I can’t help but to describe the latest in the petition saga on both the government and the opposition as a stinky brain-fart. The opposition have backed down in the face of mounting government pressure and supposedly threats of persecution, the return to State Security Law, imprisonment and the like; while the government is having one hell of a brain-fart because now that it has smelled success in subjugating the opposition in their petition plan, to put the nail in the coffin of said petition by categorically stating in this morning’s papers that the king will not receive the petition. The government maintains that the only way to get constitutional changes is through the prescribed constitutional channels: the Shura Council, Chamber of Representatives and of course the King.
Problem: the opposition do not recognise the Parliament, but do recognise the King of course. Therefore, the only way open to them is to talk to the King directly through the petition.
Problem: the government is forcing the opposition to recognise the Parliament as they are telling them (not asking) to submit the signed petition to Parliament and not the King and reiterating the government’s position that the only constitutional changes to be entertained are those suggested by parliament and the current constitution.
Problem: the current constitution clearly states in Article 29 that: “Any individual may address the public authorities in writing over his signature. Group approaches to the authorities may only be made by statutory bodies and corporate persons.” The government interprets this by classifying that the societies should only collect signatures from their own membership rolls, while the societies decided that what it really means that they are allowed to “organise” the petition as “individuals” signing them. They of course backed down, but threw open their membership doors in order to collect the signatures.
Problem: the government now says that opening the membership doors haphazardly (and not charging fees) is (possibly) illegal, thus raising the specter of another fight. Didn’t you expect it? Of course they would!
My take on the situation is that both have done a royal balls-up of a very basic issue: we the people, have every right to petition the King directly or indirectly.
That is the only way to really make our views known to His Majesty. We have almost stopped believing in the effectiveness of the parliament due to the MPs continuous posturing and hot air. The same goes for the various boycotting societies, they’ve gone about this petition in completely the wrong way. They went head-to-head with the government fully knowing that the government have already written the rules of engagement a long time ago, and they conveniently fell into the trap.
So what we’re left with now is stale-mate. We have issues with the current constitution. We know of its shortcomings as in any other written constitution in the world and it needs to change for the better, but I fear what this situation will result in is at best a delay in making these changes happen. Thank you very much for that boycotters. You have been out-witted once again!
Comments
A Royal Balls-Up…
The government seems to be way confused. The decision that the petition should be dealt with by the Parliament, is actually based on Article 75 of the 1973 constitution!! Which was totally omitted in the 2002 amended constitution. So now you this Sh. Khalid AlKhalifa guy who seems totally confused as to which constitution to use!!
Article 75 (1973 constitution)
The Assembly shall set up, among its annual standing committees, a special committee to deal with petitions and complaints submitted to the Assembly by citizens. The committee shall seek explanation thereon from the competent authorities and shall inform the person concerned of the result. A member of the National Assembly shall not interfere with the work of either the Judicial or the Executive Power.
In fact Article (29) was debated by the Constituent Council on 17th April 1973 which after detailed elaboration on the meaning of the article was passed with 28 votes FOR and zero against. The conclusion is that it is PERFECTLY LEGAL to sign petitions as individuals without the need to be a member of any corporate organisation. I have the minutes of the debate but in arabic. This shows, that the Ministry of Labour and this Sh. Khalid’s guys threats and warnings are baseless as this Petition, whether a society petition or a POPULAR petition is perfectly legal. And yes Mahmoud, the Opposition shouldnt have given in like that, but then again, Alwefaq is probably going to be the biggest society not only in Bahrain, but the Gulf as a whole!! However, there is strong pressure now to begin a Popular petition at the national level very soon.
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The last 5 years in Bahrain are worth some 50 at least! The next few weeks should be really interesting! Much more skirmishing coming up I think, but the funny thing is if you’re not a lawyer, you’re almost completely lost in the intricacies of the discussion or squabble. And the press don’t help either… take for instance the questioning of the Economy minister, Al-Ayam came out with how strong, composed and intelligent the minister was in his rebuttals. He wiped the floor with the MPs and turned the tables completely against them. However, you read Al-Wasat and it is EXACTLY the opposite! 180-degrees!
So what would citizens believe?
We need more newspapers in Bahrain to cover these things truthfully rather than just follow the political affiliations of the editor….
