان سعد يقترح تطبيق النظام الجمهوري الحرّ في مصر، وأدهشني أيضًا أن الوفد كان أكثر مدافع عن الوحدة الوطنية بين مسلمي وأقباط مصر، وكان في عضويته أعضاء أقباط لهم مكانة ووزن لا يُغفل، ولكن لم أكن أدري حقًا بأن هذه الوحدة كان تطعن من قبل الخصوم في الصميم، فشخصية دينية بارزة ربما بتحريض من الحكومة المناهضة للوفد، استخدمت سلاح الدين في الانتخابات الجارية، وكانت تقوم على التلميح إلى أن حزب الوفد واقع تحت سيطرة سكرتيره القبطي "مكرم عبيد" - هذا بالرغم من أن رئيسه مصطفى النحاس مسلم! - وكانت المنشورات التي توزع في الوجه القبلي بمصر بكثافة، تدعوا صراحة إلى فكرة مؤداها إلى أن التصويت للنحاس يعني التصويت ضد الإسلام


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نعم!، ويقال أن بعض الفلاحين البسطاء رأوا اسم «سعد زغلول» مكتوبًا على أوراق بعض المحاصيل