UAE Information Minister Sheikh Abdullah ibn Zayed has said other Arab leaders lacked the courage of UAE President Sheikh Zayed, the man who put forward the initiative to urge Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to step down. He was commenting on the state of confusion prevailing at the recent Arab summit in Sharm El-Sheikh following the presentation of the UAE proposal.
The most surprising thing was the expression of innocence that appeared on the faces of some Arab leaders after the presentation of the initiative. The initiative was presented as a message from Sheikh Zayed to the summit’s chairman. Was it an individual idea or had it been discussed before? Here comes the question: What happened to the UAE proposal?
This reminds me of an Indian fable. The people of a town raised their voice against the elephant of the maharajah. The elephant used to eat their vegetables and destroy their shops during its daily visit to market; so the people of the town gathered and agreed to put up a complaint to the maharajah.
But there was a problem: The maharajah himself feared the elephant’s wrath. During their meeting, the people selected a man to convey their complaint to the king and promised that they would go with him to the royal court.
The man went before the maharajah and said: “O Maharajah we have come here to lodge a complaint...”The maharajah asked: “What is it?” and the man replied: “We have a complaint against your elephant.” Then the king shouted: “How dare you complain against my elephant?” And when the man turned his back, he found nobody behind him. He was alone. The man then told the king: “We came here to tell you that your elephant needs a female companion.” The maharajah relaxed and agreed to the proposal, but now the people of the town had to suffer the tantrums of two elephants.
The first part of this story is closely related to the UAE initiative: The Emiratis found themselves isolated after presenting the proposal. Few have the guts to demand a leader step down, not for fear of Saddam alone but also because other countries may back down from the proposal after initially supporting it. The UAE presented the proposal alone and naturally it was kept in the file.
However, Sheikh Abdullah predicts that Arabs will return to this initiative within the next few weeks because they will soon realize that it is the only way out. If they don’t, they face two elephants.
In my opinion the Sharm El-Sheikh summit could have been more successful if the conferees had agreed to exclude journalists, held only closed-door meetings and distributed their pictures and statements using e-mail and fax. The open discussions provided an opportunity for every leader to tell his people that he is tougher than the others. There were only limited practical ideas. Everybody made beautiful statements.
But as for the UAE proposal, I don’t know whether the idea had been discussed before the summit or was a ploy to gauge the reaction of both the leaders and the press. Everyone concerned with the crisis either lowered his head, fiddled with papers or whispered in the ears of their neighbors.
Arab News Opinion 8 March 2003
