More on al Masri al Youm

There's a profile of Hisham Kassem, the CEO of the independent Egyptian daily al Masri al Youm, in Business Today this month. Unfortunately the article stays clear from politics and therefore fails to explain why al Masri is a critically important newspaper in Egypt's current political environment. Without al Masri al Youm, chances are the way Egyptian newspapers perceive recent events such as the parliamentary elections and the judges' rebellion in a very different way. At times taking a rather exaggerated interest in the intricacies of domestic politics (compare their coverage of the judges to that of the Dahab bombings, for instance), al Masri had pretty much set the agenda for the weekly opinion press and for political activists. And it has done so without becoming too partisan, even if its liberal, pro-human rights sympathies and contempt for the government are often felt. Its editorialists have rivaled the best in the state and other press, and claimed some firsts in going after specific members of the president's entourage, and at times the president himself. Yet, I also believe it's the first independent newspaper that was granted an interview with Mubarak. It's not so much that al Masri is perfect -- it is far from that -- but it represents such as qualitative leap for the Egyptian press that I would argue that its impact on politics as well as the profession as revolutionary.

Politics are also absent from Kassem's description in the article -- he is, after all, not only a long-standing human rights activist (he's been chairman of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights for something like a decade now), but also a political partisan. In 2004, he joined Ayman Nour's nascent Al Ghad party and campaigned alongside him during the presidential election. He had previously run for parliament, and lost, in 2000 and contemplated a run in 2005. He is also perhaps one of the favorite talking heads of the foreign press corps, since he speaks perfect idiomatic English and is, more generally, quite charming. (David Remnick of the New Yorker called him an Egyptian neo-con.) The Washington Post's campaign on Egypt over the past two years is in no small part to the briefings given by the likes of Kassem, whether in Egypt or in DC. He's also someone with access to top diplomats in Cairo and who receives leading foreign dignitaries -- I don't think Condi Rice has come to town without seeing him (along a few other representatives of Egyptian civil society.)

And there could have been more details about the unlikely business success that al Masri has proved to be, although that's also covered. I might return to that soon as I have been doing some work on that recently myself.

In short, Hisham Kassem -- whether you agree with his politics or not -- is a very interesting and if not important, at least influential, man in contemporary Egyptian politics. His achievement with al Masri as a business is important, but it would have been nice to hear about some of the other stuff.

Comments

[praktike]

I'm not sure I would put Hisham Kassem in the "Arab neo-con" category, insofaras such a label makes sense.

When I think of Arab neo-cons, I think of guys like Fuad Ajami, and, to a lesser extent, Saad Edin Ibrahim (whose views tend to be more nuanced).

[SP]

So if you're a small-L liberal who doesn't mind cooperating with Americans, that makes you a neocon?

I don't think the neocon term really works outside of Washington...

[Issandr El Amrani]

Hey don't ask me, that's David Remnick saying he's a neo-con! I think it's because Hisham is pro Iraq war, for reasons that were of the "need to shake up the region" variety, that he gets that label.

By the way, word is the neo-cons are closing shop - well, they're closing the PNAC, anyway.

[Atle]

PNAC is closing????!!!!!! When did this happen?? Do you have a link Issandr??? Are they joining AEI or starting some other secret boy's club?

[Issandr El Amrani]

Here it is, from a WaPo ,http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/11/AR2006061100739.html" rel="nofollow">columnist:

The doors may be closing shortly on the nine-year-old Project for a New American Century, the neoconservative think tank headed by William Kristol , former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle and now editor of the Weekly Standard, which is must reading for neocon cogitators and agitators.

The PNAC was short on staff -- having perhaps a half-dozen employees -- but very long on heavy hitters. The founders included Richard B. Cheney , Donald H. Rumsfeld , Paul D. Wolfowitz , Jeb Bush , I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby , William J. Bennett, Zalmay Khalilzad and Quayle.

The goal was to continue the Reaganite, muscular approach to projecting American power and "moral clarity" in a post-Cold War world, the group's manifesto said. The targets were liberal drift and conservative isolationism.

PNAC and its supporters dominated the Bush administration's foreign policy apparatus and championed a policy to get rid of Saddam Hussein long before Sept. 11, 2001.

In its famous 1998 letter to President Bill Clinton , PNAC said "removing Saddam Hussein and his regime . . . now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy." Clinton was urged to use all diplomatic, political and military means to topple him.

Despite the happy chatter before the Iraq invasion about cheering crowds and bouquets and cakewalks and how the war was going to pay for itself, the signatories wrote that "we are fully aware of the dangers of implementing this policy."

There had been debate about PNAC's future, but the feeling, a source said, was of "goal accomplished" and it looks to be heading toward closing. Former executive director Gary J. Schmitt , who had been executive director of President Ronald Reagan 's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, left recently for a post at the American Enterprise Institute. (Not a big move. Actually, only five floors up from PNAC.) Still, seems like a short century.

[Tarek]

Al-Masry Al-Yom's circulation has gone up "purely on the principle that instead of presenting either the government's or the opposition's point of view, it presents both. That may seem like a logical formula, but for an audience that hasn't gotten much of it in a long time, it has come across as a breath of fresh air with the force of a hurricane."
From an http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/799/sc3.htm
">article in this week's Al-Ahram Weekly that provides a quick look at the changes in the Egyptian press scene

[Tarek]

Sorry the correct http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/799/sc3.htm" rel="nofollow">link for the above is:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/799/sc3.htm

[issandr]

Thanks, Tarek. Good overview of the scene.

[nevine al seidi]

Hisham Kassem, Arab neo-con? Is there anything like an Arab neo-con? It is like telling us some short man is tall; some slim wom is actually fat. RIDICULOUS labelling. Kassen is a patriotic Arab. In fact, he is a descendent of the Prophet. He happened to have gone to college with me.

[issandr]

Well, I'm ahl al beit too!