The “hawks” of Al-Wefaq have resigned in response to the society’s decision to re-register under the new Political Societies Law which specifically recognises the Constitution of 2002. Shaikh Hassan Mushaim’i, Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singaise and Dr. Saeed Al-Shehabi say that their resignation decision is final. The board of directors however have not accepted Shaikh Hassan Mushaim’i’s and Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singaise’s resignations and is still in negotiation with them to withdraw them.
At the same time, and as expected, the breakaway moderates faction led by Dr. Nizar Al-Baharna are to abandon plans of establishing a society of their own and get back to Al-Wefaq’s fold.
These events were expected after Bahrain’s top cleric Shaikh Isa Qassim unambiguously supported participation in the forthcoming 2006 elections and re-registering political societies under the new law. Being the Godfather of Al-Wefaq, it is inconceivable that Al-Wefaq’s board of directors and most of its membership to go against his wishes. However, known stances of the “hawks” didn’t give them much leeway; if they now succumb to re-registering and standing in parliamentary elections, they would be looked at as turncoats.
Regardless of individual Egos, it is too early to know the effect of their leaving Al-Wefaq. I have no doubt that they will pull a number of Al-Wefaq’s membership with them but not many, given Shaikh Isa Qassim’s position.
The decision to re-register does not implicitly mean that these boycotting societies would automatically stand for parliamentary elections, it is simplistic to assume that they would. I think the decision to re-register recognises that there are some positives in the new law, chief amongst which is the recognition by the State of the presence of political societies and the societies final acceptance that a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush!
If this is the case, then this event would mark a paradigm shift in the Bahraini opposition movement. Their acceptance to work from the inside to fix things, rather than continue to attempt to do so from the outside, a stance that has proved ineffective for the most part for the last 3 years and which resulted in the complete sidelining of political opposition in this country.
Why now? Why this complete and supported change of position at this time? Did Shaikh Isa Qassim and the rest of the boycotters receive assurances from the regime, a compromise so that we can finally move forward?
There are a number of things which must change in order to break out of this stasis: more honest demarcation of electoral districts and the reduction of the powers of the appointed Shura Council are the most important.
Did the boycotters receive any assurances in these regards? Because otherwise their acceptance of the new law just doesn’t make sense. This position also invalidates all their efforts, their opposition for the last 3 years and their very decision to boycott the parliamentary elections.
I hope for our sake that this position is an honest indication to the regime that they are ready to play the game and now it’s the regime’s turn to give ground a little.
Only time will tell…
Al-Wasat coverage in Arabic
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Re: Moderates win!
The next few days are going to be fun!
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As Mahmood has noted, three of the top personalities within Al Wefaq have submitted their resignations from the positions they hold in the society. Shaikh Hassan Mushaima’, Dr Abduljalil Singace and Dr Saeed Shehabi disagreed with the society…
Moderates win!
Mahmood Im not really familiar with Al-Wefaq other than what I read here. When you say “hawks” how do you define the word. When I think of “hawks” I think of those who advocate war and violence as their perfered tools.
billT
Moderates win!
This is the first political dilemma Al Wefaq have faced and they’ve responded to it by disintegrating. The Political Societies Law should have been so easy to negotiate, but these guys hyped it up in the hope of getting international support to embarrass MPs and the government. No one was interested. Instead by inflating the issue they succeeded in tearing open the fissures within the party and these frustrated egos ended up with no choice but to walk. What an unnecessary debacle.
Good luck to this trio of “intellectuals” as they disappear into the sunset. What are they going to do now? Who gives a zoo bound chimpanzee’s toss?
Moderates win!
Registered an 8.9 on the political richter scale. My desk’s still juddering with the news.
Re: Moderates win!
Not to that extent. The Bahraini varieties are a bit more docile, though they do mouth off quite a bit!
The three gentlemen in question have all suffered at the hand of the State one way or another (alienation, imprisonment, harassment, etc) therefore it is natural for them to hold more extreme views than others, even some who have suffered the same fait as they have. What they want to do is to force the government to accede to their demands of primarily a binding constitution amongst other things. Although no one questions their loyalties to this land nor their patriotism, people generally think that they are too hard line. Which of course doesn’t work in this environment. Politics of course is the art of finding an acceptable middle ground, rather than going for a win/lose situation.
I think this is good for Al-Wefaq, now there is nothing stopping it from standing in the elections and hopefully due to its popularity will dominate. As there are now essentially moderates, we expect that they would be at least better than the Salafi/Muslim Brotherhood mix.
Moderates win!
Hi. Just joined.
Q: Is there a website (or page on this site) that may be able to explain the whole thing on Bahrain’s government (role of parliament, societies, etc.) in layman terms (preferrably something explained “Mahmood” style)????
I’m one of those ignorant Saudis who is trying to boost his knowledge of what “interesting” things are occuring east of the river. Need to understand the basics in order to make more sense of the articles being posted here.
Thanks!
[Modified by: Zoinks (mathrooba) on September 18, 2005 09:55 AM]
Re: Moderates win!
from history in the middle east, people dont disintgrate without regrouping ..
this is going to be very very interesting.
Re: Moderates win!
Welcome aboard!
For a quick lesson in Bahrain Politics, here’s a good link (with full hat tip to one Silly Bahraini Girl of course):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Wefaq
I will not vouch for authenticity though. Very satiric and very skewed, yet based on facts. This is professional spin at work!