1 - 7 November 2001
Issue No.558
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 1 - 7 November 2001 Issue No.558 |
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Half-time
Rebuffed at the gates
Sports and politics don't mix. But these days, sports and security apparently do. However, the blend has resulted in some embarrassing situations and personal slights.
Take the example of Hassan Mustafa, president of both the Egyptian and International Handball Federations. Mustafa was forced to scrub plans to travel to Singapore on an official visit after he was denied a visa. Mustafa was to have headed a meeting of the IHF's general assembly. But when he sought a visa on 19 October from the Singapore Embassy in Cairo he found that what should have been a straightforward standard procedure become inexplicably difficult and drawn out. At the embassy he was given neither a yes nor a no concerning his request but was told he would have to wait for the green light from the immigration office in Singapore.
Despite repeated visits to the embassy by an IHF delegate explaining the meeting's importance, his pleas and that of Mustafa fell on deaf ears. The approval never came. Instead, Mustafa was politely told the Singapore office had decided against issuing him a visa.
An angry Mustafa had no choice but to scrap the visit and send his apologies to the IHF as well as the International Olympic Committee.
Hassan was not the first Egyptian sports official to be rebuffed by Singapore. Earlier in October, it happened to Ahmed El-Fouli, president of the Taekwando Federation and a top security official at the Ministry of Interior. El-Fouli was in charge of Egypt's players at the world championship in South Korea. The delegation was to have stopped in transit in Singapore for more than 10 hours. Again, the Singapore Embassy in Cairo said no and El-Fouli, who had intended to do nothing more intrepid than a little sight- seeing and innocuous shopping in Singapore, was forced instead to spend the 10 hours within the confines of Singapore Airport, a grand structure to be fair, but at the end of the day, still just an airport.
The embassy has refused to tell Mustafa why he was unable to obtain a visa. In truth, no embassy need divulge its reasons for granting or denying visas. In these particular times, the reason for a visa refusal might be obvious. In the wake of the September terror attacks in the United States, security has been heightened the world over.
But neither Mustafa nor El-Fouli are terrorists. Nor are the presidents and general secretaries of all IHF federation members who gathered in Singapore.
Despite Singapore's security concerns, these incidents are by any standard unacceptable. They not only put high-ranking state officials in an awkward situation but are hardly conducive to promoting sports relations.
It stands to reason that if Singapore is gracious enough to host a high-level sports gathering, its government should be just as disposed in allowing the officials who will make up the gathering to be allowed in the country in the first place. If immigration rules are stringent to the point where getting a visa proves near impossible, the natural thing to do is for the host country not to play host to begin with.
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