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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters May the best man win...
By Amira Howeidy"Why doesn't he just withdraw and make everyone happy?" the London-based Saudi periodical Al-Majalla quoted a French official as asking recently. He was referring to Ismail Serageldin, World Bank vice president for special programmes and candidate for the post of UNESCO director-general. And this very statement, which obviously expresses the desire of supporters of the Saudi candidate Ghazi El-Qoseibi, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Britain, was itself one powerful expression of the latter's campaign.
For those who argue that the existence of two Arab candidates for the post needlessly divides the "Arab front" at the election, Serageldin's best course would be simply to step aside and withdraw his candidature, thus, they argue, allowing the Saudi candidate to win. In any case, to polish this scenario up a bit, they have at least suggested that were Serageldin to retire gracefully, then the competition would be limited only to the Saudi and Japanese candidates.
UNESCO's 58-member executive board interviewed the 11 candidates briefly last week. Last Monday, it began to vote by secret ballot, one round per day until a clear winner emerges. If no one has won 30 votes or more (an outright majority) of the 58 available, then a final ballot will be held on Friday the 22nd. The results of this ballot in the form of a single nomination will then be put to the general conference of the organisation, which is made up of representatives of the 186 member states, to vote on 12 November. This vote, however, is considered more of a formality than anything else, since the executive board's decision is usually approved by the general conference.
But as the candidates impatiently await the results of this multi-phased voting process, many are still reeling from the pressure tactics and behind-closed-doors character of the campaigning. There are questions as to which one of the four prominent candidates, the two Arabs, Japan's ambassador to France, Koichiro Matsuura and Gareth Evans, a former Australian minister of foreign affairs, will make it to the final round of the vote. Serageldin commented on Tuesday that while there should be only four rounds, the committee will be hard pressed to make up its mind before the maximum number of rounds has taken place.
Accused of being a Mason and of lacking the support of his own government, the Egyptian candidate, who, as he says himself, has neither money nor the means to pressure the electors, seems to have taken more than his fair share of campaigns attempting to discredit him and his candidacy. The Saudi-funded Arab press has on many occasions adopted a consistent line that has magnified Al-Qoseibi's right to the post because he was endorsed by a meeting of Arab education ministers, which included Egypt, held in Tripoli last December.
"The first victim in the battle for UNESCO is clearly Serageldin... who has committed several strategic mistakes," comments Al-Majalla. The magazine wrote that Serageldin has failed to denounce the stance of two of his supporters who had attacked Saudi Arabia, and went so far as to quote another anonymous source this time accusing the Franco-Morrocan writer Taher Ben Jelloun, who has been one of Serageldin's most vocal supporters, of offending Islam.
Moreover, the magazine has held Serageldin responsible for straining relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Of this allegation Serageldin commented to the Weekly that "stories in the Arab media don't worry me too much... they tend to say more about those who wrote them than about me." The Arab press has in many ways tried to portray the campaign as a simple matter of Saudi-Egyptian rivalry, as if the withdrawal of one candidate would assure the success of the other.
The fact that Egypt has not endorsed Serageldin's candidature is another weakness in Serageldin's campaign that has been emphasised by the Saudi press. But for his part, Serageldin, who has the support of dozens of Nobel laureates as well as 200 prominent figures from around the world, stresses that he is both the 'Civil Society' candidate and that he is the official candidate of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Moreover, both Holland and Sweden have sponsored him as their official candidate.
Egyptian Higher Minister of Education Moufid Shehab, who traveled to Paris earlier this week to supervise the votes of Egypt's delegation, refused to make a statement regarding Serageldin's position. "It is a very sensitive issue, and no [Egyptian] official will be willing to make any statements at this point," he told Al-Ahram Weekly.
However, Serageldin has been getting more support in Egypt than he originally expected, and this has included meetings with senior state officials. He is now acting on the assumption that Egypt is on his side, while being aware that he cannot present himself as the official Egyptian candidate.
Observers add that Egypt cannot reverse its official support for Al-Qoseibi for diplomatic reasons, despite international and local support for the Egyptian candidate.
Set against a background of excessive pressure from countries accused of buying votes, the results of the battle for UNESCO cannot be predicted at this stage. But as many put it, the name of the coming director-general will indeed be indicative of what the organisation will stand for in the coming millennium, and whether merit will be allowed to outweigh money and diplomatic pressures.
