Egypt’s Nasser is blamed for current problems by the regime

Egypt celebrated the 62nd anniversary of the July Revolution yesterday in the context of an orchestrated campaign to question the achievements of the revolution and to heap criticism on its leading figures — foremost President Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

These trends are not new. It has been customary for Egypt’s political right under business barons to try to demonise the revolution and to blame all the shortcomings in politics, the economy and society that Egypt has been suffering on the policies adopted after 23 July 1952. Lately there have been attempts, persistent and determined, to portray life in Egypt before the revolution as paradise, and to depict the former monarchs of Egypt, from Mohamed Ali until the last one, King Farouk, as modernisers and patriots. The implicit message has been that the revolution, which detractors call a coup d’etat, should not have taken place. They have taken great lengths to tarnish the image and reality of the July Revolution.