Insight: El Sisi's week of speeches gives clearer view of the man and his plan

It's not uncommon to see the Egyptian president sitting stony-faced listening to presentations by Cabinet ministers on development projects or panel speakers addressing an array of topics , as was the case during last week's World Youth Forum. He often cuts in and grab the microphone to ask for clarifications, offer counsel, heap praise or issue new orders. His interventions, televised live, are sometimes pleasant, often impassioned but can also be angry. He vents frustration over a lack of popular co-operation with his government and laments the failure of officials to use time and resources better. Whichever the case, they are always blunt. With an Egyptian Parliament that rarely criticises or questions the president's plans and a press largely controlled by the state, the president's televised comments offer the country's 102 million people an insight into President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's thinking and the government’s priorities. Egyptians have grown accustomed to watching their leader of seven years in these live televised functions when he faces the cameras while attendees are seated behind him. A 67-year-old former general, the president’s impromptu comments during a tour of southern Egypt late last month and the World Youth Forum earlier this month covered a wide range of topics, from road construction and poverty to immigration, water conservation and power generation. He also covered topics his predecessors feared to raise domestically, such as discussing Egypt's much-criticised human rights record or subtly lambasting the West for a perceived hypocrisy. While his comments don't amount to the opinions of subject experts, they do hint at his diligence, tenacity, eye for detail and punishing work ethic as he pursues a high-octane quest to modernise Egypt after decades of negligence under his predecessors. The Egyptian leader has urged his people to work harder, admonished them for flouting the law – like illegal construction on farmland – or threatened offenders with the full weight of the law. “I believe in the freedom of expression. During recent years, we [Mr El Sisi and Egyptians] have been speaking to each other a great deal. We talk about everything with extreme transparency," he said on January 13 at the World Youth Forum held in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El Sheikh. The president's televised comments of late have shown a growing confidence in his leadership and policies, doing away with much of the caution that characterised his early public appearances after the election in 2014. For example, after inspecting new trains in the southern city of Aswan last month, he brought up the subject of his predecessors allowing services like the railways to deteriorate rather than raise fares to generate revenue for maintenance work. “It was never a question of political will," he said. "They knew exactly what the remedy was, but they wanted to hold on to power even if that meant the country was ruined. They stayed in power while Egypt turned into scrap, just scrap.” Earlier in his southern tour last month, he said his government had no intention of giving newlyweds Egyptian state food cards , a social programme used by 60 per cent of people to buy heavily subsidised food. If they could not afford to buy food at market prices, he said, they should not get married. Last year, also during a live broadcast event, he dropped a bombshell when he announced it was time to lift state subsidies on bread. His announcement sent shockwaves through a country where the majority rely on cheap bread as their main staple. At least 70 people died in riots in 1977 when the government briefly reduced subsidies on bread. “His predecessors lied either intentionally or unwittingly. But, with this president there’s transparency and honesty,” said Gehad Auda, a political science professor from Helwan University in Cairo. “In some ways, those events resemble a royal audience but they essentially offer a realistic look at where things stand and where they are headed.” Mr El Sisi has also recently offered a blunt recollection of the 2011 uprising that forced long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak to step down and ushered in years of turmoil. “We nearly ruined the country in 2011. I will never forget that and you Egyptians shouldn’t either," he said late last month. While much of what the president offers is on the running of state, billion-dollar developments and new laws, he occasionally surprises viewers with unexpected comments over issues such as the best methods of milking cows or, as he did during his tour of southern Egypt, the problems pomegranate growers face when unable to sell their surplus. Admonishing officials for not seizing the opportunity to build a factory that would process the surplus pomegranate, he yelled: “Why is it that you don’t dream?" For a leader who has been questioned by rights groups and allies over the country's rights record, the president has been speaking publicly about the issue a great deal. He did so again last week during the youth summit and, as on past occasions, he was not defensive. "Give me $50 billion a year and I will personally ask Egyptians to demonstrate every day," he said in response to criticism in the West of his government's human rights record. "I am prepared to hold elections every year, but on one condition – you finance them; and if Egyptians say 'no' to me, I will just leave." Addressing the West, he said: "Do you love our people more than we do? Are you more concerned about our country than us?" When it comes to trying to deliver for the Egyptian people, Mr El Sisi has been trying to build a strong track record. Since taking office in 2014, he has stabilised the country following a wave of deadly terrorist attacks after the military's removal the previous year of an Islamist president. He then launched the largest building boom in Egypt's modern history with dozen of new cities under construction, including a new capital in the desert east of Cairo, thousands of kilometres of roads, hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units and enough power stations to make once common blackouts more of a rarity. He has also introduced a reform programme to overhaul the battered economy that, while compounding the hardships faced by the poor and middle classes, won accolades from donors and international financial agencies. An early riser who once boasted of starting to “study” conditions in Egypt as a young boy, Mr El Sisi has done enough to convince many Egyptians that his governing style is different from his predecessors. His schedule, according to official media releases, suggests he hardly takes any time off. "Poverty ... should push us not to sleep or even nap until we get rid of it with work, work, work," he said last week.

Insight: El Sisi's week of speeches gives clearer view of the man and his plan

‘The National’s’ Cairo correspondent sees live TV appearances as the most reliable view on the president’s priorities and the state of the nation