Compiled by Wael Salem
The nation marks the tenth anniversary of the June 30 Revolution today.
The revolution was one of the greatest acts of civil disobedience in Egypt’s history, having stemmed from Egyptians’ sense of responsibility.
It was also a defining moment in the history of this precious homeland, when the Egyptian people chose the future they seek for their sons and grandsons.
They chose the modern civil state with its tolerant national Egyptian identity that is open to the world.
Ousting the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi from the presidential office by protests was driven by frustration with the Brotherhood’s year-long rule, in which Egypt suffered economic problems; energy shortage; lack of security, and diplomatic crises.
In a televised statement on July 3, 2013, then defence minister Abdel Fattah El Sisi announced the ousting of Mohamed Morsi and the suspension of the 2012 Constitution.
The president of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Masnour, was tasked to take over the presidency until early elections were held.
Ten years on and the picture has completely changed: Egypt began to stabilise only after President Sisi assumed power in June 2014, and even then the country was forced to fight the remnants of terrorist groups and help the state stand on its feet again.
President Sisi was able to make a successful deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which helped reinvigorate the local economy, making it withstand the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and the economic damage of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.
President Sisi’s recent call for a national dialogue to set Egypt’s political and economic priorities is a natural extension of the June 30 Revolution, according to Gamal Abdel-Gawad, a researcher at Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
The call reflects the strength of the Egyptian state as it was reconstituted after the revolution.
“One of the ideals of the 30 June Revolution was to end the abuse of religion and its use as a political tool,” Abdel Gawad said.
Professor of political science at Suez Canal University, Gamal Zahran, said the 30 June Revolution helped restore Egypt’s role in the Arab world.
“Even Qatar, which supported the Muslim Brotherhood after the downfall of its regime in Egypt in 2013, now recognizes the June revolution as a positive development,” Zahran said.
“The Qatari and Egyptian leaders are now exchanging visits to enhance political and economic co-operation,” he added.
The June 30 Revolution was not just an uprising to overthrow a regime that was rejected by the people, but rather a revolution to recover the identity of a nation, correct its course, and build a new modern state.
The revolution has embodied the greatness of Egypt, its history and civilisation and united all the spectra of its people and institutions, to get Egypt out of the dark tunnel in which it was walking.
This popular revolution was a turning point between two eras. It was a dividing line between a year of political failure, mismanagement, false promises, deteriorating economy, loss of confidence and credibility in the state, security instability and the absence of vision, on one hand, and a state, according to the testimony of all international institutions, that is on the right path, representing a success story that has a clear vision for the future, on the other.
Egypt now aims to become one of the largest 30 economies in the world.
This June 30 Revolution also divided between a year of political failure and a state aiming to achieve a raft of infrastructural projects in many fields, including agriculture, roads, housing, electricity, education, oil, ports and transport, according to recent remarks by Mohamed Abou El Enein, a member of parliament and an Egyptian businessman.
“A salute of pride and veneration to President Sisi, the symbol of the June 30 Revolution, who answered Egyptians’ call and sided with their free will,” Abou El Enein said.
“He saved the country from civil war and religious fascism to build the new republic, of which we are all proud,” he added.
He noted that during the past 12 years, Egypt faced the most difficult challenges: the 2011 and 2013 revolutions, the coronavirus pandemic, and the Ukrainian-Russian war, but thanks to the efforts of President Sisi, his proactive policies and his bold reforms, the Egyptian economy was able to withstand and even achieve high growth.
Frequent power outages were one of the most obvious and influential crises on the life of the Egyptian citizen during the tenure of the Muslim Brotherhood.
This crisis was the result of mismanagement and the insufficient energy generated to satisfy the needs of all citizens.
However, thanks to the state’s vision after the revolution, the government adopted a policy of diversifying energy production sources (solar – wind energy – hydroelectric), which resulted in an increase in production capacities by more than 80%.
Egypt was one of the highest developing countries and one of the few countries in the world that witnessed positive growth throughout the coronavirus crisis.
Egypt has faced and is still facing numerous challenges due to the global economic crises.
Thanks to the successes of the June 30 Revolution, which restored the spirit and the strength of the Egyptian state, Egypt is able to overcome these challenges and complete its path to achieve Vision 2030 of growth, development and a decent life.
Since assuming office in June 2014, President Sisi has been keen to “make a new republic” and has filled the capital and other governorates with construction work and other development projects that directly touched citizens’ lives.
The Sisi administration has executed development projects in all fields to improve public services provided to citizens in health, education, power, housing, transport, water and energy.
President Sisi was keen to provide adequate housing for citizens through the development of unsafe and unplanned areas, the construction of new integrated urban cities, and the establishment of housing units in already existing cities, in line with Vision 2030.
Over the course of ten years of hard work, the state has managed to transfer the residents of slums to new developed and civilized areas that have the elements of stable, safe and decent life.
This contributed to declaring Egypt free of dangerous slums, and prompted major international institutions to praise the Egyptian experience in this file.
Egypt is planning to build 30 new fourth-generation cities in the coming years to house the country’s growing population, provide residents with high-quality amenities, create investment and reduce pressure on existing cities.
These projects include the New Administrative Capital, New Alamein City, East Port Said (Salam), New Mansoura, New Ismailia, El Galala, New Sheikh Zayed, October Oasis, West Beni Suef, New Mallawi, Nasser (West Assiut), West Qena and New Toshka.
According to the website of the Ministry of Housing, fourth-generation cities are planned urban developments that integrate advanced infrastructure and ICT technologies.
The government has attached paramount importance to improving drinking water and sanitation services through upgrading water and sewerage systems nationwide.
President Sisi has also been keen to place the health system at the top of his priorities.
The health sector has witnessed remarkable progress that Egypt had not undergone in previous decades.
This has been done by securing the strategic reserve of serums and vaccines, implementing the national project for model hospitals, with a total value of 6.1 billion Egyptian pounds, and ending waiting lists within 6 months, at a cost of one billion pounds.
The health developments also included the establishment of 32 new hospitals across the country and the opening of 158 medical centres for the treatment of hepatitis C, up from only 58 centres, to eliminate the virus.
Thanks to these efforts, Egypt has been declared free of virus C.
The One Hundred Million Healthy Lives initiative, launched by President Sisi in 2019 to discover non-communicable diseases, was instrumental in this regard.
The government has developed an automated system to record the data of virus C patients, hence connecting the centres on a single network so that the patients can receive treatment within a week.
As per President Sisi’s directives, the comprehensive health insurance system will cover all Egyptians within the next few years.
Meanwhile, the Decent Life initiative, which was launched by President Sisi in early 2019, is aimed at providing a better life for more than half the country’s population.
The initiative aims at improving the standards of living, infrastructure, and services and targets 58% of Egypt’s 104-million population who live in 4,658 villages across the country.
“The Suez Canal was Egypt’s mega-project in the 19th century, the construction of the Aswan High Dam was Egypt’s mega-project in the 20th century, and the Decent Life initiative is Egypt’s mega-project in the 21st century,” Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli said in recent remarks.
He described the 100% Egyptian project as the ‘biggest in the world’ and the only one that met all the UN Sustainable Developments Goals for the 21st century.
The UN considers this initiative one of the best in applying programmes for sustainable development worldwide, based on international standards for fighting poverty and gender equality.
