Summit doldrums

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By Mohammad Al-Saaid Idris

No one expected the summit would be called off. The opposite, perhaps, is true. Considering the urgency of Arab problems an extraordinary summit should have been held ahead of the regular summit meeting in March. Cancelling or postponing the summit was totally jarring, and the public is entitled to ask serious questions.

What was Tunisia thinking of when it called off the summit, only to reverse its decision once Cairo offered to play host? This question is important and the Arab public is taking a keen interest in it. Tunisia's decision took the summit from the narrow circle of inter-governmental interest to the wider horizons of public concern. Since the Arab League was created in 1945, the public was intentionally kept out of it. The League was a big shot school, a club for governments, shrouding its meetings in secrecy, keeping its work from the public eye. Public participation in the League's work, through a parliament or some other measure, is still part of the package suggested for Arab League reform. This recent debacle makes the case even stronger for public participation in the League's operations.

Tunisia is said to have been irked by the reluctance of some Arab leaders to attend the summit, by continued Arab divisions, and by the representation of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine general command in the Palestinian delegation to the summit. So, it called off the summit, then backslided. Why? Have Tunisia's concerns been addressed, or is it all about formalities? If the latter, then perhaps it is better not to hold the summit in the first place. What we need is a summit capable of uniting the Arabs, one that can take effective action on political reform, Iraq and Palestine.

This week's soapbox speaker is an expert at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.