I have received a number of questions that are pending response related to the posts on Selfish Citizenship. Some have occurred in comments on this blog, and other have occurred on other platforms associated with it such as Redddit, FaceBook, and YouTube. I have identified those questions and plan to address them in future posts.
In the meantime, and to encourage more questions from you about Selfish Citizenship, I will share a question that I posted to Daniel Pipes’ post Egypt Sixty Years of Misery:
I recently listened to a talk by Hernando de Soto, probably a CFR podcast. He mentioned that the Muslim Brotherhood had reached out to him on implementing the economic reforms that remained stonewalled during the Mubarak Administration.
Meanwhile, I understand that Erdogan in Turkey relies upon support from the business community.
Did the liberal elements in Egypt fail to advocate the protection of property rights? Did they advocate an economic liberation in Egypt?
In reply, Pipes stated that:
Yes, the liberals in Egypt advocate private property rights.
I remain dubious, because Pipes did not provide platform details. Did the Egyptian liberals really advocate a reasonable law for the registration of property, as Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto advocates? Further, did the liberals advocate laissez-faire capitalism to turn back the government regulation under the socialist military rule?
If you live in Egypt, please let me know your assessment. Did the Egyptian liberal candidates advocate a fully free laissez-faire economy or some form of economic fascism (private ownership with public control) as is the fashion in the West?
Extra Point: As a reminder, if you have a question about Selfish Citizenship, please use the ‘Ask a Question‘ tab above.
Arabic Translation via Google Translate:
سؤال عن مصر
وقد تلقيت عددا من الأسئلة التي لا تزال معلقة استجابة المتصلة المشاركات في المواطنة الأناني. وقد حدثت بعض في تعليقات على هذا بلوق، وغيرها من وقعت على الأنظمة الأساسية الأخرى المرتبطة به مثل Redddit، فيس بوك، ويوتيوب. لقد حددت هذه الأسئلة والتخطيط للتصدي لها في الوظائف في المستقبل.
في غضون ذلك، وتشجيع المزيد من الأسئلة حول المواطنة من أنت أناني، وسوف أشارك السؤال الذي نشرت لي إلى مصر آخر دانيال بايبس “ستون عاما من البؤس:
استمعت مؤخرا لمحاضرة من قبل هيرناندو دي سوتو، وربما بودكاست CFR. واشار الى ان جماعة الاخوان المسلمين مسلم قد وصلت إلى وسلم على تنفيذ الاصلاحات الاقتصادية التي لا تزال تعرقل أثناء إدارة الرئيس مبارك.
في غضون ذلك، وأنا أفهم أن أردوغان في تركيا يعتمد على الدعم من مجتمع الأعمال.
لم العناصر الليبرالية في مصر تفشل في الدعوة إلى حماية حقوق الملكية؟ أنها لم ندعو إلى التحرر الاقتصادي في مصر؟
في الرد، وقال بايبس على ما يلي:
نعم، والليبراليين في مصر الدعوة لحقوق الملكية الخاصة.
أنا لا تزال مشكوك فيها، لأن أنابيب لم تقدم تفاصيل منصة. لم الليبراليين المصريين الدعوة حقا القانون معقول لتسجيل الملكية، كما في بيرو الاقتصادي دعاة هرناندو دي سوتو؟ كذلك، فإن الليبراليين الدعوة رأسمالية دعه يعمل الى العودة الى الوراء لائحة تحت الحكم العسكري الاشتراكي؟
إذا كنت تعيش في مصر، واسمحوا لي أن أعرف تقييمك. لم المرشحين الليبرالي المصري الدعوة مجانية تماما دعه يعمل الاقتصاد أو شكل من أشكال الفاشية الاقتصادية (الملكية الخاصة مع السيطرة العامة) كما هي الموضة في الغرب؟
Selfish Citizenship 
While I agree that some Egyptians dropped the ball on economic liberalisation, I do not believe that this is the case for all of Egypt’s liberals. In fact, some of us have been keenly advocating reforms for over a decade.
In 1999 the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES) a think tank I co-founded and chaired, commissioned Hernando de Soto to perform a study of Egypt’s informal sector. The work took almost four years of extensive work by economists, lawyers and field researchers nationwide, producing important data and actionable recommendations. We presented a summarized report to the government at the time arguing for legislative changes. We even proposed a draft of an initial piece of legislation covering both real estate and business and recommended the creation of a new agency to jumpstart the process. What we got was a slightly simplified bureaucratic procedure, a fixed fee to help simplify land and property registration. While this was good, it was only a tiny detail of the total program devised to get people and property back into the economy. That opportunity to include Egyptians in their country’s growth was entirely missed.
However, liberal Egyptians did not give up. We continued to campaign for true economic and political freedom and we do to this day. What is urgently needed is a government that will champion and implement a program to redirect the informal economy’s energies into legitimate property ownership and enterprise.
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Thank you so much for your informative comment. I appreciate the history that you were able to share about efforts to increase economic liberty in Egypt.
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