Morsi needs a comprehensive vision

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit held recently in Tehran finished as quickly as it was inaugurated. The Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi had simply hijacked it. Morsi delivered a reasonable speech at the summit's inaugural session. He condemned the "oppressive" Syrian regime and aligned Egypt with freedom, dignity, the Syrian people and their revolution. The speech saved the summit from falling into an Iranian trap aimed at exploiting the event. The Egyptian President prevented the summit from being aligned to the killers rather than the victims, this could have put the NAM's future at stake. Morsi's speech was the right choice for the NAM. It marks a departure from the repeating of meaningless slogans that are never translated into actions. Egypt's presidential speech was exceptional. Morsi was not reluctant when referring to the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser as a significant contributor in the NAM's history. He put aside the old hostility between the Muslim Brotherhood and Nasser. That is how a legitimately elected President is supposed to act. Morsi was keen to give a good impression, both to the region and to the world. His speech in Tehran has strongly supported this pursuit. It was expected from the Iranian authorities to make misleading translations of Morsi's speech (which was delivered in Arabic). The Iranian interpreter replaced Morsi's reference to "Syria" with a reference to "Bahrain". As a partner to the Syrian regime, Iran sees no problems between Bashar al-Assad and his people. Iran describes the whole crisis as being "a misunderstanding" between the people and the ruling regime. A misunderstanding that has displaced more than 2 million Syrians, left more than 30,000 dead and destroyed whole towns and neighbourhoods. Iran had a plan for the summit, but unfortunately for them, Morsi foiled it. They wished that the summit would be good propaganda for their so-called initiative aimed only at saving the regime from collapse. Morsi's speech poured cold water on this initiative as he reminded the NAM of its basic foundations. After such a speech, the Iranian officials certainly wished Hosni Mubarak was still in charge and Egypt was still boycotting them. After Morsi's speech, all the summit's sessions looked useless. The only useful thing the NAM had to do, was to decide whether it will side with the Syrian people and their revolution or with a murderer who still insists on "sewing up" the situation. In Assad's language this means to kill and expel his people and destroy their towns and villages. Will Morsi's speech be the first step for Egyptian influence in the region? Can it bring back some balance to the Middle East after the US-Iranian invasion of Iraq in 2003? The answer to this depends on the ability of Morsi to address Egypt's problems effectively. When the Egyptian President arrives back in Cairo, he has to recall Gamal Abdel Nasser's experience again, or probably once every day. He has to remember that Nasser had in fact failed, although he was a very good orator indeed. He didn't fail because he challenged the Brotherhood (this could be one of his advantages), he failed mainly because he didn't build a strong economy or a democratic state structure. Will the Brotherhood boost Morsi's oratory skills by delivering a comprehensive vision for a modern and influential Egypt? Morsi's speech in Tehran was great, but great words alone will not keep Morsi's observers satisfied. The observers will stand up clapping, for both Morsi and Egypt, in case he succeeds in reviving the Egyptian economy through tourism revenues and bringing back security. He also has to make considerable progress in education, women rights, combating extremism and controlling population growth. Once Egypt is strong from inside, the speeches delivered by its officials will have a different significance as Egypt will have the ability to translate these speeches into actions. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.