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| Source: Wikipedia |
Egyptians like to celebrate – especially winning political battles. Celebrations broke out in the iconic Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo at news that the previous prime minister – assigned by ex-President Mubarak – stepped down. They were even more jubilant at the announcement that Essam Sharaf, founder and CEO of Age of Science, an NGO with a clear science promotion agenda, will head the new cabinet.
Tens of thousands gathered in Tahrir Square today after the Friday prayers to listen to Sharaf who came to give a short speech, promising reform through a technocrat cabinet to carry Egypt through this interim period.
But who is Sharaf? And is there reason to be excited about the announcement?
In a meeting between some representatives of the young revolutionaries and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (who is running the country temporarily until a civilian president is elected), Sharaf was the foremost name put forward by the young people for the role of prime minister to replace the much hated Ahmed Shafiq. Reports say that Mohammed ElBaradei, ex-director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and leading opposition figures, also favoured Sharaf for the position.
In 2004 he became minister of transport, but resigned two years later in objection to the corruption in the cabinet and formed his Age of Science NGO, with support from Nobel Laureate chemist Ahmed Zewail and remote sensing expert Farouk El-Baz.
In fact, a march by university faculty against Mubarak during the revolution was led by Sharaf himself, chanting with the people against the very regime that he resigned from due to its corruption. No wonder he has large ‘street cred’ with the people in Tahrir!
A scientist with postgraduate degrees from Purdue University and West Lafayette school in the US, Sharaf has always stressed the importance of science for the development of Egypt. In an interview in August 2010, he repeatedly argued “that scientific research should be an issue of national security in Egypt because without it, we won’t find basic necessities of food and water in the near future.”
This was the main reason behind setting up the Age of Science NGO when he left the ministry.
Sharaf has often made it clear he is against normalisation of ties with Israel, even in science and scientific research, until the Israel-Palestinian conflict is resolved.
I am lucky to have met the new prime minister on several occasions in the past, and to know him personally. We have talked on several occasions about his vision for science in Egypt and development. He is a smart, articulate and well-spoken scientist with a reformist agenda.
In fact, two days after the revolution, he reached out to several young people from the science community (myself included) to form a committee to plan how scientific research may be developed in Egypt post-revolution.
I went out to Tahrir Square today to celebrate this appointment because I think this is, by far, the most positive sign we have seen since the fall of the past regime. It will be interesting to watch what reshuffles he does to the cabinet. I would personally hope he keeps the previously appointed minister of education and higher education and minister of scientific research, who are also two excellent choices for the position.
I think with them in position, and Sharaf leading the cabinet, this interim government is looking better than any of Egypt’s previous governments, at least when it comes to science.
Thanks for your continuing discussion of your vision for science as a crucial component of Egypt’s aspirations. Surely every sensible global citizen cheers for those aspirations — and certainly citizens who understand science cheer for that vision. I know I do.
Here’s a question about all of that. You report that Essam Sharaf “has often made it clear he is against normalisation of ties with Israel, even in science and scientific research, until the Israel-Palestinian conflict is resolved.” It seems to me that the most important word there is “even.” Doesn’t that word suggest a strong sympathy with the idea that the international science enterprise stands — or anyway, ought to stand — above and apart from political conflicts?
Not long ago in a comment here in your House of Wisdom blog I mentioned Thomas Jefferson, who after two centuries still represents the height of science-mindedness in an American president, just as he represents the height of eloquence in the articulation of universal principles of the very human rights that Egyptians are now asserting. Even though Jefferson also represents a stunning paradox as a slaveholding human-rights advocate, his science-mindedness as a leader at a time of great advances in human rights compels me to ask about something he wrote in 1809.
In a letter just before Jefferson left office, he lamented what he saw as unwise and deeply frustrating political impediments to cooperation among scientific societies from nations unfriendly to each other. He wrote:
QUOTE
I mention these things, to show the nature of the correspondence which is carried on between societies instituted for the benevolent purpose of communicating to all parts of the world whatever useful is discovered in any one of them. These societies are always in peace, however their nations may be at war. Like the republic of letters, they form a great fraternity spreading over the whole earth, and their correspondence is never interrupted by any civilized nation. Vaccination has been a late and remarkable instance of the liberal diffusion of a blessing newly discovered. It is really painful, it is mortifying, to be obliged to note these things, which are known to every one who knows any thing, and felt with approbation by every one who has any feeling.
UNQUOTE
I’m only an American science writer observing from across the sea, with admittedly minimal understanding of the Egypt-Israel conflict. No doubt it’s presumptuous and intrusive and possibly even rude of me to question Egyptians about this matter. Still, I can’t help wondering why Sharaf seems against the very principle that others are struggling to vindicate in the SESAME synchrotron project, which of course involves scientists from Arab countries and from Israel.
So please let me ask: What else would Sharaf say about this problem? What about others in the Egyptian scientific community? What about Ahmed Zewail? What would you yourself say?
Thanks very much.