The heinous terrorist massacre that took the lives of a large number of foreigners and Egyptians in Luxor on November 17 (1997) is one of the worst attacks of its kind. Ironically, the mass killing coincided with my authoring of a scholarly work the deficiencies of contemporary Egyptian thought and behavior, which most Egyptians have become numb or unconscious to, although they seem obvious to Egypt's external observers.

As expected, the local press provided us with the customary dose of rhetoric and justifications in the aftermath of the attack. A divergent voice was heard however on the day after the crime by the Egyptian President during his visit to the scene of the carnage. He described the country's security arrangements with adjectives that were quite unfamiliar to the official vocabulary that often follows any terrorist incident. No sooner had the Premier's visit ended however, and a return to the traditional line of indignant justification swiftly followed.

This typical rhetorical stance sought to expound the attack in a number of ways which included but were not limited to: a Mossad conspiracy; US punishment for Egypt's valiant and nationalistic policies in the region; a reaction to Egypt's refusal to attend the Doha Economic Summit; that Egypt's prosperity is being targeted by its enemies; that terrorism is an international phenomenon: i.e. "it could happen anywhere"; that Egypt's lucrative tourist industry is the target, and that despite the massacre, Egypt's lure to tourists will never cease. This is more or less the same line of thought that was perpetuated in the aftermath of previous terrorist attacks in Egypt, such as the attack on Greek tourists in 1996, and the murder of the German tourists in front of the Egyptian Museum a number of weeks ago.

Mubarak's approach on November 18 was therefore quite novel for an Egyptian leader, especially his description of Egypt's so called security system as outright "buffoonery", and that the officials in charge of its implementation had "failed." This was an unprecedented type of official discourse in a society that is not very receptive to self-criticism. That the top executive leader exemplified this level of earnest self-criticism by describing his own security apparatus as farcical and his law enforcement officers as failures is a very serious matter in a culture that does not easily stomach the admission of guilt.

For people like myself who have spent a substantial part of their careers in an international corporation, the President's words of self-chastisement were not at all out of the ordinary as it is the responsibility of any leader in any context not to belittle the seriousness of any crisis, and to be able to probe within oneself and accept responsibility. Admitting that something is wrong is the first step toward creating new systems to prevent problems from recurring. This is the norm in advanced societies, and from our track-record, it is quite obvious that our political culture has not yet digested this form of public accountability. In its place, convenient justifications are often quite suitable for our mental, cultural, and psychological well being. Egyptians always seek a comfortable justification where the suspect is always an "external" party, and the internal element is always the victim.

As proof of this, Mubarak's castigation of his own men was not totally comprehended by the media that hardly focused on this angle of the crisis and chose to highlight the incessant claim that terrorism was an international phenomenon. The implication here is that our society is still far from a cure, because as a patient, we have still not admitted our illness as evident from the dearth of self-criticism in our public life. Like any such nefarious crime, the November 17 incident horrified all Egyptians, but they only heard the President's self-criticism, they did not understand it, therefore accentuating our traditional mode of rationalizing matters by refusing to accept responsibility. While the sacking of the Minister of Interior and many of his top men may have been a subtle affirmation of this desperate need for accountability, the painful truth still remains that our political culture in general, and our educational, cultural and media policies in particular have rendered us unable to critically project deep inside ourselves. Unfortunately, the period of extensive public debate that followed the crime of November 17 which should have focused on the two themes of buffoonery and failure as a premise for self-betterment, was unimaginatively driven in the same redundant vein of delusive justifications.

Granted that the outlandish conspiracy theories that were circulated about the crime may have been true, the fact still remains that our security system was impotent, and had exhibited a large level of buffoonery and failure. Had the security of historical sites been serious and effective - despite the alleged involvement of the Mossad or the CIA - a massacre of this proportion could never have transpired.

But perhaps what is more troubling is that this distorted attitude is not only limited to post-crisis situations, but manifests itself in a wide array of spheres where the inability to be self-critical has lead us to subscribe to fantastic theorems and justifications. Observers of the Egyptian scene are astonished at these mind frames, especially when these justifications start from an illusory premise and soon develop into near truths. This was best exemplified by the public reaction to the death of the late Diana Princess of Wales and her Egyptian friend Emad Al-Fayed, as discussed in an excellent analysis by the Egyptian Sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim in the October (1997) issue of this publication (civil society).

Instead of looking for an external culprit to blame for our faults, the post-Luxor period should have witnessed a thorough review of where we stand and where to go next. Every terrorist attack, but especially the 1996 massacre mentioned above is but another missed chance for us to identify the roots of the problem and develop a preemptive system that may have prevented this November's abhorrent crime.

While the political leadership must be commended for identifying the two themes of buffoonery and failure as roots of the problem, they are now in the unenviable position of combating this passive cultural trait of construing all of our problems as malicious external conspiracies. One must recall the proverb that says...."When you point with your finger condemning, you may forget that whilst one finger points out at the condemned, three point at you".