Doaa El-Bey and Gamal Nkrumah view with awe the series of unprecedented detentions of some of the most powerful figures in Egypt and continue coverage of the uprisings sweeping across the Arab world Revolutions and popular uprisings in the Arab world created a host of uncertainties as the pundits ponder how the stars will align in the post-revolutionary constellations of power. The upheaval provided plenty of "food for thought" as far as Arab commentators were concerned. Backslapping over the contentious conflicts in Libya, Syria and Yemen hit the headlines. Papers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), whose leaders met for a summit on Yemen in the Saudi capital Riyadh, proposed a compromise solution to Yemen's political impasse. The Saudi daily Okaz pointedly noted that the "GCC urges the Yemeni president to step down and hand over power to his deputy". Other Gulf Arab papers concurred. Practically all across the spectrum of Gulf news and views, the consensus was that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh must bow out gracefully and seek refuge in some safe haven far away from Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. The editorial was a tad vituperative in tone. Not surprisingly, there was little shortage of tittle-tattle in this week's Arab papers. Trashy retrospective gossip columns abounded. But then the irony is that most of them are very readable. What's more, the gossipy approach appeals to a wide range of readers. Compelling but discomfiting columns aside, there was no shortage of correspondence either -- most in the form of coded messages. In an open letter to the Syrian president, Palestinian commentator Ghada Al-Karmi, in the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, warned that Bashar Al-Assad must heed his people's legitimate demands. "I was driven by feelings of grave concern about the situation in your country and its political future to address this open letter to your excellency," Al-Karmi wrote, obviously distressed. "We take into account that you did address the nation on 30 March and pledged to institute political reforms. We are banking on you not to let us down. I appeal to you to take advantage of this golden historical opportunity to turn Syria into a trendsetter in the Arab world... to turn Syria into a country where popular criticisms are seriously considered and welcomed by the powers that be. I urge you to make Syria a country where people are not afraid to voice their political opinions openly," Al-Karmi pleaded with the Syrian president. The tone is positively elegiac. Her message could not be clearer. Al-Karmi is not trying to wring Al-Assad's heart. The turbulent times in the Arab world are taking a terrible toll on the traditional optimism of pundits and political commentators in the region. In Sunday's edition of Al-Hayat, Cambridge professor Khaled Al-Hroub wrote a pertinent opinion article, 'Intellectuals and the Arab revolutions'. Al-Hroub noted that the typical intellectual in the Arab world was a victim of regimes that acted on the basis of an ossified mentality rooted in an outdated past. "The Arab regimes that regarded the intellectual as the enemy were under the impression that the intellectual is the brain behind the uprisings. That is why the Arab intellectual was systematically persecuted and incarcerated and in some cases even executed. Little did they know that the intellectual was only articulating a wider popular discontent with the status quo." The professor has a terrible tale to tell, and he tells it with a certain triumphant relish. He writes with rare wisdom and perspicacity. Its intellectual scrupulousness is in no way compromised by succinctness. "The popular uprising across the Arab world is shaking not just the region's authoritarian regimes but fallacies about the Arabs themselves," Al-Hroub, director of the Cambridge Arab Media project, extrapolated. "Authoritarian regimes used the threat of Islamist fundamentalism to manipulate their Western allies. A fearful West decided to back the devil they knew," Al-Hroub lamented. "The Arab street and its long-sidelined citizens have now exposed the hollowness of this claim, and in ways that have surprised almost everybody -- the Islamists more than anyone," he concluded. If this all sounds scholastic, it is -- but only deceptively so. The political upheavals in the Arab world have clouded the optimism. No Arab reader will browse through the pages of these dailies and not be compelled to ponder. That is the grim reality. "Syria explodes... tens of fatalities and Al-Baath Party offices are set ablaze across the country", ran the headline of the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat. The paper also reported that the statue of the deceased brother of the Syrian president, Bassel, was demolished in the southern city of Daraa, a bastion of anti-Baath and pro-democracy activists. "Hundreds of thousands of Syrians took to the streets", the paper noted. "The Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad was unable to appease the anger of his people by announcing belated political reform plans", Asharq Al-Awsat observed in its Saturday edition's front-page headline. The paper also noted that the Syrian president cares about his place in history. The best way to safeguard it is to present himself as a champion of citizenship rights for religious and ethnic minorities. Asharq Al-Awsat 's Friday edition was no less virulent. "Syria grants its Kurds Syrian nationality, but Kurdish leaders vow to continue the struggle for democracy", the paper reported. Al-Assad has pledged to retreat from some of the Syrian government's grosser intrusions into the personal space of Syrian citizens. However, he has shied away from acknowledging fundamental freedoms, especially the right to exercise political choice. It is very hard to be optimistic about the nascent democracies in the Arab world to get such things right. In sharp contrast, the Syrian daily Al-Thawra in a nostalgic panegyric praise of Binyas, the Mediterranean seaside-city that has become the focus of the pro-democracy revolutionaries in Syria, was cautiously optimistic about the future. Assad Aboud wrote a heart-wrenching piece entitled 'Columns of paper... Binyas, the tiny coastal outpost'. After praising the scenic beauty of Binyas, Aboud urged Syrians to cast off their jitters and get on with development. "We trace the footsteps leading to a modern Syria, in the full sense of the word. The prospects are marvelous. A modern enchanting Syria is our goal, but peace and security are prerequisite, and will pave the path to prosperity," Aboud mused. Ominously, he warned: "death and destruction will thwart our dreams for a better future. We will only choose reform," Aboud concluded in Al-Thawra. Lebanese papers were among the few in the Arab world to focus on the deplorable humanitarian situation resulting from the political conflict in the Ivory Coast. There are an estimated 100,000 Lebanese nationals residing in Ivory Coast -- the largest contingency of overseas Lebanese in the African continent. The Lebanese daily Al-Safir reported that only 10,000 Lebanese nationals resident in Ivory Coast decided to leave the country and have already done so. The paper stressed that most of the Lebanese in Ivory Coast preferred to stay on in the West African country in spite of the fighting. In much the same vein, the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar published an interview with Lebanon's ambassador to Ivory Coast Ali Ajami. The paper quoted the ambassador as pledging to attend to the needs of the Lebanese community in Ivory Coast and denied reports that he was scolded by the French authorities for attending the swearing-in ceremony of the ousted Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo.
