So why isn't journalist and poet a member of the Supreme Council of Culture? Nevine El-Aref investigates On Monday Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni waded into the row that has been growing over the apparent snub to journalist and poet . "The letter in which was nominated for membership of the Supreme Council of Culture [SCC] remains in my office. It was never sent to the prime minister," announced Hosni. "Following the statement sent from the prime minister's office reporting that it had not received Goweida's nomination I ordered an enquiry. The letter was discovered in my office together with a note delaying its dispatch until other nominees had been named." So Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and his government did not, as has been claimed, remove Goweida's name from the list of nominees for membership of the SCC: that, it would seem, is the gist of Hosni's announcement. His announcement, though, conflicts with statements made earlier in the week when the controversy about Goweida's nomination first broke. Last weekend, soon after the announcement of the winners of state awards, reports appeared in the press that Nazif has twice disregarded requests submitted by Culture Minister Farouk Hosni to nominate Goweida to the SCC. The reason, they allege, is a series of critical columns penned by the poet in Al-Ahram under the title "The land mafia" in which Goweida criticised the government for selling state- owned land to investors and businessmen. The reports noted that Nazif had approved the nomination of four others, Alieddin Helal, Sabri El-Shabrawi, Egyptologists Ali Radwan and Gaballa Ali Gaballa. Radwan's name, charged Al-Masry Al-Yom, was included to replace that of Goweida. The story was picked up by TV and satellite talk shows that invited Goweida to comment. "I don't want to get into this. I am leaving it in the hands of the government," he said. If Goweida's own response was measured, others expressed their concern on his behalf. His exclusion, said script writer Wahid Hamed, was a "catastrophe", an attempt to punish a writer for expressing his opinions that was tantamount to an attempt to crush democracy. Writer Osama Anwar Okasha went further, suggesting that if Nazif did indeed order the removal of Goweida's name then it shows that the allegations contained in Goweida's articles were true. "Removing Goweida's name does not decrease the value of Goweida as a writer and poet. What it does is deprive the SCC of his talents, and it will be poorer for it," said Okasha. Goweida's reputation, says writer Louis Greis, has been built over more than three decades and he is well-known as an independent thinker, and an advocate of freedom of expression who writes always with Egypt's interests at heart. "It would be the prime minister's loss if he doesn't pick the right person," he added. Columnist Salama Ahmed Salama does not believe Goweida's columns lie behind his exclusion, pointing out that if the minister of culture nominates someone to the SCC then they are deemed worthy of the post and the approval of the prime minister is merely a symbolic act. "The prime minister must clarify the situation and explain why Goweida was not nominated," said Salama. The allegations published in newspapers are, Hosni insists, unfounded. "The prime minister has nothing to do with the Goweida issue," he repeated. "It is my fault. I notified Goweida that we had considered nominating him for membership of the SCC." "Several months ago, I called Goweida and told him that I intended to appoint him. I asked for his nomination once, not twice. The cabinet did not refuse or accept my request. It was not a matter needing a quick response and required follow up on my part." Hosni says he planned to repeat his request for Goweida's nomination four days before the SCC meeting. Then, while he was perusing nominees for the Mubarak State Awards, he found Goweida's name among them. Thinking a State Award a more appropriate recognition of Goweida's work, he decided to delay the SCC nomination until the SCC's next term. "I should have asked Goweida which he preferred instead of assuming he would opt for the State Award," concluded Hosni. Strangely, Radwan was also nominated for a State Award, which he did not win, and was still appointed to the SCC. Hosni's revelations served only to fan the story. The editor in chief of Al-Masry Al-Yom, which broke the story, wrote that Hosni's conflicting accounts mean three things: that the government pays no attention to the opposition and continues to think that it controls the media; that Hosni came under pressure to issue the statements and that the minister of culture has lost the finesse that has allowed him to retain his portfolio for two decades. He asked in his column how it could be "that another letter with the names of four nominees was sent to the prime minister's office when Hosni now says he wanted to include all names in one letter?" "Hosni says the letter was kept, then he says it was sent. Next, perhaps, we will hear that it was actually used by an office boy to wrap up a taamia sandwich... How can we trust nominations made by the government for any post? How can we entrust this government to manage our affairs?" Goweida has a reputation for expressing opinions strongly. Last summer he wrote a column under the title "Angry letters", a response to letters he had received from Faculty of Law graduates excluded from jobs that were awarded to other graduates with lower grades. As a result Goweida was summoned and interrogated by the Supreme Court for four hours following which he was admitted to an intensive care unit to be treated for physical and psychological stress.
