Farouk Hosni's failed bid to be elected as UNESCO's new secretary-general has triggered a ferocious debate back home, reports Nevine El-Aref Following Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni's failure to be elected as secretary-general of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) at elections in Paris last week, heated discussions stoked by the international media over his suitability for the post have been carried back home to Cairo. Hosni, who had led in the first round of the elections with 22 votes out of a possible 58 cast by members of UNESCO's governing executive board, was the target of strong opposition abroad, particularly as a result of allegations that he was anti-Semitic and in favour of censoring art and the media. Opponents of his election accused him of being against peace and the "dialogue of civilisations", a UNESCO programme, since during his 22-year-long tenure as Egypt's minister of culture he had refused to extend cultural ties and normalisation with Israel. Foreign newspapers raised doubts about Hosni's views and personality. According to the French-based organisation Reporters without Frontiers, "Hosni has been one of the main forces for censorship in Egypt, trying unfailingly to control press freedom, as well as citizens' freedom of information." Hosni was accused of anti-Semitism because he had criticised Israeli culture, describing it as "inhuman", and had said last year that he would personally burn any Israeli books found in Egyptian libraries. These statements were highlighted in an article in the French newspaper Le Monde by French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy, and US activist Elie Wiesel, which stated that "Farouk Hosni is the opposite of a man of peace, dialogue, and culture. Farouk Hosni is a dangerous man, an inciter of hearts and minds," adding that "we call upon all countries dedicated to liberty and culture to take the initiatives necessary to avert this threat and avoid the disaster" of Hosni's election. Although Hosni apologised for his statements, arguing that he was expressing angry feelings at what had happened to the Palestinians who had been deprived of their land and rights, he was unable to convince detractors. After the third round of voting, when votes for Hosni reached 27, manoeuvres against his election intensified as accusations grew, including one from an Arabic- language website called "Elaph" alleging that when Hosni has been Egyptian cultural attaché in Rome he had helped the Palestinian hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise ship to escape from Italy. However, despite such allegations Hosni's candidacy seemed strong, and he won 29 votes on the fourth round of voting, only to lose on the fifth when Irina Bokova, the Bulgarian ambassador to France, who had gained only a few votes in the first three rounds and a score equal to Hosni's on the fourth, won the UNESCO post by 31 votes to 27. Hosni had had the support of the Arab, African and Muslim worlds, and his defeat gave rise to strong reactions in Egypt. Questions were immediately asked as to why Hosni had failed to garner the majority of votes on the last round, despite the backing of Egypt, the Arab League, the African Union, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and some European countries. For the Egyptian press, the causes behind Hosni's loss had to do predominantly with the campaign launched in the foreign press against his campaign and the pressure from the Jewish lobby against his election. A rumour to the effect that the United States had had a hand in Hosni's loss was also reported in several newspapers, with conspiracy theories humming through Egypt's media and political elite as Hosni arrived home from Paris earlier this week. At Cairo airport Hosni told reporters that "it was clear by the end of the competition that there was a conspiracy against me. There is a group of the world's Jews who had a major influence in the elections and who were a serious threat to Egypt taking this position." Among the newspaper headlines to appear following Hosni's defeat were "A clash of civilisations determines the UNESCO fight" in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom, which continued that "America, Europe and the Jewish lobby brought down Hosni after an honourable competition by the Egyptian delegation." For its part, the state-owned Al-Ahram Al-Masaai described the accusations against Hosni as "an uncivilised attack by Jewish intellectuals in France. Efforts by the US ambassador to UNESCO, as well as the Zionist media in Europe and the United States, have succeeded in securing his defeat," it said. Other papers, among them Rose El-Youssef, felt that the result revealed anti-Muslim sentiments. "The election showed that the West stands against the rest on the basis of religion in critical moments," the paper reported, adding that "all weapons were used including the publishing of articles against him up until the last minute." It described the election and the alleged US pressure on countries to vote against Hosni as "voting at knifepoint". Al-Ahram itself reported that "Hosni did not bow down to European and American pressure and fought till the end." Some have feared that such statements may create tensions between Egypt and other countries, with a report in the opposition newspaper Al-Wafd saying that the US ambassador to Egypt had asked for a meeting with Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit to explain the US administration's views on the UNESCO election. For Amr Elshobaki, a researcher with the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, "Egyptian foreign policy will not be affected by Hosni's defeat," but there could be "symbolic gestures" of discontent in relations with other countries, particularly as president Mubarak himself had been so invested in Hosni's campaign. Elshobaki said that he hoped the failed election would force Egypt to do "serious diplomatic work" on international posts in future. The UNESCO defeat showed that "the politics of posturing affects the true influence of a country," he said. According to the MENA news agency, Egypt's ambassador to the United States, Sameh Shokri, had insisted that the country will "continue with its duties to resolve the crisis in the Middle East", in cooperation with the Americans. Nevertheless, according to Mohamed Salmawy, head of the Egyptian Writers' Union, writing in Al-Ahram, "the alliance of the Jewish lobby with the United States and Europe succeeded in bringing down the candidate of the South," describing the result as a dangerous development in