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Arafat's 800 Directors-General

(BBC) Martin Asser - "All his career, Arafat has wanted to be Number One, with no Number Two," as one analyst in Ramallah put it. But it is a shame, the analyst added, that once again Mr. Arafat appeared to be sacrificing his people's aspirations for a better future in order to secure his own political future. Power politics as played by Arafat has created a Palestinian political class which, analysts say, is utterly unfit to deal with the challenges it faces. Historically, the winners have been the street fighters rather than the educated classes. Arafat has elevated no fewer than 800 PA officials to the rank of director-general since he was forced to appoint Abu Mazen as PM. Apparently none of these 800 has a proper job description; their role is to bolster Arafat's position through patronage, analysts say. An informed source said that, since the intifada began, not one of the PA's 150,000 employees has missed a month's salary - despite the crushing economic conditions experienced by ordinary Palestinians, and the fact that many of these "public servants" do not actually have anything to do.
2003-08-29 00:00:00
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