Dr. Abdel Aaty made us doubtfully believe that his marvelous device, which is far better than any device Edison had invented, can cure Hepatitis C and AIDS.
We believed the man because he was wearing a military uniform of the rank of Major General. In other words, he comes from the honorable military establishment, where its members are absolutely forbidden from lying or misleading.
And we journalists, admirers of the military, praised the device as a gift from the army to the many people suffering from those viruses. In doing so, we were pelted by the opposers of the military with all kinds of insults and curses that coined us ignorant.
But time has proven that they were right, and that Abdel Aaty lied to us with the blessing of the army and its top leaders.
Nevertheless, we continued to love the army and its presidential candidate, although he had no specific program except the slogan of “Egypt is the mother of the world”.
But as soon as he won the election and held an imperial inauguration ceremony at the historic Qubba Palace, he began a series of actions away from the people whose distresses he had once felt sorry for.
He lifted the subsidies of basic commodities, which led to a dramatic rise in prices, dawdled in repatriating the money that was looted and syphoned abroad, pampered businessmen at the expense of the poor and imposed more taxes to offset the state budget deficit.
This prompted me to write an article in the Al-Watan newspaper entitled “More of a Sadat,” refuting claims that he was following in the footsteps of Nasser.
Abdel Aaty was but a clear sign telling us that we should be extra careful when these people talk to us about projects, for once bitten, twice shy.