A Royal Balls-Up…
Personally I dont read any of the official press for knoweledge or insight or analysis. If I do read its just to know about any events coming up or if i want something to laugh at 🙂
The Press
We don’t have an independent press in Bahrain, and that includes Al-Wasat. All three main papers follow a rigid pagination and I thank them for that. For instance, I never bother with the front page of any, ignore pages 2, 3 and 4 of Al-Ayam and Akhbar Al-Khaleej, forget 2, 3 in Al-Wasat (2 is normally a scandel or just scandelous rubbish in most cases) 3 is government news and promotions pages, while 6 or 7 are normally parliamentary coverage but normally it doesn’t go beyond copying press releases.
Sawsan Al-Shaer I always read, Mansour Al-Jamri I always ignore. He was good when he started, but has completely lost the plot over the last few months and seems to have lost his cajones as well! Al-Hamad I like until he tries to turn intellectual, Abbas Safwan is normally muck raking but has some valid points if you can extract them. Aqeel Swar is sometimes funny and surgically critical of Al-Asala and the Salafi movement in Bahrain…
So, I just pick and choose and try to follow threads which might hold some semblances truths. Sometimes you find gems, but I agree with you, mostly the newspapers in Bahrain are just salaceous gossip, nothing more.
I wish the GDN would bring back the Page 3 topless babe as it did in the 70s though! 😉 It *was* worth getting then!
A Royal Balls-Up…
The only columnist i bother reading is Sayed Dhya Almosawi in Alwasat. Purely because he is a good writer and campaigns hard for any issues he deems worthy *within the well-defined framework set by the Ministry of Information*.
Otherwise the rest are just government puppets, on guard just in case any orders from the Ministry come in about topics they have to cover and tow the government line on.
One letter i liked in GDN though, :
[quote]
A life of luxury makes me feel very guilty
I AM a British lady who has been working in Bahrain for the past two years.
My best friend is a Bahraini woman with three children. Being close to her I have come to know how companies and organisations treat expats differently from the
locals in almost everything.
We expats living in Bahrain live a luxurious life, unlike most of the locals. The company pays for our accommodation, electricity, social allowance, return tickets, medical insurance, children’ schooling and other benefits and not forgetting the double or even the triple salaries we get when compared to that of the Bahrainis being in the same designation.
It breaks my heart to see my friend working a full time job leaving her children at home to support her family in the hope of giving them a decent life and of course could not because all her salary goes to paying for the accommodation, electricity and other bills!
Why, tell me why, do companies pay all these bills for us and not Bahrainis? Do Bahrainis live on the street? Live in the dark? Bahrainis should enjoy their country
and not curse it (from what I see). Why do you differentiate? We are all human beings and have the same needs.
When will governments and authority realise that Bahrainis need to be treated like human beings and care whether they can afford their expensive country?
Have they ever thought that the reasons why crimes have increased in the past few years is that people get very lowly paid salaries and cannot afford to offer a decent living for their children!
Why does authority treat Bahrainis as third class citizens and expats as first. Why?
-Holly Mueller
[/quote]
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Yes I agree, Al-Mousawi got his teeth deep in the Shia’s Endowment Board and ripped it to pieces. Good for him. It needed that so that the millions of dinars in cash, land and property returns to their rightful purpose, rather than fatten up the mullahs who abused their power since that board was started. The stories coming out from there are stupendous, and Al-Mousawi seems to have inside sources supplying him with copies of contracts and receipts. He’s also got sources within the GOSI and Pension Funds as he brings out some crackers from time to time.
I applaud his efforts.
As to Holly Mueller, she’s a bleeding heart. Do you think that we would employ foreigners and give them all of these faclities for fun? If we do, in most cases we make multiples of what we pay them. Make no mistake. But these in the vast majority of cases are experts whom are needed for the success of the business, hence we have to pay them appropriately. If a Bahraini is available with the same set of criteria s/he should be paid the same. I know I am prepared to do so, unfortunately practically there are no WILLING Bahrainis to take over those jobs.
But you’ve already read my piece about the labour market in Bahrain…
A Royal Balls-Up…
Hmm… Hi it’s me Ali.
I am amazed at the things you say Mahmood. Wow how does the ministry of Information or even the CID (the Bahraini KGB) let you publish this truthful insights into the dealings of the Gov’t. For the past 4 years of my absence from Bahrain I thought that the gov’t had silenced people who speak against its corrupt policies but you proved the opposite and spoke against them in this blog.
