Two months after leading the military in overthrowing the country’s first democratically elected leader, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi made a pilgrimage to the Suez Canal.
In a grand opening ceremony, full of patriotism, the ex-general announced in August 2014 a mega-project that, according to him, would start nothing less than the revival of Egypt after the chaos of the Arab Spring: an expansion of US $ 8 billion of the 120-mile waterway, which remains one of the most powerful symbols of Egyptian national identity.
“We need to move, and act strongly, to get out of the circle of poverty in which we live,” said Sisi.
Seven years later, this revival has barely materialized. Although the country’s gross domestic product is improving, almost a third of the 100 million Egyptians live on less than $ 2 a day, and income inequality has undoubtedly never been greater.
So when Egyptian authorities and international experts earlier this week dislodged Ever Given, a 200,000-ton transport ship that blocked the Suez Canal for six days, it meant more than just the reopening of a vital international maritime artery. For Sisi and his government, it was a chance to claim a rare victory and polish the credentials of a leader often accused of clientelism and bad governance.
24 hours after Ever Given’s reflux, Sisi was back on the iconic channel, once again, beating a nationalist drum and trying to gather his countrymen behind him.
“It was a blessing in disguise,” he said of the crisis. “This incident showed that the Suez Canal is capable, long-lasting and very, very competitive.”
Semper Dado, a colossus three times the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, ran aground on March 23, its two ends stranded on opposite banks, completely closing a waterway that controls one-tenth of world shipments. Lieutenant-General Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority, said the Egyptian government suffered losses of about $ 1 billion from the blockade, which caused hundreds of ships to jam.
The operation to dislodge the ship was monumental: more than 10 Olympic pools of water and mud were displaced by tugs, dredges and teams working in 24-hour shifts amid intense international scrutiny. The high tide was a crucial help in getting Ever Given off the banks.
Pro-government media took action, broadening Sisi’s message of an achievement led by Egypt that reaffirmed the country’s international stature. On Twitter, supporters and government bots spread the hashtag #Thank_You_Sisi.
“Every Egyptian who lives in or outside Egypt, and whose heart has not danced with happiness after the Suez Crisis has advanced, must question himself, his humanity and his condition as an Egyptian,” artist Mohamed Mohsen tweeted to his nearly 700,000 followers. “Moments like these make us love our country more and more, and they are the ones who make us know who hates it”.
Kareem Farid, a software developer, tweeted that the crisis had demonstrated that “there are no other options than that we are all supporting the president. … After seven years of chattering about the Suez Canal and the Sisi projects, thank God everyone has now discovered its importance. “
The spill – partly ordered by the government, partly not – has shown “in essence what Egyptian nationalism is about,” said Hafsa Halawa, a British Egyptian scholar at the Middle East Institute.
“Egyptian exceptionalism, the historical importance of Egypt as an African, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nation – is Umm Al Dunya“She said, using an Egyptian country descriptor which means” mother of the world “.
“The government thrives on things like fuul and taamiyah”, Added Halawa, referring to the extremely popular local version of fava and falafel sauce.
When an Egyptian crew member from one of the dredgers released a video hours after helping to launch Ever Given, it went viral, with people from all over the country and the world cheering with them.
Much of the public jubilation over Ever Given’s release was genuine, said a frequent government activist and critic who blogs under the name “The Big Pharaoh” for security reasons.
But it was used by Sisi to deflect attention from the fact that his bet in 2014 on expanding the Suez Canal has yet to work, the blogger said in an interview. The expansion, which was completed in 2015, was expected to increase revenue to $ 13.2 billion by 2023, more than double the levels prior to 2015. Instead, they remained at around $ 5.7 billion and fell to $ 5.16 billion in 2020 because of the pandemic.
“We know that the big promises made in 2015 have not come true,” said the blogger.
Meanwhile, the daily lives of Egyptians have become more difficult since 2016, when Sisi launched the local currency on international markets, cut subsidies and introduced a value added tax – movements that earned it applause from the International Monetary Fund and other foreign financial institutions. , but begged many people at home.
“People cannot buy what they bought a few years ago. If you ask ten Egyptians if they are better off this year than they were ten years ago, they will certainly say no, ”said the blogger.
Even Sisi’s fervent critics acknowledge that he has focused government spending on desperately needed infrastructure overhaul. But the beneficiaries of these expenditures were the military and Sisi’s cronies, said Timothy Kaldas, an Egyptian analyst at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.
“The past two years have been the most damaging in terms of supporting the government, and everything is made worse by the fact that highly visible regime elites are still profiting from massive infrastructure projects,” said Kaldas. “It is not that Suez is a distraction from his failure to invest in infrastructure. Infrastructure is a distraction from your failure to invest in people and improve their living standards. “
The canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red seas, has long been of special importance to Egyptians. When it was completed in 1869, it had taken 10 years of hard work by tens of thousands of Egyptian peasants, many of whom died in the process.
In 1956, then President Gamal Abdel Nasser, a charismatic leader, nationalized the channel in defiance of Britain and France, sparking a tripartite but failed effort by Egypt’s former colonial supervisors along with Israel to take control of the waterway.
Success in this latest Suez crisis comes at a time when Sisi faces other challenges, both foreign and domestic. In the same week Ever Given crashed, two trains collided in the central Egyptian province of Sohag, killing about 19 people. Egypt also has one of the highest COVID-19 mortality rates of any Arab nation.
Abroad, Sisi faces greater scrutiny by President Biden on human rights, in marked contrast to former President Trump, who described Sisi as his “favorite dictator”.
Then there is the ongoing battle for the Great Dam of the Ethiopian Renaissance, an Ethiopian megaproject on the Nile that Sudan and Egypt consider a strategic threat. In his commemorative speech on the Suez Canal, Sisi took advantage of the high patriotic fervor to make his most severe warning to Ethiopia.
“Nobody can take a drop of water out of Egypt, and whoever wants to try it, let him try it,” he said. “Don’t let anyone believe that they are beyond the reach of our capabilities.”
It remains to be seen whether any political momentum for the liberation of Semper Dado will last.
“This is a proud moment for the Egyptians, for having managed to do something that has gained worldwide recognition,” said the blogger. “But there is an important point to note, which is why this particular case is causing so much joy. It is because we are not successful in Egypt. “