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Egypt THE ERA OF LIBERAL CONSTITUTIONALISM AND PARTY POLITICS
The Rise and Decline of the Wafd, 1924-39
Political life in Egypt during this period has been described
as basically triangular, consisting of the king, the Wafd, and
the British. The basis of British power was its army of
occupation as well as British officials in the administration,
police, and army. The king's power rested on the rights he could
exercise in accordance with the 1923 constitution and partly on
the permanence of his position. The king's rights included
selecting and appointing the prime minister, dismissing the
cabinet, and dissolving Parliament. The Wafd's power was based on
its popular support and its command of a vast majority in
Parliament.
These three forces in Egyptian politics were of unequal
strength. The British had overwhelming power, and if their
interests were at stake, their power prevailed over the other
two. The king was in a stronger position than the Wafd because
his power was difficult to curb while the Wafd could easily be
removed from power. The Wafd embodied parliamentary democracy in
Egypt; thus, by its very existence, it constituted a threat to
both the king and the British. To the king, any democratic system
was a threat to his autocratic rule. To the British, a democratic
system meant that in any free election the Wafd would be voted
into power. The British believed that the Wafd in power was a
threat to their own power in the country. Thus, the British
attempted to destroy the power of the Wafd and to use the king as
a counter to the Wafd.
In the parliamentary election of January 12, 1924, the Wafd
won 179 of 211 parliamentary seats. Two seats each went to the
Wafd's opponents, the National Party and the Liberal
Constitutionalist Party, a party founded in 1922 and considered
excessively cooperative with the British. The Wafd felt it had a
mandate to conclude a treaty with Britain that would assure Egypt
complete independence. As prime minister, Zaghlul carefully
selected a cross-section of Egyptian society for his cabinet,
which he called the "People's Ministry." On March 15, 1924, the
king opened the first Egyptian constitutional parliament amid
national rejoicing. The Wafdist government did not last long,
however.
On November 19, 1924, Sir Lee Stack, the British governor
general of Sudan and commander of the Egyptian army, was
assassinated in Cairo. The assassination was one of a series of
killings of British officials that had begun in 1920. Allenby,
who considered Stack an old and trusted friend, was determined to
avenge the crime and in the process humiliate the Wafd and
destroy its credibility in Egypt. Allenby demanded that Egypt
apologize, prosecute the assailants, pay a £500,000 indemnity,
withdraw all troops from Sudan, consent to an unlimited increase
of irrigation in Sudan and end all opposition to the
capitulations (Britain's demand of the right to protect foreign
interests in the country). Zaghlul wanted to resign rather than
accept the ultimatum, but Allenby presented it to him before
Zaghlul could offer his resignation to the king. Zaghlul and his
cabinet decided to accept the first four terms but to reject the
last two. On November 24, after ordering the Ministry of Finance
to pay the indemnity, Zaghlul resigned. He died three years
later.
During the 1930s, Ismail Sidqi emerged as the "strong man" of
Egyptian politics and an ardent opponent of the Wafd. It was he
who abolished the constitution in 1930 and drafted another that
enhanced the power of the monarch. He formed his own party, Al
Hizb ash Shaab, which merged with the Ittihad Party in 1938. Also
in 1938, dissident members of the Wafd formed the Saadist Party,
named after Saad Zaghlul.
On April 28, 1936, King Fuad died and was succeeded by his
son, Faruk. In the May elections, the Wafd won 89 percent of the
vote and 157 seats in Parliament.
Negotiations with the British for a treaty to resolve matters
that had been left outstanding since 1922 had resumed. The
British delegation was led by its high commissioner, Miles
Lampson, and the Egyptian delegation by Wafdist leader and prime
minister, Mustafa Nahhas. On August 26, a draft treaty that came
to be known as the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 was signed.
The treaty provided for an Anglo-Egyptian military and
defense alliance that allowed Britain to maintain a garrison of
10,000 men in the Suez Canal Zone. In addition, Britain was left
in virtual control of Sudan. This contradicted the Anglo-Egyptian
Condominium Agreement of 1899 that provided that Sudan be
governed by Egypt and Britain jointly. In spite of the agreement,
however, real power was in British hands. Egyptian army units had
been withdrawn from Sudan in the aftermath of the Stack
assassination, and the governor general was British.
Nevertheless, Egyptian nationalists, and the Wafd particularly,
continued to demand full Egyptian control of Sudan.
The treaty did provide for the end of the capitulations and
the phasing out of the mixed courts. The British high
commissioner was redesignated ambassador to Egypt, and when the
British inspector general of the Egyptian army retired, an
Egyptian officer was appointed to replace him.
In spite of these advances, the treaty did not give Egypt
full independence, and its signing produced a wave of antiWafdist and anti-British demonstrations. To many of its
followers, in negotiating and signing the treaty the Wafd had
betrayed the nationalist cause. Because of this perception and
also because it had failed to develop and implement a program for
social and economic reform, the Wafd declined in power and
influence. Although it considered itself the representative of
the nation, the Wafd failed to offer meaningful domestic programs
to deal with the problems of under- and unemployment, high living
costs, lack of industrial development, and unequal distribution
of land. Thus, during the 1930s, support for the Wafd,
particularly among students and urban middle-class professionals
and civil servants, was eroded by more militant, paramilitary
organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood (Al Ikhwan al Muslimun,
also known as the Brotherhood) and Young Egypt (Misr al Fatat).
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by religious
leader Hasan al Banna who established himself as the supreme
guide leading his followers in a purified Islamic state. The
Brotherhood represented a trend in the Islamic reform movement
that attributed the difficulties in Islamic society to a
deviation from the ideals and practices of early Islam during the
period of the first four caliphs. The aim, therefore, was to
return society to a state of purity by reforming it from within
and purging it of foreign domination and influence. The
Brotherhood consisted of nationwide cells, battalions, youth
groups, and a secret apparatus for underground activities.
Young Egypt was founded in 1933 by a lawyer, Ahmad Husayn. It
was a radical nationalist organization with religious elements.
Its aim was to make Egypt a great empire, which would consist of
Egypt and Sudan. The empire would act as an ally to Arab
countries and serve as the leader of Islam. It was also a
militaristic organization whose young members were organized in a
paramilitary movement called the Green Shirts. The organization
had fascist overtones and openly admired Nazi achievements. As
German power grew, Young Egypt's anti-British tone increased.
Both of these organizations presented clearly defined
programs for political, economic, and social reform. Both also
represented a new political movement whose ideology was not the
liberal constitutionalism of the nationalist movement, which was
regarded as having failed.
Data as of December 1990
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