The King has dissolved parliament! (arabic)
And I shall ceremoniously remove the count-down counter on the left which we have grown very familiar with over the last 12 months. I shall be sad to see it go, but extremely happy as I – like the majority of my Bahrain – live in hope that we will have the presence of mind to select our representatives with less regard as to what is perched on a person’s head, or under ones chin.
photos credit: Al-Wasat
Don’t they look like a bunch of kids just about to start their summer holidays? What they are happy about though is anyone’s guess, for it can’t be that they’re happy about their achievements, which were below zero!
Thanks twerps.. now bugger off and make way for a new, and hopefully better men who will take your place.
Now brace yourselves for a flurry of edicts, laws and regulations in the interim until a new parliament convenes! 😉
Comments
And as a final flourish, they flouted CSB rules by….trying to buy….oooops sorry, by declaring a bonus of BD500 for parliament workers, totalling BD100,000
They would have been better off donating the money to a reputable charity focussed on aiding civilians in Lebanon!
If we were to take a second and read the minutes of all the sessions, it would go like this:
“bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit”
“And further more, bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit”.
“I’d like to thank the honorable bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit God is great, Denmark sucks, Tits are the work of the devil and I’m overpaid. bullshit”
Mabrook Mahmood !
This is the best news that we hear this year. Hope that next parliament would be much better than this baboonish one.
Are there any dates announced as when the elections will take place?
Now that Parliament has been dissolved what does this mean in terms of when the future elections will be held? How does the process in Bahrain work? Just curious…
No dates yet LiB, but the elections could be just after Ramadhan, November maybe for the parliament to start working on or around National Day.
At the King’s pleasure, CW, constitutionally.
Thanks Mahmood. So if you (generic you) are planning on running you need to have all your ducks in a row and ready to go since elections could happen at anytime. I am surprised there isn’t a 30 or 60 day window to allow some time for people to run a campaign.
What do you think the odds are of seeing some serious turnover in Parliament?
No, constitutionally, the elections MUST be called within the last 4 months at the end of the term as in Article 58 of the Constitution.
Well Mahmoud, SOMEone has been reading your blog and finally got the message!!lol Thank YOU your majesty!
Ingrid
oooh! if only! 😆
So mahmood, i have a small question which Im still wondering about since i really havent focoused on bahrain’s progress lately…
well the king still have the higher power in the country? whats his role going to be?
oh i forgot to put * his majesty* how disrespectfull i am!
His Majesty’s role is that of the King. The highest constitutional power in the country. If we have a problem with that, then the constitution should be changed to reflect this. As no move has been done so far to do just that, then his position as the ultimate power is a constitutional guarantee.
I’m not happy with that, as I feel that His Majesty does have too much power for such a position; however, I accept it, as it is a constitutional rite, and I shall work to encourage the limitation of his rights in the constitution, but until that happens, I’m okay with it.
Next question?
Screw the constitution, screw the parliament….viva la revolution!
Revolutions eat their children and spread chaos amongs the people.
I do not wish that for Mahmood or for Bahrain.
On a happy note, rock on Mahmood. You should run for the next Parliament, you have my vote, if I could vote.
Thanks Ethan, much appreciated!
Mahmood sorry to be stupid here but do you really call that * real democracy* when one man has the ultimate power in the country and not elected by the people, its your right to accept your own constitution and I have no problem with that, but with such a constitution no progress can be real progress.. Maybe I am wrong here, no?
With all due respect, I do believe that this system in the middle east sucks. There is always that powerfull man who’s decision is unbeatable. Kings, long term presidents, and so called revolutainires.. why arabs are ok with that? Don’t they want someone who listen to them?
Please calirfy to me more if possible, because I dont get it what are the reasons of that loyalty in the arabs to their leaders even though, we all know, they have done nothing to their people.
Democracy is available in different flavours, and not one flavour can reign supreme at the top of the pop charts for long. Look at the “ancient” democracies and see how often those systems changed to what we have today.
Yes, the common denominator is the ability of the people to elect their head of state, and more importantly, to impeach that head of state and replace him or her if the conditions present themselves. However, we currently do not have that luxury.
