Lebanon's election delay a bad sign

Voting to extend their term shows the weakness of Lebanon's lawmakers, an Arabic writer says. Other opinion topics today: Security in Egypt and Malala in the UAE.

Term extension for Lebanon's dysfunctional parliament shows influence of narrow interests

Four years of failure did not prevent members of the Lebanese parliament from approving on Friday an extension of their tenure for another year and seven months, columnist Sawsan Al Abtah wrote in yesterday's edition of the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat.

"This is how the representatives of the nation choose to reward those who elected them into office," the Lebanese commentator said.

After six months of negotiations between the country's capricious political blocs over a much-needed new elections law - which was supposed to be more democratic and equitable - the result came down to an exchange of accusations, insults and expletives among legislators, she wrote.

"As it turned out, the whole thing was just a farce. But opponents agreed on one thing, which is that their higher interests entail that the status quo be maintained, until the security picture in the region becomes clearer."

As a general rule in Lebanon, any draft law that has the potential to bring any real change to political life will always have a party ready to kill it on the floor, the writer observed.

"This is how the various political players ended up with nothing to agree on, except this plot to deny electors the right to choose a different bunch than the one that brought them to the brink of this precipice," Al Abtah said.

It would not be too far-fetched to say that the recent clashes in Tripoli, which left 32 people dead and more than 300 injured, were just a "bloody manoeuvre" by politicians to justify their decision to approve a term extension by citing volatile security conditions, she went on.

Al Abtah quoted party leader and former minister Wiam Wahhab as saying that "the security situation does not allow for running any elections … and a term extension is the best of the worst options."

The columnist went on to says that "similar versions of the same statement were repeated by prominent MPs and cabinet ministers from factions that rarely ever agree on anything."

Note that all political parties, though knowing for a fact that the elections will not take place, have submitted their lists of candidates by the deadline. When you ask why, MPs tell you that "everyone is just being overly cautious not to fall into some political trap", to quote Ahmad Fatfat, a representative of the predominantly Sunni Future Movement.

So this whole fishy agreement is just a result of the insufferable level of mutual distrust between Lebanon's leaders, she said.

With Hizbollah, the Shiite political militia, being busy in Syria, the Sunni leadership not feeling confident it could perform as well as it did in 2009, she wrote. Meanwhile top Christian leaders are divided over the real best interests of their sects. So Lebanon is made to do with an expired parliament.

Egypt must exploit positive US findings

"The US state department's annual country report on terrorism featured a range of positive indicators regarding Egypt," the Cairo-based newspaper Al Ahram said in an editorial yesterday, urging the Egyptian government to build on these positive remarks.

The 2012 US report applauded efforts by the Egyptian government to ensure better protection for its critical infrastructure, to reinstate law and order and to work towards a peaceful, democratic political transition, the newspaper said.

"The report also affirms that the Egyptian government opposes violent extremism and is working harder to improve security on the borders, in airports and ports and in the Suez Canal, and to better monitor the activities of extremists," the paper added.

"Undeniably, a report with this kind of content shines a positive light on the government and the state of Egypt on the international scene. At the same time, it marks the beginning of a more objective US approach to the steps that Egypt has taken to counter terrorism and align its efforts with those of the international community to achieve the same end."

Cairo's executives now have to capitalise on the findings in this report to attract foreign investment and persuade donor and lending institutions around the world of the viability of Egypt as a development partner, Al Ahram concluded.

Malala, the UAE and female empowerment

When Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, received Malala Yousafzai in his palace last week, he told her about the perfect alignment between her work and the UAE's mission to empower women and promote gender equality, columnist Yasser Hareb noted in the Dubai-based newspaper Al Bayan.

Malala, the teenage activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban in Pakistan's Swat Valley last year for her public defence of girls' right to continue their education, has now come to symbolise the determination to see that process of empowerment through, Hareb wrote yesterday.

As soon as Malala was shot, the UAE ordered a plane to transport her to the United Kingdom for treatment. And during her time in hospital, UAE officials kept checking on her progress.

"The UAE's espousal of Malala's cause has a symbolic depth," the writer argued. "We in the UAE believe that education is the best resource for people and nations to get ahead in the world, and for societies to mature."

"For the UAE, Malala is an illumination in the obscurity of ignorance … She is the candle that the UAE wants to light up, as opposed to merely cursing the gloom."

* Digest compiled by Achraf El Bahi