In an informal meeting with the liberal candidate in my constituency, he made a very interesting small point about the liberal performance in the elections and it stuck with me. He said that in some of the constituencies who have already had their elections when the time came for vote counting, some of the liberal monitors didn’t wake up early and some didn’t show up at all leaving ballot boxes unattended.
Something so simple, like waking up early, could jeopardize the results of a whole election. If this happens in all constituencies, the whole parliament could be at stake.
So we come back to the topic of discipline. The Islamists are renowned for their organization skills, and the liberals need to catch up.
So what values should liberals embrace? Here is my view.
1. Responsible independence: Independence and freedom do not mean a bohemian lifestyle. A liberal is independent, making his or her own conscious responsible decisions.
2. Discipline: Just because you have freedom, this does not imply you are unable to make commitments. Discipline is committing yourself to something and pulling through, doing what you said you will do.
3. Acceptance: A liberal is non-judgmental, accepting of all people and integrative. Everyone is welcome.
4. Morality: A liberal has a basic set of morals, in Egypt these could be derived from religion. Both major religions here share a lot of common morals, but a reference to where these morals are coming from is not important. Simple morals like no cheating, no lying, and doing good. This needs to be developed more to arrive at something more substantial but you can see where this is going.
What other values do you think liberals should embrace? These core values will be a major part of the branding for the Egyptian Liberal Movement.
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