The official decision, taken after much wrangling, to allow the French ship Clemenceau to cross the Suez Canal exposed the weaknesses in both government and civil society's crisis management capabilities, reports Magda El-Ghitany After nearly 10 days of contradictory statements and delays, Egyptian authorities agreed to let the French warship Clemenceau cross the Suez Canal. The green light followed a special commission's report indicating that the ship does not pose any environmental or health threats. The report justified the presence of 45 tonnes of asbestos in the ship by arguing that it was necessary to stabilise Clemenceau's balance during its trip. The French ship had been the target of an intense media campaign that was adopted last week by several People's Assembly MPs, who alleged that authorities were about to allow the ship to cross the Suez Canal despite warnings from the international Greenpeace movement claiming that the ship was carrying 500 tonnes of asbestos that could pose threats to the local environment and cause deadly diseases to Indian workers who will take charge of dismantling it. The assembly called upon the government to intervene by forming a commission to investigate the ship's condition. Some were sceptical of the process by which the ship was eventually allowed to cross. "I think the decision to allow Clemenceau to cross the Suez Canal was taken from the start," said Akram El-Shaer, a Muslim Brotherhood MP from Port Said, the city at the entrance of the canal. El-Shaer told Al-Ahram Weekly that the controversy was only a smokescreen meant to show that the government was willing to consider the Greenpeace warning. The Indian Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC), meanwhile, convened last Friday to discuss whether or not to eventually allow the Clemenceau to settle in Indian waters. They are expected to reach their final decision on the matter on 13 February. The Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO) said last week that Indian workers who will be involved in dismantling the ship should receive special protection against any health hazards. MP El-Shaer said that Egypt "should have at least awaited SCMC's final decision. What if the SCMC decides not to let the ship go to India? How will Egypt look in that case?" In any case, the Clemenceau issue exposed some of the weaknesses in Egypt's ability to deal with these kinds of issues. According to prominent Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama, the way the Clemenceau case was handled exposed both a severe lack of coordination among several government departments (e.g. the Environment Ministry, the Suez Canal Authority and the Atomic Energy Authority), as well as the weaknesses of local civil society. "Clemenceau has brought the issue of crisis management into sharp focus," Salama said, revealing in the process "the contradiction between the influence the state exerts over local civil society organisations, and its weakness when confronted by any external pressure." Al-Ahram political analyst Nabil Abdel-Fattah said the Clemenceau issue also exposed local civil society's inability to put pressure on the government when the latter's decisions might cause health and environmental hazards. Abdel-Fattah believes that local civil society groups should have coordinated with the international Greenpeace movement to increase their ability to effectively influence the government. Environmental activists, however, claim that there was no room to pursue any further measures that could have prevented the Clemenceau from crossing the canal. According to Mohamed Nagui, executive director of the Habi Centre for Environmental Rights, the 400 existing environmental organisations are newly born; as a result, they are still experiencing administrative obstacles that prevent them from functioning properly and having an effective voice. Nagui believes that domestic environmental organisations need more time before they can really play a strong role. The Clemenceau issue also exposed the government's inability to use the language of transparency in dealing with crises and responding to public opinion, said Abdel-Fattah. "All of these issues need to be addressed so that the country can develop an effective strategy for crisis management."