We Bahraini’s need someone who has the guts to speak against the corrupt gov’t employees (MP’s). How about becoming an MP Mahmood that would be awesome? 😉
Concerning the article mentioned above well lets say i have a professional degree from an American Institution of Learning ( hey i am graduating next month from high school) such as a university. Will I possibly by any chance would get the same benefits that some foreign professionals receive.
Ali Burshaid
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Ali, to tell you the truth I sometimes write with my heart in my hands as we say in Arabic, but for a year now I haven’t been “told off”, that’s probably because of my genuine feelings for this country. I love it. I love its people, and yes, I love the Royal Family too. So it hurts me a lot seeing these illogical and contradictory things happening here. My hope is that if there is anyone reading this diary/blog/site, they will understand that I have the country’s interest at heart and not my personal gain. Let’s hope too that reasonable people will understand where I stand. Else, I actually LIKE Dhal!
As to your employment prospective. If you contribute to my company’s profit, I have no problem hiring you! Just make sure that you read my “Lessons in Extortion” post first!
A Royal Balls-Up…
mahmood, i completely disagree with you on this point. You just have to look at the recent situation in the job market to realize the silly position we’re in. Bahrain has no shortage of qualified graduates to fill these positions (especially in banking, engineering and business areas, in other more specialized position (such as water desalinization, I agree we need some foreign experts). Me and my friends are graduates from some of the best universities in the world and even have some worldwide experience (I am a graduate of Cambridge for god’s sake, and I have experience in London investment banks, andI still can’t get a worthwhile job!) We can’t help but look with envy at the Englishmen in Banks making more than 1000 dinars a month, not to mention free housing and a free car (and most of them are graduates of goddamn former polytechnics! not that I’m elitist in anyway). This is because we have two problems in bahrain. One is the fact that we have this club-like buddy-buddy system, where a person notifies the manager (or he probably is a manager himself) that he has this great friend back in England who’ll make a great employee, and thus they hire him (admittedly this happens with Bahrainis as well and much worse, since the Bahraini’s only qualification is probably that his dad is a big-shot while the foreigner will probably have a degree (from wycombe polytechnic or something like that), but at least the bahraini won’t just save up every penny and then take the money out of the country! It’ll be spent at home!)) Secondly, there is the problem, which obviously you mahmoud have, that people think that a foreigner (white that is) is by necessity better at the job. As we say in Arabic, mu6rebat al-7ai la tu6reb (the local performer never satisfies the locals)! If Bahrainis are given the chance, they time and time again prove this wrong. Look at al-dailami in Alba, or even al-yousif in computer point!
Your blog in employing Bahrainis doesn’t apply to these kind of jobs, since the jobs western expats are brought for are usually high skill, and the bahrainis who apply for them (if they get high wages) are eager and willing to work. Furthermore, even if what you say about Bahrainis is true, why don’t we bring expats from India to these specialized jobs, which would require far less money than the equivalent british. Are you also going to say that Indians don’t have the necessary skills? Have you heard of how jobs in the UK and US are actually being shifted to Indians now? Anyway, I’m sure you wouldn’t agree with a lot of this, since a lot of your friends are westerners and so is your wife, but as the old mantra in politics goes, people agree with viewpoints not because they think it’s right, but because their interests lie there!
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That was a cheap-shot my friend. And completely uncalled for. I understand that you are frustrated, but why colour my views because where my wife comes from?
I take pride in saying that I have friends in Bahrain from all walks of life and from all nationalities. I do not at the moment employ any westerners, but if the opportunity arises that dictates that I must, I will not hesitate. Who I do employ now is a Bahraini, a fantastic Indian lady who has lived in Bahrain all her life, and her father has lived here for most of his as well, and another Indian gentleman who handles the engineering issues that no Bahraini – at least at the moment – can replace, and not for a long time to gain the skillsets needed.
It’s my turn to tell you now, not to blabber into something you really don’t understand. I stand COMPLETELY by my feelings, mirrored by just about every businessman I know, regarding the labour market in Bahrain.
I suggest you take some time off, reflect, and get off that high horse and get down to business in order to get a proper job, and while you’re at it, change the attitude of being a victim into one that support winners.
