Dear reader, I know that these lines will be heavy on the eyes and on your conscience, but I ask you to consider them and I hope that they motivate you to take action.

I always recall my meeting with Ahmed Zaki, an Egyptian journalist living and working in London. Zaki explained to me that the modern Egyptian state — since Muhammed Ali — has monopolized the ruling elite and the production of this elite. This began with the educational missions Muhammed Ali sent to France and continues even to this day. As a result, the ruling elite has naturally been closer to the authorities than to the public, to the point that sometimes this elite's vision and demands are separate from the reality and popular needs. Another syndrome that has managed to survive since the days of Muhammed Ali is the conflict over power between the army's institution and the religious current. This has persisted from the time Muhammed Ali sent his son Ibrahim Pasha to eliminate the Wahhabist religious movement until today, where we see this syndrome in one way or another. Egyptian writer Farag Foda, who was assassinated by the Islamists in 1992, spoke about this topic.

He said that the only way out of this syndrome and vicious cycle is the formation of a strong secular political current in Egypt that is outside the cloak of the authorities — whether military or Islamic.

The regime of former President Hosni Mubarak has left Egypt void of any uncorrupt political or administrative cadres. The deepest problem facing the revolution and the state is the absence of uncorrupt cadres capable of managing the state efficiently. Indeed, Mubarak's heavy legacy is the corrupt cadres that have experience in managing the state, and nationalist cadres without any experience in managing the state. Here I'm not just talking about ministers, governors and members of parliament but also about second-, third- and fourth-level state employees. We live in a country where only a single department in a single university teaches public administration. This is a state whose experienced political cadres have graduated from the school on the National Democratic Party, with all its corruption.