Fatemah Farag watches as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina seeks to define itself Participation is at the core of good governance. And it is the participation of prominent Egyptian intellectuals that was being sought this week by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. "Intellectuals are the primary constituency of any library," Ismail Serageddin, head of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina told Al-Ahram Weekly during meetings that brought over 60 intellectuals to the coastal city this week. According to Adel Abu Zahra, head of the Friends of the Alexandria Library Association and organiser of the event, "the main goal of the meetings was to inform intellectuals of the activities of the library in the past year. In discussions with Dr Serageddin, we asked ourselves why it is that progress reports in Egypt are only given to the administrative bodies. And on the grounds of the importance of both transparency and accountability we decided to include intellectuals as well. Also, we wanted to ask these people what it is that they want of the library in the future." Both Serageddin and Abu Zahra made it clear to those in attendance that there was a role for them to play in developing the library. "Our invitation to them is to become involved in the library and to take this involvement as an opportunity to help us re-introduce the concept of democratic dialogue to Egypt. An invitation for them to use the library as a sort of Hyde Park, where they can voice their opinions in freedom," explained Abu Zahra to the Weekly. Mahmoud Amin El-Alem, painter Adly Rizkallah, poet Abdel-Mo'ti Hegazi, critic Ibrahim Fathi, film critic Rafiq El- Sabban, Editor-in-Chief of the weekly Al- Qahira Salah Eissa, Head of the Association for Health and Environment Development (AHED) Alaa Shukrallah, Hoda Abdel-Nasser, senior programme officer at the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Iman Baybars, Abdel-Moneim Said and Taha Abdel-Alim from the Al-Ahram Strategic Centre, were included among the invitees. "I chose the participants taking into consideration that they represent thinkers, scientists, researchers, intellectuals and development activists -- though not just that. The idea was not to invite a brilliant scientist, but to invite a scientist concerned with public issues." On the first day those in attendance were presented with a report on developments in the past year, including the introduction of new museums to the library and the development of its Internet capacity, followed by a grand tour. On the second day participants divided into brainstorming groups to discuss topics such as the role of the library in development, academic research, education, and also the relationship of the library to publishing institutions and the problematic of freedom. Throughout the discussions the participants kept coming back to a single question: what is the defining characteristic of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina? What is it that will make it stand out among the libraries of the world and among the cultural and educational institutions of Egypt? Among the answers that emerged were the importance of the library's role in procuring the latest and most important scientific knowledge, acquiring pieces of Egypt's quickly diminishing and much plundered heritage in photographs, books and other media, using its facilities to help organisations such as the General Book Organisation save what remains of their invaluable archives, prepare files on important issues related to development in Egypt and the Third World, organise well researched exhibits and multi-disciplinary discussions of poetry and literature. But how important is the intellectual wish list to the actual management and definition of the library in the coming weeks, months and years? It was a question asked straight out and discussed over lunch in low voices throughout the two days. "The institutionalisation of the library is a critical question," said Abu Zahra, "Its performance should not be based solely on the fact that Serageddin is an exceptional man." Serageddin himself noted that his "success will be in the smooth running of the library after I leave," a sentiment that underlies his proposal to those in attendance that they create an advisory board, a steering committee of sorts, to assist in charting the cultural and scientific course of the library. Serageddin qualified his choice of Egypt's intellectuals for this role by telling the Weekly that "they articulate the wishes of the public and mirror their aspirations." While Egypt's intellectuals have often been criticised -- not least by themselves -- on the grounds that they are not connected to "the people", Serageddin believes "they are the backbone of any society even if they are, by definition, a minority." They are too, Abu Zahra noted, prone to infighting, a characteristic that often side-tracks their energies into less than worthy pursuits. One example of this was provided in the closing session of the meetings when, after hours of iterating and reiterating the importance of freedom of expression, democratic dialogue and the free circulation of information to the library, several speakers said that such "freedom" stopped at things related to Israel, with one speaker going so far as to argue that we should "talk more about the Arab heritage of the old library". Quite what heritage he had in mind is any one's guess. The final speaker of the session was Abdel-Mo'ti Hegazi, who dared to argue that "the basic principle is the unity of human civilisation and that should not be compromised for what are, by definition, temporary political contexts." And immediately participants were at the edge of their seats, ready to take issue. "What happened is an example of tribalism," Abu Zahra noted later. "If one person deviates from the group he/she is proclaimed a heretic. But they can either join us in making of ourselves something else or they can ignore the initiative and turn the library into just another pretty building."
