Ramadhan Kareem
Wishing you a fulfilling and spiritually cleansing Ramadhan my friends. May you rise above prejudices and reach out to your fellow human beings during this month.
Dialogue Delegates Appreciation Society
I’m not sure who the admin / support staff for the dialogue were nor how they were selected. From observation, they seem to have come from various government departments, maybe primarily from the parliament. In any case, at the National Dialogue participation certificate presentation / appreciation this morning, they have resolutely added to my feeling of despair for this country. That and added a good measure to my already high level of disgust with what this country has become.
Why? It’s all to do with the science of clapping.
They were selective whom to give their appreciation to; that was mostly given to the contentious personalities involved in the dialogue; Jassim Alsaidi, Khalid Alshaikh, Hisham Zayani and others rocked their boats, others who have had a lifetime of contribution to this country received a smattering, while those who were perceived to be in the opposite side, received less still. Both Alwefaq and Wa’ad didn’t attend this morning but I can imagine that we would’ve heard a pin drop had they been called up to the podium to receive their certificates and get their obligatory photograph taken.
Of course it’s well within their right to appreciate and approve of anyone they wish. They’re totally free to clap until their hands drop off, but to me at least, what this situation has demonstrated, is that we as a country and society are no where near to the claim that this country is on the way to resolve its differences and that the dialogue in itself has ameliorated feelings and charted a road to recovery.
Whether this means that the Dialogue itself is a failure, is another matter and I shall write my reflections on that at another time.
Commission of Inquiry starts working
Creating an independent commission to look into the killings, torture, dismissals, and prejudicial treatments and transparently report its findings and name and shame abusers is a huge, unprecedented and much awaited courageous step that can have far reaching impact on this country and its people if left to actually do its assigned work. I hope that they will be given the promised free access to all parties in order to ascertain the truth of the past few months. Only then will this country treat the path of much needed reconciliation.
So far, the various meetings and press releases emanating from the Commission are very encouraging. In order for them to have better communication with the public, the Commission launched their own website through which they will have the capability to receive complaints too. The site is available at http://bici.org.bh and according to the papers this morning, they’ve ensured that its database and administration is independent by hosting the site and its database outside of the country.
This is Good News™. I look forward to reading their report, but much more importantly, I’m looking forward to get those abusers, no matter how high they are, getting their just deserts. I must confess though, that I’m very skeptical of this ever happening as I – as do the rest of the country – know that some very high figures’ heads won’t roll, no matter how nefarious their deeds were through this whole fiasco.
But… let’s wait and see. Let’s give the Commission a chance.
Related: Reuters: Bahrain commission to investigate army, torture claims.
Scandal? What scandal? For this? No way!!
British beoble no shame! Why they make trouble for such a big shaikh like this? He not gives them enough job? He has FIFTY-THREE THOUSAND workers! He’s like gummement and makes money more than a small country every year. And is responsible for aaaaverything his people do? Of course not!!!!! So why jarjir him to this parlament and harass him and his son like this?
Ya akhi this is sooooo wrong. NO respect! Blady traitors!!!!
Let heem go. I make spashaal Twitter picture for my account in his honor.
ريتويت بليييييييييز!
The Dialogue: Parliament v1.1?
Progress has been marked in last night’s Political Stream of the National Dialogue last night. According to this from the Dialogue’s official site:
Bahrain’s National Dialogue has reached ground breaking consensus to increase the
powers of the Parliament. Assembled delegates including: MPs, opposition political societies; NGOs and public figures agreed to enhance the Parliament’s democratic scrutiny over the government. This decision gives the Parliament full authority to reject the entire government if they disapprove.
Commenting on the consensus, the spokesperson the National Dialogue, Isa Abdul Rahman said:
“This decision represents a radical shift in the balance of power – between our democratically elected parliament and our executive branch – further demonstrating Bahrain’s commitment to concrete reforms.”
“Under the new proposals the Prime Minister will now assume responsibility for selecting the members of his government.”
“The government will require the endorsement of our parliament before taking up office. If members of Parliament disapprove they can vote to reject the entire government.
“MPs will have the power to reject the government’s four year work plan.
“This decision guarantees that our government’s composition and work plan will reflect the will of the people.” [link]
No one can deny that this is germane progress. This has to be passed by his majesty of course and I am hopeful that he will with alacrity.
The other thing that I was happy to hear discussed is the contentious issue of separating religion from state, it wasn’t adopted unfortunately, but at least it was raised in such a forum. Is there hope then that after this taboo has been broken, that it will be raised again at a point in the not too distant future?
Onward…