Doha Debates hosted by Tim Sebastian in session yesterday.

DOHA: Majority of the participants at Qatar Foundation's Doha Debates yesterday felt that it is time to disband the Arab League.

The motion for disbanding this only pan-Arab body was passed with 60.5 per cent votes, while 39.5 per cent voted against.

Those supporting the motion argued that the League should disband because its failures are so deep and it is beyond reform.

The other side maintained that, though the League has failed in many respects, there is still scope and the need for reform. Speaking for the motion, "This House believes it is time for the Arab League to disaband," were Dr Shafeeq Ghabra, a professor of political science and the founding president of the University of Kuwait and Chibli Mallat, a presidential candidate in Lebanon, who is also a lawyer and academician.

Hesham Yousuf, currently chief of the Cabinet for the Secretary General of the Arab League Dr Amre Moussa and Dr Azmi Bishara, an Arab-Israeli politician and an elected member of Israel's parliament, the Knesset opposed the motion.

Shafeeq, who was invited by the host Tim Sebastian to kick off the debate, said the Arab League has become irrelevant due to its failure to solve any one of the major political or social problems in the Arab world, whether it be Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Darfur or the issues of reform, democracy and human rights. Instead of solving the problems, the League has become part of the problem, he added.

"For me, it is irrelevant whether the Arab League exists or not. So, is better to disband it and allow alternative organizations to take its place. We need a vacuum to create new organisations," he argued. He felt that regional organizations like the Gulf Co-operation Council are much more effective than the Arab League.

Yousuf, the next speaker, admitted that the League had failed in many respects but felt that it has also achieved a lot. " It is easy to attack any organisation. The Arab League is the only mechanism we have in the Arab world and we should try to reform it, instead of disbanding," he said.

Chibli rejected his view saying that the League has become counterproductive and is standing in the way of change. "Arab League has become a sham. It is corrupt. It is controlled by Egypt," he said. "The failures are so deep that it is beyond correction," he added, in a later stage of the debate. He accused that the League has been used as a forum by the Arab Ministers of Interior to pass information about individuals and thus perpetrate oppression and dictatorship in the Arab countries. Azmi Bishara warned against abolishing the Arab League saying that it is the "slightest common denominator" in the Arab world. " If we don't have a pan-Arab organisation, we will be divided into sects- Sunnis, Shias, Muslims and Christians," he said The solution is not to disband the Arab League but to change the undemocratic governments in the Arab world. Such a change will positively reflect on the League because it is group of Arab governments, he maintained.

The speeches were followed by a lively and interactive question answer session, involving the panelists and the audience.

Dr Khalid bin Jabor Al Thani, chairman of the Qatar National Cancer Society, who was part of the audience, intervened in the discussions challenging the claims of Yousuf about achievements of the League in the health sector. Citing his own experience of attending many pan-Arab meetings on cancer and avian flu, organized under the umbrella of the Arab League, Khalid bin Jabor said, the meetings had failed to come out with any action plan due the differences among the members. His comments were received with applause by the audience.