Bahi Hassan, in an article in Al-Masry Al-Youm, discusses the state of Egypt in light of a range of global indexes. His report is not a mere compilation of statistics in various fields, or a lament on our deteriorating circumstances. Rather, it offers factual insight into a past that has given rise to the realities of the present. It is better for us to acknowledge our problems, recognise our mistakes and identify what needs to be done to save our country than to risk a future that could be worse than the past. Among the report's findings, Egypt ranked second to last out of 140 countries in the quality-of-education “pillar” in the Global Competitiveness Index 2015-2016. Guinea came last. Singapore ranked the highest, followed by Switzerland. Qatar placed fourth, the UAE tenth and Israel 37th. In the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) of 2014, Egypt came in at 50th place out of 178 countries. It ranked 110th out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index for 2014. Egypt scored an overall ranking of 119th out of 144 countries in the Global Competitiveness Index for 2014-2015, placing 12th in the Arab region. In the pillar of “innovation and sophistication”, it ranked 113th out of 144 countries in the Global Competitive Index of 2014-2015. In that same year, Egypt was placed at 97th out of 144 countries in the category for meeting the basic requirements for health and education, and at 100 out of 144 in the category of meeting the basic requirements for infrastructure. Also in the Global Competitive Index of 2014-2015, out of 144 countries, Egypt placed at 111th in “higher education and training”, at 140th in “labour market efficiency”, and at 118th in the category of “goods market efficiency.” On the other “efficiency enhancers” in that index, Egypt ranked 125th in “financial market development” and at 95th in “technological readiness”. On the sub-index of “market size,” Egypt received a global ranking of 29th, but in the sub-indexes of “business sophistication” and “innovation” it received global rankings of 95th and 124th, respectively. In the World Press Freedom Index of 2015, Egypt ranked at 158 out of 180 countries, and 13th at the level of the Arab region. If we placed all the foregoing rankings side by side and tried to translate them into a single indicator, it would read as follows: “Enjoy the bad, because worse is coming, unless . . .” The first people who should step forward and acknowledge these rankings are the president, the prime minister and the speaker of the forthcoming parliament. None of these officials are responsible for our country's current state of underdevelopment. The condition is an old one and the causes originate further back than the past few years. At the same time, these officials will be responsible if that condition persists or deteriorates still further. I therefore ask the president to have his advisors draw up a “Save the Nation” programme. Its immediate purpose would be to inform the public, frankly, of what the problems are, what their causes are and propose steps to remedy them. The Egyptian people are intelligent and want a future for their children that will be better than their own past. But they are groping for light in the darkness. The government should supply that light in the form of a “Save the Nation” programme that, I believe, should include the following steps: 1. We must curb our drastic population growth. This requires a family planning programme that seeks to limit new families to three children and to have existing families that already have more than three children stop producing more for a period of five years. This is a period in which we are struggling to get our country back on its feet economically. China has just announced the end of its family planning programme that had restricted families to a single child, but only after many years of application. For the sake of God and country, we must keep reproduction under control. Unfortunately, those who produce the most children happen to be those who are least able to rear and educate them properly. The government must martial all educational, media, legislative, religious and cultural instruments to persuade people of how crucial this matter is. God almighty will not ask us how many children we have had, but He will ask us how we brought them up. 2. the media subject needs focus. We must follow in the footsteps of Mahatir Mohamed of Malaysia who transformed entertainment media into a reform media that helped teach youth the skills and knowhow they needed to build themselves and their country. We've had enough of the yellow press, of the media that specialises in scandalmongering, mudslinging, abuse and distorting the image of the country and the people who live in it. The president, as soon as possible, should issue a law to regulate the media and the National Press Council along the lines of many other countries that have preceded us down the path of progress and democracy, not least of which are South Africa and South Korea. Somewhere in the presidency there already exist studies on this subject. 3. The question of education is too crucial to leave without serious attention. Education builds nations. The South Korean teacher who teaches children in the street armed only with a whiteboard is an important model for salvaging our own educational system. We do not have the luxury to wait until we build 50,000 schools to accommodate all our school-age children. We need to simplify our curricula to make the basics (ethics, information and skills) the core of the educational process and we must work on schooling rather than building schools. 4. Clean and properly administer 100 main streets throughout the country. This will help revive the culture of cleanliness and orderliness, which we desperately need in Egypt. 5. Instilling hope is very important. The new roads project should be given more space in the media because new roads open greater horizons for growth. 7. I hope that the president gives the matter of domestic and foreign investment a large part of his attention, as bureaucratic obstacles and government corruption remain so endemic that much domestic, Arab and foreign investment is driven away. The above points underscore some of our major problems. I have proposed some solutions. Anyone who can formulate better ones will be most welcome and receive my support. Before closing, I should mention that we will not have a new Egypt unless we have a new Egyptian person, one whom we must shape in order to create a better tomorrow. The writer is a professor of political science, Cairo University.
