For a macabre dance in the rubble: how Arafat conducts PA politics these days. Reform? don't hold your breath (though the stench may make you want to):
Living in the ruins
By Danny Rubinstein
For the second time in the past few months Mohammed Dahlan has quit. After the Palestinian Authority was formed, Dahlan built up a lot of power in Gaza, as head of the Preventive Security forces. He has political ambitions that he does not hide, and he was among the few aides Arafat took to Camp David more than two years ago.
Dahlan's resignation from the Preventive Security forces was the result of his ambition to get a high-ranking political job, perhaps interior minister, responsible for the entire security apparatus in the PA. Arafat preferred the veteran Gen. Abdel Razak Yahya.
Dahlan was appointed Arafat's security adviser, but some say that Arafat never actually signed the document appointing him, only verbally promising Dahlan the position. Dahlan's associates leaked to the Arab satellite TV station Al Jazeera that he had been given the new position, and Arafat never denied it. That's an old method of the chairman, who likes to keep the people around him in a state of uncertainty. Now Dahlan has resigned from the adviser's job, and again, the background to the resignation is the scrambling around Arafat as he plans a new cabinet after the current one didn't win approval from the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Will Dahlan get a job in the new cabinet? Nobody knows. Arafat has to please two large camps of PLC members who toppled the previous cabinet. The first camp is the Gazans. Out of the 88 members of the PLC, 40 are from Gaza and most refused to vote confidence in Arafat's government. The Gazans are angry that he fired Gazans like Freih Abu Medein, and the Minister for Prisoner Affairs, Hisham Abdel Razak, from the previous cabinet. There's a Gazan bourse of names of candidates for the new government: Ruhi Patuah, the secretary general of the council, and other members of the PLC - Ziad Abu Amar and Abdel Karim Uda. The other bloc Arafat has to satisfy is a group of PLC members from Hebron, who have a 10-seat faction in the PLC.
Arafat's difficult problem is not only the question of who to put in the new cabinet, but who he will have to fire. The candidates for dismissal include Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, who is from the tiny Pada party that split from the Democratic Front. He is considered arrogant, and Fatah activists demand Arafat name someone instead of him. The same is true for Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yahya, who isn't a member of Fatah, so there are demands he be fired. Veteran government ministers like Jamil Tarfif, Intisar al Wazir (Umm Jihad), and Ali Kawasmeh are also being mentioned as likely candidates for replacement.
But much more interesting than the political gossip is the way Arafat plans to name his ministers. He consults with everyone, but doesn't say anything clear to anyone. Everyone is scrambling around him, exchanging rumors and talking about their impression from the fragments of sentences they heard from him. He's confusing and exhausting all the people around him. With one hand he draws the top-level members close to him and with the other hand he pushes them away. Even Abu Mazen, whom everyone regards as Arafat's No. 2, needed to acquiesce to the Fatah leadership's decision not to name him as prime minister right now, and he was forced to apologize and say that he actually didn't want the job. Arafat told Al Hayyat "I'm the leader and I appoint the leadership."
Everyone makes the pilgrimage to his office in the heart of the rubble of the Muqata. Dozens of smashed cars surround what remains of his offices, piled one on top of the other. Visitors say his offices are dirty. He doesn't want to get rid of the piles of rubble, which give off a stench. For the Palestinian public that's a clear message. Arafat is telling his people: I live like you, in the rubble. And they know how to appreciate it. That's why the entire world can talk about his waning days, but meanwhile, there's not even a glimmer of the appearance of a new leader.
haaretzdaily.com |
