The King yesterday opened the third session of the Bahraini Parliament and unequivocally has given the body the green light to go ahead and fix the laws which might impact freedoms and investments in Bahrain. You can’t get a greener light than that.
Now it remains to be seen what our Parliament can do with this. Will they put away their bickering and start working purposefully to take us forward, or will they continue their less than acceptable performance of the last two sessions?
I for one am not holding my breath, and if the very first session of the elected parliament held yesterday is anything to go by, the 3rd term won’t be much better than the last two, in fact, there are indications that it will be a lot worse.
The government has replied to 11 of their suggestions and motions, duly read by the Parliament Speaker at that session:
1. The acceptance to build two dual-carriageway roads: Umm-Jaleed and Mushtan (don’t ask me where these are, ’cause I have no idea!)
2. Increase the monetary grant to people of special needs to BD 50 per month.
3. Creation of a committee to follow-up, suggest and effect solutions to the increase in crime rates in Bahrain. (both Essa Al-Mutawa and Ali Ahmed didn’t like that and demanded that the parliament must see the committee’s reports as well as the Prime Minister’s court.)
4. Clean up the beaches
5. Defeat of the bill to allow military, police and civil defence to grow their beards, and allowing women in the same streams to wear the burqa. Thank goodness!
6. Acceptance to appoint female traffic cops.
7. Promise that the government will treat whoever memorises the Qur’an completely to equate them with university graduates when looking for jobs and giving them priority for jobs and promotion, especially if the job is within a religious establishment.
8. Acceptance to electronically finger-print all foreigners coming to Bahrain through land or sea.
9.Acceptance of quality control and its measurements in all service related ministries.
10. Acceptance to encourage Bahraini labour seeking jobs in the Gulf and the easing of red-tape associated with this movement.
11. Acceptance to re-evaluate wages and inflation every five years, instead of every ten.
Six ministers attended the first session, and they were immediately attacked by the islamists (Essa Al-Mutawa, Adel Al-Moawdah, Mohammed Khalid, Hamad Al-Muhannadi) about nothing other than the defeat of the “beard and burqa” bill!
Abdulla Al-A’ali on the other hand is still riding the naturalisation wave and demanded that the Ministry of the Interior fire all non-Bahrainis from their jobs.
Salah Ali and Ali Ahmed were not happy with the crawling pace that the government takes in enacting the laws and suggestions of the parliament, especially the social security fiasco.
Sooo my friends, the bottom line is that I don’t – and you shouldn’t – hold our breath that this parliament is going to do anything constructive in this session, nor the next one.
The green light? It will be ignored of course. They’ll just continue to bicker, fight, and do whatever it takes to see their names in the papers, or on TV and continue to blame each other for their own abject failure, and of course continue to put motions through for the restriction of freedoms and increase in poverty.
We just live in hope that better people will come up for elections in 2006. I can’t wait for that one to come around.
Comments
Green light
mahmood, if i dont see your pictures plastered all over bahrain’s walls for the 2006 elections, i’m leaving the country (and boycotting your site!) 😛
seriously consider running!
Green light
Promise to “treat whoever memorises the Qur’an completely to equate them with university graduates” …
WHAT?!? Is this serious? So does bahrain hope to improve its economy, develop its industry and raise the standard of living by memorizing the Qur’an? If I apply for a job teaching at the university, does someone who has memorized Qur’an have the same shot at the job that I do?
What about doctors — do they need a medical degree, or is it good enough to know your surahs? Do your engineers need to have training specific to their endeavors (say… bridge construction) or is it enough to know your ayat?
Oh why did I even even bother with all those years studying to get my BA, MA and PhD….?
And this is actually a motion that is being considered? No wonder you guys have problems….
Salaam,
PM
Re: Green light
I wish I could justify me running, but I can’t but must confess that I would like to. Not the right time yet.
Re: Green light
Yep, in a nutshell this is what they want to do, and are incensed that the government “only promised” rather than made it into a law. The government in my mind should have come out very plainly and told them to bugger off and take care of important issues rather than this rediculous thing. But then, they’re working in the government playground here, keep ’em busy and they won’t do the things that will hurt us or make us better.
Shot at redemption?
The MPs have now got a chance to do something positive by rejecting the new political societies law which is back in their court.
I can’t say I’ve been at all impressed by Al Menbar’s (Leftist) proposed improvements – its still too restrictive. This idea of virtually outlawing any political party that doesn’t support the 2002 constitution is particularly absurd – although I can understand why sections of the government and the parties in parliament want to do it.
The essential problem with the MPs is they can’t stop trying to restrict things instead of what they should be doing which is provide a legal framework for institutions to develop.
Re: Shot at redemption?
Well don’t hold your breath. The current MPs are quite comfortable imposing restrictions on their political opponents. I imagine that the MPs and the government are nudging each other on to pass the law. My only hope rests in the King or the Crown Prince stepping in… that is if the opposition parties are able to get their act together and raise some noise about the law before its too late.