Known to all
Admissions of failed mediation, an attack by Al-Akhbar on activist Saadeddin Ibrahim and the Muslim Brotherhood and scepticism towards the World Economic Forum in Amman occupied the press this week, writes Aziza Sami
The front pages of the national daily Al-Ahram on 21 June signalled a discrepancy between headlines heralding the high- flown promises issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit held in Amman, and news reflecting the sordid events taking place on the ground.
"With the attendance of 1,900 world leaders, ministers and businessmen, the WEF summit held in Jordan will discuss the future of the Middle East and Iraq's reconstruction," wrote Al- Ahram. The forum, convening this year in Amman but still holding the nickname "Davos", would discuss the partnership between the US and [countries of] the region through the establishment of a free-trade area (FTA) by the year 2012 and the opening of a new page of international relations after the war on Iraq. As part of this new world order overseen by the US, "realising world security" would become a priority, Al-Ahram stated.
This was juxtaposed with two other news items, one reporting attacks by Iraqi resistance against the [US] occupation forces at Al-Faluja, the other a demonstration at Al-Azhar against the American occupation of Iraq. Throughout the week, the press had reported on "rising Iraqi resistance" against the US troops in Iraq, the opposition daily Al-Wafd issued by the liberal Wafd Party writing on 19 June of "bloody confrontations in Iraq". Photographs of Iraqis throwing stones at occupying forces, or of Iraqis held at gun-point by Coalition soldiers, were becoming all-too-familiar images relayed daily by both the national and independent press.
The US Ambassador to Cairo David Welch was also quoted in Al-Ahram on 21 June as saying that "Mubarak and Bush will soon announce the start of free-trade negotiations between Egypt and the US". A perusal of such statements, however, reveals little more than a re-hashing of previous broad promises regarding the "imminent" possibility of starting FTA negotiations. The negotiations were to be held through the US- Egypt Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), which was always the case anyway.
However, according to the economic daily Al-Aalam Al- Yom's 21 June issue, what was new in the ambassador's statement was that "the US now has a political commitment to an FTA with Egypt" , which it did not have before, as former US Ambassador to Cairo Daniel Kurtzer once very explicitly said. Such a political turnabout, though, which might be explained by the US's need to gain support for the implementation of the roadmap to Palestinian-Israeli peace, as well as acceptance of its occupation of Iraq, did not lead to jubilation in the press.
"The US dealt a harsh blow to Egypt when it signed an FTA with Singapore, after which it sought to conclude one with Malaysia," wrote Al-Wafd on 22 June. To these, one might add instances of FTAs concluded with countries closer to home, the US having already concluded an FTA with Jordan, and has agreed to setting one up with Morocco. For its part, Al-Wafd argued that the lack of "political will" needed to set up an FTA with Egypt remained apparent, even after the government had undertaken needed liberalisation measures like floating the pound and passing IPR and money-laundering laws.
However, given that the "Davos" Amman summit essentially aspires to implementing the old "New Middle East" envisaged by former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, it did not appear that things will automatically fall into place. Al-Ahram on 22 June quoted Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher as saying on the first day of the summit that "current regional conditions do not allow for the establishment of any form of economic cooperation with Israel". Regarding Egypt's efforts to mediate between the Palestinian government and the Palestinian factions on the roadmap's implementation, there seemed to be an admission of failure, Al-Wafd in its 17 June issue announcing outright: "Failure of Egypt's mediation efforts to implement a cease-fire between the Palestinians and Israelis".
The national daily Al-Akhbar on 17 June launched an attack in its unsigned editorial on both Egyptian civil-rights activist Saadeddin Ibrahim and the Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide Ma'moun El-Hodeibi. The newspaper's ire had been instigated by much-publicised contacts organised by Ibrahim between Brotherhood members and European diplomats in Cairo some weeks ago.
"El-Hodeibi has told the Qatari paper Al-Sharq that he extends his hand to the government" wrote Al-Akhbar " demanding that his organisation have political channels of communication with the state!! [note the two exclamation marks]. On what basis does he suggest this, when he knows full well that his organisation is an illegal one?" the editorial asked indignantly, and, perhaps, rather obtusely. There were harsh words for Ibrahim as well: "Is he back again, rearing his head and conducting dubious contacts with foreign embassies?" the paper questioned forebodingly.
An authoritarian state that has perfected the art of controlling all facets of political, social, and economic life through time- tested measures was portrayed in a column published in the national weekly newspaper Akhbar Al-Yom. On 21 June, Tahani Ibrahim wrote of the toothless and newly-established National Human Rights Council recently "rubber-stamped", as she put it, by parliament.
Ibrahim also wrote of the legal manipulations that will allow the re-establishment of the much-maligned State Security Courts at the very moment when the government is touting its having abolished them as part of its "steps towards democracy". She referred to the postponement, for the umpteenth time, of the implementation of the long-awaited "cheques" law, a delay, she said, which was designed to work "to the benefit of the government and its indebted companies".
And, in much the same spirit, the opposition weekly Al- Arabi, organ of the Nasserist Party, on 22 June wrote in its banner of "16,000 political prisoners in Egypt's jails". The paper spoke of the double-standards implicit in establishing a National Council for Human Rights by the very state which, "it is known to all, has police stations and jails rife with torture and human-rights violations". Al-Arabi also reported on a case brought by lawyer Essam El-Islambouli to the State Council contesting the "President's failure to appoint a vice-president". El-Islambouli said that such a situation was "unconstitutional", and that the appointment of a vice-president was required in order to clarify how the future "succession" to the leadership would take place.
"It is also not possible," he argued, "that in all of Egypt, there is not a single man fit to become vice-president."
In the midst of the chaos in Iraq, the Egyptian telecommunications company Mobinil stepped in to bid for the contract to construct an Iraqi GSM (mobile phone) system. "The company predicts that mobile-phone users will reach five million in three years," wrote Al-Aalam Al-Yom on 22 July.
Mobinil's Chairman Naguib Sawiris had early on astutely predicted that business "spoils" would come out of the destruction, even before the US-led war had started. The telecoms magnate seemed undeterred by some of his less-fortunate ventures in other Arab countries.
