May 16 2011 |
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Reforming Arab League
Egypt's foreign minister Nabil Elaraby has been picked as Arab League 's new chief in the place of Amr Moussa, a veteran Egyptian diplomat and former foreign minister whose term ended after leading the body for 10 years. Nabil's nomination was made possible after Qatar withdrew its candidate, His Excellency Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Attiyah, who is former secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, to avoid a contest and lend strength to the organisation.The appointment of the new chief comes at a time when the Arab League is facing huge challenges. Not that the pan-Arab body had faced less challenges - the relevance of the organisation itself had been a subject of intense debate due to its utter inability to act on issues and unify Arab ranks. The League has long been viewed by many Arabs as a talking shop for leaders that has failed to adequately deal with challenges besetting the region, such as the Palestinian and Israel conflict and other sources of Middle East tension.
But times have changed. The Arab world is going through a revolutionary phase and old structures are crumbling. In the changed circumstances, the Cairo-based organisation has only two options: seize the opportunity, adapt to the changes and reclaim the role for it was originally intended, or consign itself to irrelevance and become a footnote in history. That an Egyptian has again been elected to lead the organisation shows that Cairo continues to play a pivotal role in Arab politics. In fact, Cairo, the venue of the League's headquarters, has monopolised the top job. The only time Egypt lost the position was during the years of the Arab boycott of Egypt over its peace treaty with Israel. At the time, both the job and the headquarters went to Tunisia.
Reforming Arab League will not be an easy job and people in the region are unlikely to be overly optimistic about the prospect. Most of the Arab regimes detest change as change challenges status quo and their energies are focused on ensuring their survival rather than devote time for what they consider extraneous issues.
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