A R A B I C A ارابيكا
THE BLOGGER & THE ARMY
*A new Google forum tweeted out by Wael Ghonim asks Egyptians to take part in a dialogue with the country’s ruling military council, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The discussion forum “is a democratic way to raise questions about the council, its performance and the future of Egypt,” the administrators write. Questions include: “Why are the police not being sanctioned for neglecting their duties? Is this not treason?” and “Why has there been no resolution to the issue of local councils, which are full of men from the dissolved National Democratic Party?”
UNIVERSITY & REGIME
*An official from Syria’s ruling Baath Party spoke to administrative and scientific personnel from the University of Damascus. During the three-hour encounter, Baath official Said Bekhaytan informed the university employees that the government refuses to revoke Article 8 of the Syrian constitution, which grants the Party a full monopoly as “the leader of the state and society,” Al Watn paper reported. “There are other priorities’ besides Article 8, Bekhaytan said. If citizens insist on overturning the monopoly clause, they may use the ballot box to vote in representatives to do so, he said. Elections, however, are neither free nor fair in Syria. And Bekhaytan’s vow to establish a national dialogue committee within 48 hours is typically a euphemism for slowly killing prospects of change with the lethal weapon of bureaucracy.
*In a separate editorial, Al Watn postulated that “only Syria has remained a solid, harmonious, homogenous nucleus despite the difficulties posed by Western/American/European Zionism.”
THE KING OF BAHRAIN*King Hamad of Bahrain stressed the need for a national dialogue after importing soldiers from neighboring countries to help crush an uprising against the ruling family that went on for several weeks. The dialogue will begin in early July, with the “monarch stressing the importance of democracy in his country,” CNN Arabic reported.
WAR IN LIBYA (CONT.)
*Sources tell Al Jazeera that NATO bombed ammunitions depots in Libya’s southwest while “other strikes took place at dawn in Tripoli.” Libyan officials told the network that the bombings resulted in “human and material losses.”
May 31, 2011
photo credit: illustir