Ruling the Egyptian People

I haven't been paying a lot of attention to all the news on El-Baradei and his campaign. However, I got somewhat interested when I heard that some papers published photos of his daughter in a bikini saying she's married to a Christian and she drinks alcohol. Whether the news is true or not, I don't even see why it should matter. He seems to have a family in which it's ok to wear a swimsuit on the beach. What is so horribly wrong about that? We all know what kind of things the children of high-ranking politicians do in Marina, Sharm, or even abroad. If his daughter, anyone in his family, or even he drinks alcohol, is that supposed to affect his political stance or his integrity?

What I wouldn't be comfortable with though is if he made a personal choice to drink alcohol, not practice  Islam strictly, and/or be agnostic (which I kinda doubt) but he still goes to mosques for publicity in order to appeal to the masses in Egypt. If that is the case, then it would basically mean two things:

a) The sad truth is that whoever wants to rule Egyptians or have any sort of political influence on them has to either be  religious or pretend to be so.

The penetration of the Wahabi thinking and the extreme manifestations of devoutness (whether fake or real) among Egyptians has also come to mean that politicians have to ride the same wave in order to win people's trust. It is truly sad that whoever uses religious phrases in his speeches, appears praying in public, and protests against video clips on TV seems to win the sympathy of people in a heartbeat.

b) El-Baradei is shrewd enough to realize the point above, although he hasn't lived in Egypt for decades, and he decided to play on that chord. That to me is an indication that no one is an angel in politics, and that El-Baradei, like anyone else, would do whatever it takes to win. Putting on a face that people like just to win their trust is a manipulation of simple minds that I find unethical.

I believe though that El Baradei will never be as shrewd as his enemies who have been living and breathing this kind of hypocrisy for ages and have become masters of the game. I don't think he imagined the amount of pressure they'd put on his private life or the way they would strike below the belt. Thus, he has not prepared for that and he can never be a match to them. If he and his family knew, his daughter would have closed down her facebook page before her dad came under the spotlights. If they knew, they would been careful about who their friends are at this critical point of time. If they knew, they would have stopped leaving their houses in the first place in order to please the Egyptian people!


I think Egyptians need to wake up and see what's going on. If we keep mixing the cards and judging politicians based on their appearance and personal choices, then we deserve whatever happens to us. We should not be a nation that sympathizes with those who pray in public and frowns at those who have a chosen a liberal personal lifestyle, instead of scrutinizing their political agendas or discussing their public service achievements -or the lack thereof. The extreme superficiality that is prevailing among Egyptians is leaving us prey to the manipulative and the power-hungry everywhere.