the history of UNESCO and a "politicisation" of an organisation that should rise above political disputes and work on building cultural ties. Similarly, for Wahid Abdel-Maguid of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, the UNESCO battle was not a "battle between civilisations and cultures" but a "political battle." Abdel-Maguid attributed Hosni's defeat to the "political battle led by world Zionism" and mistakes in his election campaign. According to Hossam Nassar, head of Hosni's election campaign, there had been a conspiracy against Hosni from the first round of voting onwards. "If you look at the sequence of the votes and tactics used in the five rounds," Nassar told the Weekly, "you will see the conspiracy." Nassar said that on the first and second rounds Bokova had got eight votes and the two candidates behind her had withdrawn. Before the third round of voting, European Union countries had called for an urgent meeting, during which pressure was put on Bokova to stand as the European Union candidate for UNESCO secretary-general. Previously, the European countries had backed the Austrian candidate, EU commissioner Benita Ferrero- Waldner. However, "after the third round, Ferrero- Waldner withdrew and a few hours before the beginning of the fourth round the Latin American candidate Ivonne Baki also withdrew, meaning that on the fourth round the votes between Hosni and Bokova were an equal 29 to 29." Hosni and Bokova were friends, Nassar said, and Hosni had congratulated her on her victory. Hosni had tried to take further the idea of a "dialogue among civilisations," Nassar said, but some countries had refused to listen, with the result that the UNESCO election result was "a practical lesson for all parties calling for dialogue between North and South." Not all writers in the Egyptian press were so certain that there had been a conspiracy against Hosni, however. According to Saadeddin Ibrahim in Al-Masry Al-Yom, the idea that Hosni's defeat had been due to a European-American-Israeli conspiracy against Egypt, Arabs and Muslims was "an attempt to mislead the public. Those who promote this conspiracy theory pose the greatest danger to Egypt in the long term," Ibrahim wrote. He described Hosni's defeat as "honourable" because he had received 27 votes, only four votes short of his Bulgarian competitor. "It is indeed an honourable defeat compared to our bid to host the 2010 World Cup, when Egypt did not receive a single vote," Ibrahim pointed out. "If the entire world was stacked against Arabs and Muslims, how was the Senegalese Muslim Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow elected secretary-general of UNESCO 20 years ago? How did Mohamed El-Baradei, who is an Egyptian Muslim, become head of the International Atomic Energy Agency? How did Boutros Boutros-Ghali, another Egyptian, become secretary-general of the United Nations," Ibrahim asked. "Perhaps the defeat was due to our poor achievements in the field of culture, education and science," Ibrahim wrote. Nevertheless, most journalists did not share Ibrahim's views, with Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the independent newspaper Al-Dostour, writing that "Hosni has the personal capabilities to be head of UNESCO. He fought off many attempts aiming to defame him in the West, but it seems that Europe is still not ready to put its heritage in the hands of an Arab." For Egyptian author Alaa Al-Aswany talking on the television programme Al-Ashera Massaan (10 o'clock) the defeat had also been expected. Hosni's standing for the UNESCO post was "a bad nomination from the beginning", he said. Other countries had been willing to support an Egyptian candidate for the UNESCO post, but they had not been willing to support Hosni, Al-Aswany said. "The previous American administration expressed its willingness to back an Egyptian candidate on condition that Hosni was changed. The French President Nicolas Sarkozy also alerted Egypt that Hosni was controversial," Al-Aswany revealed. He pointed out that there were three qualifications needed to head UNESCO, first human and cultural achievements, second international experience, and third the support of the government. On the first two points, Bokova had the higher score, Al-Aswany claimed, saying that she was not as controversial as Hosni and she had greater international experience. "What is sad is that there are 10,000 people in Egypt more suitable than Hosni for the post," Al-Aswany asserted, asking "where is the conspiracy?" The former Egyptian minister for youth seemed to echo Al-Aswany's views when he wrote in Al-Masry Al-Yom that despite his respect for Hosni, he would have preferred that Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul Naga be nominated as Egypt's candidate due to her greater experience of international agencies. Other writers in the Egyptian press took the view that Hosni's defeat had been a vote of no confidence in Egypt and the Arab world. According to columnist Salama Ahmed Salama writing in the independent newspaper Al-Shorouk, the competition had important political and cultural aspects. "Hosni himself was not the theme on which the competition was run. Instead, it was the Arab world as a whole, with its problems, failures and disputes, symbolised in Hosni, as well as its failure to promote development, democracy and respect for women's and human rights. Some people put their hopes on Hosni's victory as they saw it as a step towards moving the cultural and intellectual sphere in Egypt and the Arab world forward," he wrote. Similarly, the well-known writer and columnist Fahmy Howeidy wrote in Al-Shorouk that, "I am not exaggerating when I say that the failure of Hosni is not due to his hostility against Israel, but to the fact that he represents a country, Egypt, that ranks among the politically failed states. The monopoly of power, the governing of the state under emergency rule for more than a quarter of a century, and the suppression of public freedoms have affected the image of the Egyptian candidate." Now that Hosni has been defeated in his bid to become the next secretary-general of UNESCO, the question arises of what he will turn to next. In an interview with the Weekly, Hosni said that he will now attempt to turn the page and move on to overseeing various major cultural projects in Egypt, such as the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza Plateau, the National Museum of Civilisation in Fustat and the Islamic Museum, as well as other projects in Islamic Cairo. There was also much to do for the country's libraries, publishing and film industries, he said.
