Soapbox: What to do with the Arab League? By Abdallah El-Ashaal The appointment of Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil El-Arabi as secretary-general of the Arab League stirred up an interesting debate. Some say that El-Arabi is too good for the League; that the League is on its last legs. Some say that he was encouraged to leave the Egyptian Foreign Ministry because he was too patriotic for domestic purposes. Some say that he was Qatar's choice for the job. The truth is that the Arab League is a disaster and the 10 years that Amr Moussa spent there made things worse, not better. This is the League of which El-Arabi is taking charge, and one wonders what on earth can he do to set things right. Recently, I was invited to a debate on a Dubai satellite channel. The debate was entitled, "Nabil El-Arabi: Revolutionary in the Arab League". It was a timely debate, for it addressed the urgent question facing the League's fate: Will El-Arabi side with the people against governments, or with governments against the people? If he supports popular revolutions, governments would be incensed. And if he supports governments, he would be letting down popular revolutions. The 25 January Revolution in Egypt was a call for freedom from the oppression of rulers and their subservience to outsiders. This is quite a change from the 23 July 1952 Revolution, which lambasted rulers for siding with imperialism but had nothing to say about their despotic ways. The 23 July Revolution was about liberating land, whereas the 25 January Revolution is about liberating the people. Can the Arab League live up to such a change? My advice to the new secretary-general is to focus on non-political issues -- cultural and economic policies, and social and media-related matters. Also, he must make sure that the Arab League stands firmly by the Palestinians. Under Moussa, the League left the Palestinians to their own devices, particularly during the Gaza debacle. This mustn't happen again. This week's Soapbox speaker is former assistant to the foreign minister.
