Doaa El-Bey and Rasha Saad read the same message: Arab summits are futile The front pages looked at the outcome of the Arab and African summits held in the Libyan city of Sirte. While some newspapers including Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar focussed on calls for more Arab-African cooperation, Al-Masry Al-Yom concentrated on Arab differences. Its banner on Monday read, 'Arab leaders met, differed and returned. Differences in Sirte summit over Palestine and Iran'. Amin Mohamed Amin wrote that after 23 years since the first Arab-African summit in Egypt, 70 leaders in the Arab world and the African continent finally met in the second summit in Sirte under the chairmanship of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who is trying to find "joint Arab-African space" to achieve a new strategic partnership. Arab-African cooperation, Amin said, which should be achieved as soon as possible, is to be based on the rule of mutual interests in order to establish a strong economic base for the optimal investment of the wealth and potential of both sides. Some Arab oil countries, Amin explained, have a lot of financial resources but import most of their needs from the West. On the other hand, African countries have arable land and wasted water and need financial support for development. "Development is the key to sound Arab-African relations. Thus the summit should take the needed measures to facilitate investment and joint cooperation. Establishing a network of land and water transportation is also very important," Amin wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram. The editorial of the official daily Al-Akhbar focussed on the Arab summit which discussed two main topics: developing a system of joint Arab action and discussing a proposal to establish an association of Arab neighbourhoods. "This summit is of great significance as it is aimed at reconstructing integrated Arab action to suit new regional and international challenges," it read. Egypt, the editorial added, presented an initiative for the protection of the Arab system and the activation of its main institution, the Arab League, especially that the system is passing through one of its most dangerous stages. "We need to strengthen and support the Arab League so that it becomes the main tool for joint Arab action. We also have to move towards more Arab economic integration," the edit said. The summit also discussed a plan to establish an association for Arab neighbourhoods that aims to turn the Arab system into an active party which is able to develop its relations with other countries within view of its own interests. Israeli settlements were one of the issues discussed during the summit, the edit added. The Palestinian president briefed the summit on US efforts to save the direct negotiations and deal with Israeli intransigence "which is destroying the peace process and denying the aspirations of the region's peoples for peace." The price of fruit and vegetables, especially tomatoes and green beans, are still on the rise. Mohamed Abdel-Fattah wrote that finally the cabinet had decided to hold a meeting in a few days time to discuss the issue. Governments are formed, Abdel-Fattah stated in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party, to provide their citizens with food, clothes, houses, means of transportation, education and other services. Given that food is one of the basic needs, the government should provide it to low-income citizens along with prices that conform to their income. However, Abdel-Fattah added, in Egypt as long as ministers and businessmen are eating and given treatment at the state's expense, the poor are not important. While he regarded the cabinet meeting as too little, too late, Abdel-Fattah did not rule out that the cabinet spokesman Magdi Radi would come out after the meeting to say to the media that the government had taken several measures to deal with the crisis including opening the market for imported fruit and vegetables, especially from China! Hisham Attia compared the hike in prices to a Tsunami that affected the rich as well as the poor and drowned them in a whirlpool of misery. While the impact of the crisis is worsening, the government is not doing anything, as if rising prices is not one of its concerns. Even when Radi spoke last week, he said that the prices of tomatoes and cucumbers were not a concern of the government which is concerned with development and investment. However, Attia asked in the official weekly Akhbar Al-Yom why the government was not applying Law 3 issued five years ago. The law gives the government the right to impose compulsory pricing on certain goods. He also wondered why the government did not establish a supreme council for prices that is supposed to set the cost of staple goods in a way that is fair to consumers as well as traders. "The solutions are various and simple. They just need a serious move. But until that day comes we can only pray to Allah to decrease high prices. He is capable but, obviously, the government is not," Attia added. The dismissal of Ibrahim Eissa, the founding editor of Al-Dostour, by the newspaper's new owners shed light on several issues. Amr El-Shobki wrote that one of the most controversial phases of the history of the newspaper has come to an end. However, it raised a few important questions regarding the relationship between the press and government, the rules that control that relationship, in addition to the legal restrictions that prevent journalists from acquiring shares in newspapers. It is true, El-Shobki explained in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom that individual owners of newspapers exist in the world. There are also large newspapers owned by their editors and thousands of people who own papers through shares and protected by laws that regulate the relationship between the owner and journalists. "Certainly, the Egyptian press has lost an influential and bold newspaper. Al-Dostour had succeeded with its poor financial resources in becoming the second highest circulation daily among private newspapers and preceded other newspapers that have great financial potential," he added. In the meantime, the young journalists of Al-Dostour under the leadership of Eissa highlighted the absence of the rules that regulate the relationship between the newspapers' owners and editors, and the issue of respecting the editorial policy of a newspaper concerning sales and purchase. A newspaper must not be viewed as a piece of real estate or factory. Even if the old Al-Dostour ended, hundreds of other similar newspapers will start up, El-Shobki concluded, hailing the experience. In that case Egypt will be on the right path towards democracy and genuine rules which prevent the random monopoly of capital to the press and media.