Re(1): A Royal Balls-Up…
haha, I agree with you mahmoud that the last two sentences are cheap shots, so please accept my sincere apologies for them. But at the same time, you have to agree westerners do get a much better treatment than bahrainis. I say this because I myself have a lot of western friends in bahrain ( and I do pride myself on that as well), but even they agree that they get better treatment. Come on, I’ve been to these amazing compounds scattered throughout a’ali and budaiya which most bahrainis don’t dream off, and which every westerner gets by default. But most importantly, the thing that pisses me off most is i can’t enter BJ’s or Savage Garden because I’m bahraini, and every english person can enter! I want to dance and have fun goddamn it as well!! Imagine, I have to pretend I’m an Englishman every time I enter (since I’m fair skinned) to Bahraini bouncers! How bad is that! Anyway, sorry again for the “cheap shots”, but I would really be interested in reading your comments to what I said before the cheap shots, as I think most bahrainis agree they are true.
P.s. if you haven’t noticed, I’m a great fan of your blog, and I check it out quite often, so although I don’t agree with a lot of what you say, keep up the good work!
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No problem. New start.
Jobs: I understand your situation, I really do and empathise with you, but that’s the fault of the community at large rather than an individual instance. If it were up to me, the very first thing I would do is free the labour market and treat EVERY employee the same, Bahrainis or foreigners. Much as I have said before. My views in that article believe me are shared to a large part by most if not all the business community, ESPECIALLY the SME’s which contribute an awful lot to the Bahrain economy.
I agree with you that there are some unworthy foreign people in high-end jobs in both the public and private sectors. I agree too that a lot of the higher echelons of the job market are filled by incompitent people who’s only contribution is the right connection and I regard those are pure dead-wood which should be burnt and thrown out. I am not a psychologist to suggest why that situation has happened, but I would venture a guess that this is because of our very own tribal culture as you have aluded to: shi’as employ shi’as while sunnis employ sunnies, and the polarisation of society continues ad nuseum. It’s too far ahead in time, but if we manage to be (1) secular in our thinking, and (2) throw the shackles of tribalism and prejudice then maybe we’ll get somewhere.
I too have suffered from the experiences you are living through. I’ve paid my own money, gotten my own loan and became a fully qualified commercial pilot with multi-engine and isntruments ratings. I’ve done that in 10 weeks instead of 18 months! But when I came back home thinking that I will get employment, I was sidelined. Why? Because I was of a different sect than the guy making the selections! Apart from being a fully qualified pilot at that time, I have already risen to the top of my aviation electronics engineering with 11 years experience, so I know BOTH sides of the coin, yet I was sidelined. What I did however is just said screw it! I’ve got tallent and I’ve got guts, to hell with the airline, and struck it on my own and built Computer Point from the ground up. I earn 10 times as I pilot would dream of now and I have no regrets.
Be flexible man, it would do you good!
I’ve been in situations not just in Bahrain, but in Dubai and Abu Dhabi as well where I was refused entry into a pub or disco. I have no answer for your question as to why they would purposefully throw us out or refuse us entry. I can see no excuse worth that kind of treatment. Where I put the blame there is squarly on the human rights commissions and the government for not penalising these clubs for clearly adopting segregationist policies. I too get infururation when that happens. But what we should do is encourage the government and parliament to sign the international treaties dealing with prejudice and segregation, and then we have to have a brave person to take these fucks to court! Once an exmply is made, no one will dare refuse entry based on race or colour.
By the way, I do live in a compound! Life in compounds is fantastic for the kids especially at my children’s age. No high walls, they can go to the pool unattended and unharrassed, they go on their bikes and skooters and generally enjoy themselves. That was our choice to try to give our children some freedoms.
Now that they’ve grown a bit, we’re finally ready to look for a house to buy or build!
A Royal Balls-Up…
alright:) It seems we do agree on something. I agree with you that the main fault does not lie with the expats, as at the end of the day they are just taking jobs that offered to them. The main fault does lie squareley with our job system, whatever the reasons (psychological or not) may be. We do have a completely unregulated job market, where rather than the emphasis being on processes and regulation it’s more on was6a and connections. Hopefully things will change very soon, or the brain drain phenomena might hit bahrain severely. It already has started a bit, where a lot of highly qualified young local people say screw it and take up jobs in Dubai or the U.S. or london. Me and a lot of friends (we are all in our twenties, that’s where maybe the “high horse” and “cheap shots” attitude emerges from) have started casting our net for jobs far wider than bahrain, and it does seem like a shame that a lot of talented young individuals are looking for jobs abroad when their country could put them to good use.
