There are many reasons that an issue may be left unresolved. Examples are: The issue may be highly controversial with the populace rather evenly split on both sides. In this case, a government has no clear positive action to take. A government may want the opposite of what the majority of the people want. By not making a decision, the government creates time to attempt to convert the public opinion. The government may be split on a decision and neither side is willing to give in to the other. A minority group in government may be opposed to a decision and will use a method to delay a decision, such as a filibuster. Politicians may be attempting to draw the issue into public debate in order to gain popularity at the polls. The World Cup qualifying football match between Algeria and Egypt, on Wednesday, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, acquired strong political overtones. The game in the Egyptian capital on the Saturday before, saw a bus carrying the Algerian team from the airport to its hotel attacked. Shaken by the incident, Walter Gagg, an official from FIFA, the world football governing body, said three players and Algeria’s goalkeeping coach were injured. The incident triggered unrest in Algiers – Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported that soccer fans broke into the offices of the Egyptian telecommunications group, Orascom, and Egypt Air, forcing heavy deployment of security forces in the area. Despite the footage showing the bus being attacked, many in Egypt blamed the Algerian team of engineering trouble. The growing street tensions in the two capitals forced Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to speak over the telephone to his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Analysts say that both leaders are fully aware that the situation can get out of hand, given the intense football rivalry among the two nations, which has brought violence to their streets in the past. Eventually, the Egyptian team defeated the visitors 2-0, but the margin was not sufficient enough for Egypt’s automatic qualification for the World Cup. The soccer match in Khartoum became an occasion for people to pose uncomfortable political questions about corruption, inequality and social despair in their countries. Hoping to ease the subterranean rumblings, Egyptian businessmen decided to transport thousands of Egyptian fans to Sudan, free of charge. Algerian Radio also announced that the government had decided to ferry free of charge, 10,000 Algerians to Sudan. The Egyptian team lost the playoff 1-0, sending Algeria to South Africa for next year's World Cup. Egypt and Algeria have enjoyed close political and economic cooperation for decades, but the tension over the past few days has threatened to worsen diplomatic ties between the two countries. After Saturday's match, the president of the Algerian soccer association refused to shake hands with his Egyptian counterpart. The disappointment in Egypt – the largest Middle East country speaking Arabic in the world, with over 82 million residents – over failing to qualify for the World Cup was intensified by expectations fanned by the media, which ran headlines like “God is with you.” But this time, it seems, God was with the Algerians. In the past century, when Egypt was a kingdom, the parties' system was so famous in the Egyptian society. Each party encourages people to join to have the majority in the society. Each party used to motive the public to go to vote in the public election. Also, each party wanted to become a majority to enforce its opinion on society. In recent days, the government weakened most of the parties to be the only power in the society. One of the methods the government uses to control the society is to fund heavily sports, especially football, to be the only issue the public can focus on and forget any other problems in the society such as unemployment, inflation, and corruption in the government. Also, the government tried to connect the patriotism of the country to a football game; for example the recent game between Egypt and Algeria and everyone in Egypt acts as if it is a battle against the enemy and Egypt must win to protect its pride with other countries. The government's role is to resolve the problems in the society not brain wash the public mind by a football game. BM The beliefs and statements of all Bikya Masr blogumnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect our editorial views.
