El-Feki and the curse of the Mubarak legacy

According to the old traditions and customs of the Arab league , the secretary general should be from the host country and so it is naturally that the secretary general will be from Egypt despite Arab countries can nominate names from their countries according to article no.12 of the league’s laws

The secretary general position has become some sort of a national pride for Egypt thus it has become a national battle : The secretary general must be Egyptian even if we do not have the best candidate for that important position.

Egypt is officially nominating Dr. Mustafa El-Feki , the former Mubarak’s adviser and ambassador to the position , several Arab countries support his candidacy except two countries as far as I know : Sudan and Qatar. Mustafa El-Feki’s statements about Sudan last year are behind the official Sudanese anger while Qatar has got its own candidate.

What is interesting is not the position of Sudan or Qatar , on the contrary it is normal and I doubt that all the Arab countries agreed on single candidate after the return of the league to Egypt but actually the refusal of several political groups like 6th April Youth , coalition of revolution youth and political activists.

Here is a statement from both movements in Alexandria on the Facebook , El-Feki of course had to fire back and defend him also on the Facebook.

Many are opposing the candidacy of Mustafa El-Feki because of his 2006 parliamentary elections scandal when he won by cheating against the candidate of Muslim brotherhood. Of course he thinks that we have forgotten this because he reconciled with the brotherhood and both have become best friends again but we did not I am afraid !!

Many are opposing the candidacy of Mustafa El-Feki because of the fact he was part of the Mubarak regime despite he was from the first to jump from the sunken Mubarak ship. He resigned from the NDP on 5/2/2011 and was the from people close to Mubarak to attach his son Gamal directly on TV.

El-Feki has defended himself already many times and he even requested to meet a delegation from 6th April youth to explain what happened in 2006. The delegation actually accepted the invitation. The former ambassador told the delegation that he was forced to run for the elections and was not involved in the electoral fraud that took place. He added that he supported the revolution and its youth from day one. 

The Egyptian political movements and groups above them 6th April youth are still insisting on their position and have decided to escalate their objection on El Feki’s to another level. Tomorrow there will be a stand in front of the LAS HQ by several political groups to demonstrate their refusal to El-Feki’s candidacy more publicly from 2 PM to 5 PM

Knowing Mustafa El-Feki and the conditions of the LAS now along with the Arab world , some will say that he is the perfect man for the job as the LAS is too damn weak and useless currently , we do not need to have someone better like for instance our current FM El Araby for that dead organization.

On the other hand others will say that we are entering a new age in the history of the Arab world and we do not need better names than El-Feki , we need better names for the future.

Now I believe that the position should not be only exclusively reserved for Egypt because this is against the basic principles of Pan Arabism. It is not important to have a candidate from Egypt as long as we do not have the best candidate.

Now concerning the best candidate thing , I got a question already : Can non diplomats run for this position ? I think the answer is Yes because the Mubarak’s regime wanted to reward Mofid Shahab in his retirement and nominated him for this position , so it is not a job requirement. If this is the case I think we can find someone in Egypt who is better than El-Feki and Shahab. There are already names in my head like Hamdi Kandeel or George Ishak for example.

The League just like any Arab state needs to be repaired , to be reformed from inside and this will not happen only by having a better secretary general but also with better strong Arab countries that are willing to revive this old an Arab dream as it should. The LAS will reform itself in the same time our Arab countries reform themselves in a natural process.

If I may say that the LAS will not restore its role except when the first founding countries restore their role in their region and also their alliance : Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Egypt is restoring its role , Syria seems on the right track but there are a lot of questions about Saudi Arabia now especially with the increasing role of Qatar.

Back to El Feki, well he is paying a heavy price now for being part of the Mubarak regime. It is the Mubarak legacy that thankfully will hunt down all those men who enjoyed the fruits of this corrupted regime in a way or another.

I believe El-Feki will be the LAS secretary general despite our objection , this can be a second chance for El-Feki for true new beginning either he seizes it in a right way and tries to fix the LAS or we will always remember the parliamentary elections in 2006 !!

Yes I believe in second chances.

Links :

• Mustafa El Feki on twitter.

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Egypt,Mustafa El Feki,League of Arab states,LAS,Regional,Arab,Politics,Post Revolution,Cairo,National,6 April Youth,Revolution,Arab countries