Alexandria,
30 January 2004 --
In
a major announcement made in Al-Ahram (Friday 30 January 2004) Serageldin
announced that the Library was convening a major conference of Arab reformers
to discuss the needed changes in the Arab World on the economic, social
and political fonts. The meeting would be for civil society leaders and
for writers and intellectuals, but no governments or non-Arabs would be
invited. The reasons, Serageldin explained, was to cut off the arguments
being expressed as to reform being a foreign agenda imposed by the West
(especially the US) and that patriotic Arabs should resist these calls.
Serageldin said that the Arabs must re-appropriate the reform initiative,
that change was a popular demand throughout the Arab world, and that it
was absolutely necessary to change in the context of a rapidly changing
world. By limiting this first meeting to eminent Arabs, it would ensure
that the reform agenda would be home-grown and driven by forces internal
to the society. In future meetings , the circle of participants would
be widened and include many others. Government officials were excluded
from this first meeting to ensure maximum leeway to discussion. One outcome
of the event would be a declaration, but much more importantly, a follow-up
mechanism. Most significantly, Serageldin was able to secure the patronage
of President Mubarak for this event. The President said that all opinions
were welcome, and that any constructive criticism that led to improvement
in Egypt and the Arab world would be well-received. The meeting is to
be held on March 12-14. No dates were set for the follow up meetings implicit
in the format. A preliminary background paper is circulating (see draft).
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