CAIRO: It was a big Zionist plot that lost our very own Farouk Hosni his UNESCO bid for director-general. The Israelis would never have allowed an Arab and a Muslim to head the world’s leading education and culture organization with their Judaising plans for Jerusalem. In short, Hosni was the victim of an Israeli-stoked conspiracy in the most politicized UN elections to date. and so on and so forth.
But reactions on both the official and street level to Culture Minister Hosni’s UNESCO defeat haven’t all been charged with indignation and fury against the dark, sinister enemies of the Arab and Muslim world. The Egyptian blogosphere, for instance, was elated at the good news that one of the stalwarts of a despotic regime has been so publicly humiliated. Hosni’s loss was a victory to Egyptians whose human and civil rights have been trampled for almost three decades and who didn’t want to see their subjugators being rewarded with the prestigious appointment, they said.
The defeated minister and reportedly Egypt’s President Mubarak are livid at the outcome. Hosni even publicly stated that the president had acknowledged that the vote was highly politicized and that Egypt’s candidate was the sacrificial lamb in a scheme “cooked up in New York at the last minute.
What actually happened in those final hours before the last round of votes on Tuesday can only be the subject of speculation. Le Monde claims that France pulled its endorsement for Egypt’s candidate perhaps under US and German pressure.
The real question that few have attempted to answer was: Since when has Egypt been able to influence international opinion on any level, let alone the UN?
It seems that under the floodlit stadiums of the U-20 FIFA championship currently being hosted by Egypt whose young and vigorous team kicked off the tournament with a sweeping 4-1 win against Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday, our collective memory has blotted out our 2010 World Cup bid where we failed to secure a single vote.
For a long time, the scandal which came to be known domestically as “Sifr El Mondial (The Mondial Zero), was used as a metaphor for all the government’s failings, whether in education, health care, fiscal policy, housing or urban development.
Despite priding itself for playing a key role in achieving Arab-Israeli peace and mediating between Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, Egypt has been unable to influence the status of both protracted conflicts in any way. At best, the national administration has been able to fend off aggression against it, with the occasional loss of Egyptian soldiers following accidental shootings by the Israeli IDF on the border.
Political analysts have said that despite the official grumbling over the UNESCO results, foreign policy will not be affected.
However, there could be some “symbolic gestures of discontent in relations with other countries, particularly as Mubarak himself was so invested in his minister’s campaign, Amr Al-Chobaki, a researcher with the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
Al-Chobaki struck a chord when he added that he hoped the episode would force Egypt to adopt “serious diplomatic work over international posts and organizing prestigious conferences.
The UNESCO defeat shows that “the politics of posturing affects the true influence of a country, he said.
I agree and I will say this at the risk of being branded unpatriotic, but no matter where you stand on the political spectrum, you must admit that the Egyptian administration did not deserve to win this bid. How can a 22-year minister of a country where culture, education, health and science have regressed to the dark ages become head of the UNESCO?
True that Hosni’s failure was not the proverbial “sifr el Mondial , but I do believe that his head start in the first round of votes was a fluke, spurred mainly by the fact that he was the only Arab/Muslim candidate at a time when the West wants to appear to be making amends with the Muslim world.
But as they say, a miss is as good as a mile.
If I were you Mr. Hosni, I’d seize the opportunity to turn a new leaf, pack up and hand over the Culture Ministry to the next generation. This is how you can make this defeat truly honorable. This is how you want to be remembered.
Rania Al Malkyis Chief Editor of Daily News Egypt.
