28 April - 4 May 2005
Issue No. 740
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
Lula's message to the Arabs
Ahead of the Arab-South American summit, Amin Howeidi* heeds the call of
Brazil's president to build on common experience and common goals
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I heard his voice from a region far away. I heard Gamal Abdel-Nasser 35 years
after his death, his words coming from the mouth of Brazilian President Lula da
Silva. I heard the voice in my head as I leafed through a recent interview with
the Brazilian leader conducted by Ibrahim Nafie. The interview took place in
Brasilia, the city, designed to resemble an airplane, which replaced Rio de
Janeiro as capital of Brazil when the latter became too crowded.
The approaching Arab-South American summit, due to be held in Brasilia in May,
reminded me of my last visit to South America as part of an Arab delegation,
which was 15 or 20 years ago. I was accompanied by two dear colleagues, Aziz
Sidqi and the late Ahmed Sidqi Al-Dajani, God bless his soul. We attended a
conference. Everyone had good things to say, but apparently no one talked about
implementing anything, until the closing session, when one of the Brazilian
participants took the floor and said, "but gentlemen, what is the mechanism
you're suggesting to implement what we said?" Amazingly enough, the same
question was left unanswered at the foreign ministers' meeting held in
Marrakech last March in preparation for the Brasilia event.
When Da Silva spoke, thousands of miles away, I immediately recognised the
voice. I can't speak his language, but I understood the man who said everything
we should have been saying. I often have trouble understanding the things we
say in this region, in plain Arabic, about free markets, state non-intervention
and the legitimacy of foreign interference in domestic affairs. But I
understood the Brazilian president.
The coming summit, Da Silva said, aims to promote the interests of Arab and
Latin American countries. It is necessary for the countries of the South to get
together, to find out more about each other and their common human heritage.
For Egypt to go in one direction and Brazil in another would benefit no one but
those who dominate the various international forums and the WTO in particular,
the Brazilian leader said. Why don't we try to get together, draw on our
culture and history, and turn poverty from a social issue into a political
agenda? The world expects positive action on our part, Da Silva said.
We're always trying to find someone else to blame: the Americans, Europeans or
the Japanese, Da Silva said. He added that he was looking forward to meeting
President Hosni Mubarak in Brazil. "I hope he will stand here among us, in
Brazil, to express Egypt's power directly. Egypt is the beacon of the Middle
East. Please grant us some of your light."
How similar are Da Silva's words to the thinking Abdel-Nasser articulated in
the 1950s, along with Nehru and Tito. This is the same reasoning out of which
the Non- Aligned Movement was born. These are the same motives that prompted
Abdel-Nasser to promote Arab unity and encourage the creation of the
Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union). Abdel-Nasser was trying
to find a mechanism for our political ideals. His policies were opposed by
major countries, which is hardly surprising. What is more surprising, however,
is that some of his regional contemporaries were also set against him. Perhaps
they are happier now.
We have to determine what course of action to take. Our political and social
liberation movements need to regain the initiative. This was Da Silva's message
to us, and it comes with a bold invitation, a promise for a new beginning.
But a word of caution is in order. The international order is like a mighty
river and our region is but a small boat buffeted by angry waves. Latin America
belongs to the soft underbelly of a great power, and that power does not like
people tinkering close to its borders. Since the Monroe Doctrine, the US has
viewed Latin America as its own backyard. Franklin Roosevelt felt similarly
with his Good Neighbour Policy of 1933, and the same trend continued with the
Rio Treaty of 1947 and the Bogota Charter of 1948 (the latter brought to life
the Organisation of American States). Kennedy thought along the same lines --
despite the lofty rhetoric of his Alliance for Progress -- the Bay of Pigs
being a case in point. I am not a scaremonger, but keep your eyes open.
We need to re-assess our political and economic methods. Are we heading north
or south, closer to our roots or our future? We don't need to draw lines in the
sand. All we need is to know where we're heading. The invitation extended to us
by President Da Silva is a generous one, and we have more reason to accept it
than turn it down. But we have first to decide what we want and how we go about
it. We've made mistakes in the past. One of our former ministers of trade once
handed his Brazilian counterpart a draft agreement that had the name of another
country in the text, asking him to sign it. No more of that. Let's get our act
together.
* The writer is former minister of defence and chief of general intelligence.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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