Anyway, I thought this was a blog, and one made for ranting! So once again I apologize if i seem to have the attitude of a whiner who complains a lot, but everyone needs to let off steam once in a while, and where better than in a blog!
A Royal Balls-Up…
Well, the issue of Bahraini/foreigner is one level of discrimination thats pretty evident. Another level of manifested discrimination is the Shia/Sunni divide which to me is even worse.
[url]http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/031113/2003111311.html[/url]
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Concur. The sooner we integrate society and adopt transparent integration the better. Think Bahrain, don’t colour that thinking with sunni or shi’a. It’s just too old hat in this modern age. Give people the freedom and choice not based on religion but merit, and we will do wonderous things together.
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Hi . Is it really true that the GDN showed a topless babe in the third page during the 70’s ? If its true then thats cool .
Re(1): A Royal Balls-Up…
Yep, page 3, 5 or 7, can’t remember exactly but they most definitely did. I used to sell the papers!!
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any idea what the charges were?
from Al-Ayam this morning the article said that they were “forcing” people to come and sign the petition, and they portrayed as one of the places being invated by police just minutes after one of the societies’ leader leaving. Of course, just about everything in Al-Ayan you have to take with a truck of salt.
I haven’t read Al-Wasat yet, but I suspect things will be clearer tomorrow as again it was said that they will be presented before the public prosecutor today.. didn’t know the government worked during holidays!
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well said.
A Royal Balls-Up…
The arrests made were totally baseless and the police had no right to arrest the people the way that they did since they have no written orders or public summons. Law breaking by those who are supposed to uphold the law!!! Lawyers have now been assigned to all the arrested people.
We now await a ‘makrama ameeria’ for their release – clemency by the King, the Hero comes to save the day!!!
A Royal Balls-Up…
The aim of these arrests are three-fold:
-To stop the petition
-Entrenching fear in people to not sign and reducing the support of the societies
-escalating political events which may spark violence since this is the only way the Government can deal with this constitutional crisis. All peaceful means of dialogue and debate have been preemptorily tackled by the Government which has refused to open dialogue with the Opposition. The opposition has used the most peaceful and civilised means of protest and expression, which the Government doesnt seem to be able to deal with.
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While I agree with you that the government actions are ham-fisted here and there is not excuse for them to arrest these people no matter what they cook up. The opposition would have done a lot better by cooperating with the elected parliament to get the constitutional changes passed through.
You know what we say in Arabic: “follow the thief to his home,” that was, the government would have no choice but to accept the changes brought through the elected parliament and I know passing those changes are going to be extremely difficult, but it looks from various reports that they are doable.
Look at what Abbas Al-Shaikh is demanding, probably a lot more than what the boycotters are! The same with other members except for Al-Asala!
A Royal Balls-Up…
well … as a bahraini who has lived abroad as an ‘expat’ .. i have to say that we dont offer anything here that is not standard operational procedure abroad. i got free health care, a good salary, etc. of course, i had to pay taxes. but – i was treated like someone from the country that gave me the visa. plus, i was able to buy property and move freely within the country. which, i think, is more than most gulf states allow expats. most fundamentally, i would have been able to apply for citizenship.
so bottom line, if people are going to start comparing notes – then let there not be selective memory. the way we treat blue collar expats is not right – nothing more than indentured servitude. it is the government’s role to create a stable legal framework of laws and courts that really do protect these workers. the way we treat white collar expats is still not as equal as most other countries. we would never even consider offering them naturalization. we seem to forget that in the states and in the uk – most of the growth comes from the hungry immigrant entrepreneurial class…
so net net – we have a bit to learn.
A Royal Balls-Up…
[b]Latest developments in the petition saga: 26 people were arrested last night in different parts of Bahrain, Musala, Mahooz, Sanad, Hamad Town. They are all between 20-26 years of age. They were subjected to interrogation vis-a-vis collecting signatures for the petition, and no lawyers or representatives from BHRC were allowed to be present. The arrests were made following orders from the Ministry of Information. All papers were seized with over 1000 signatures. [/b]
A Royal Balls-Up…
[b] sorry orders from the Ministry of Interior [/b]