For the love of planning
Talk by Arab governments about projecting a new image of the Arab world is not being matched with action
Following meetings this week at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo, Arab ministers of information said they had adopted an "urgent plan" and "short-term" plan to manage communication challenges faced by the Arab world, reports Dina Ezzat . At the forefront of those is the highly negative image of Arabs and Muslims that has prevailed in the West since 9/11, causing much harm to Arabs overseas.
The plan was the outcome of a two-day meeting of the ministers that took place last week at the headquarters of the Arab League. Shortly after that meeting Arab ministers of culture also came together at the league to draft plans to address the same issue.
These meetings, though, were only the most recent in a series held by ministers of information and ministers of culture since 9/11. Their recommendations were similar to those made previously: Arab countries should reach out to the West through seeking a greater presence in its media, engaging sympathetic non-governmental organisations and establishing direct and ongoing communication between Arab officials and intellectuals with their foreign counterparts.
Towards this end, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa two years ago appointed prominent Palestinian legislator and activist Hanan Ashrawi as Arab media high commissioner. A few months later Ashrawi froze her affiliation with the Arab organisation since her plans -- called "immediate" and "urgent" at the time -- had not even begun to be implemented owing to lack of funds.
That situation persists. Ministerial meetings that were broadcast on state television in many Arab countries did not agree to any kind of budget to implement the plans. So, as resolutions were adopted to send delegations of Arab intellectuals to key Western capitals and universities to speak out in defense of much-maligned Arab culture, not a single Arab capital earmarked money for that purpose. And, as a result, the secretariat of the Arab League did not start drafting lists of potential participants or possible destinations.
Plans by the ministers were equally vague when it came to an extremely pressing matter: the recovery of items looted from Iraqi museums and libraries in the days immediately following the fall of Baghdad to the Anglo-American occupation. The joint meeting of Arab ministers of information and culture adopted two resolutions in this respect. The first was meant to publicise information about the looted items on "the widest scale possible". The second stipulated the establishment of an Arab committee to follow up on the recovery effort.
However, no funds were allocated, no dates for action were specified and no list of participants was suggested.
Some participants at the meetings conceded that a lack of political will hampered the implementation of plans. Others argued that the outlook was not that bleak, predicting that the existence of the plans meant they would be eventually implemented -- even if only partially.
But others who have been around such meetings for several years are convinced that nothing will come of them. As one person put it, "Those plans were never implemented before. This year the plans were especially vague -- even more of a reason for low expectations."