What we have; however, is a semi-modern tribal rule as far as Bahrain is concerned, one which the people do have a problem with, but I think we (the people) are choosing our battles wisely as we cannot simply ride a revolutionary wave and rid ourselves of the ruling family. That would be an invitation to disaster; just transpose that fact onto any other Arab state and you would submit “disaster” with catastrophe.
So what avenues are open to us to pursue this generic understanding of democracy?
1. Have a constitution which is agreeable to the people. We have a constitution, the majority of the people are in disagreement with it, and this constitutes the first step of the battle to inculcate democracy: fight to repair the constitution in legal channels and the available constitutional tools and political pressure.
2. Ensure that we have proper civic organisations which fight for the right of the Bahraini citizen and defend his human rights. We have several who are working on this stream and they are exerting an inordinate amount of international political pressure bringing transgressions to the fore and gaining international condemnation and sidelining of the ruling regime whenever they do transgress the accepted international norm. This, but its nature, has limited the “damage” or the transgressions the ruling family and government can do to the populace. That battle is in stasis at the moment, and will remain so unless these organisations are made to lose focus. The government has attempted to do that with the dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) however they failed miserably because of the internal and external support they enjoy.
3. Reduce the role of the ruling family to those of a constitutional monarchy in which they have no political say in which the country is run. That is a long term goal and is actually a middle meeting ground which all of our monarchies should consider and plan for accordingly. At the moment however we do not have that state, what we have is “owning families” rather than “royal families”. From my observations and the current flow of politics around the world, if the ruling families do not become simple constitutional monarchies, revolutions will take place and they will be disposed of within the next 50 years, probably sooner if the conflicts in the Middle East escalate beyond what they are today.
4. Because religion takes such a central role in our communities at the moment, and because it is quite apparent that should a monarchy fall it will only be replaced with theocratic rule most probably, and that invites total flight of capital, destruction of industry, and more importantly, flight of “brains” from our countries, all of which will create a tenious vacuum which will draw in much more terrorism and extremism than we see today. Couple that with the inherent sectarian strife we have been experiencing and you will see that this, most probably, is a much more destabilising force than getting rid of monarchies.
5. To repair problem number 4, and assist in accelerating point 3, education must be emphasised and it be completely overhauled to enshrine the ideals of transparency, tolerance and critical thinking.
Hence, taking all of the above into consideration, I am happy enough to work even with a flawed constitution and work toward fixing it, ensuring educational reforms take place and make those as my primary battles, rather than allowing a whole country to descend into chaos simple to “get rid of our kings”.
We simply have much bigger fish to fry, and that is to build our community in a way that will accept and respect democracy when it comes.
Savvy?
Thanks alot for that clarification! I needed it!, for once I thought you agree with the whole ulitimate power in one man, however it seems that to ensure a peacfull democratic process, one must take steps. Im happy as long as its taking a progress and affecting the daily lives of many citizens.
Thank you, and congratulations.
Mahmood, how would you propose to bridge the gap between the current system and your system as outlined above. Specifically, I’m asking about the education of the populace and changing their mindset so as to adapt to your proposed democratic system. I am wondering about this because if, say, a democratic system was imposed tomorrow, people would still, largely, vote along tribal lines which would probably result in some theocratic form of government.
True, and resolutions of this sort do not happen over-night, although that should not deter putting concrete plans to force through educational reform. And here’s the rub: if we as a nation have to progress in finding alternate sustainable sources of revenue away from the dependence on oil, we have to reform the education system in order for it to produce graduates cognizant of world needs; that in itself must depend on critical thinking and the adoption of modern sciences; that in turn will raise difficult self-searching questions even about “givens” in faith and religion, which in turn will – regardless of traditional explanations – must give rise to a more tolerant view of “the others.”
Follow that chain of thought and you will probably arrive at the assumption’s conclusion that this will produce better and more evenly distributed prosperity, raising the middle class, who would want more of an active say in the way their country is run, which will apply pressure on changing the status quo into a more representative democratic society and governance.
There’s your bridge. Education. Proper education.
Now the other irony, the ruling families do not have a choice but to take that route! Doing anything else would just drive their respective countries and communities into the ground and will prove to the world what a selfish lot they are in that they only care about their own comfort level. But, betting on the human spirit which craves longevity they (the ruling families) will not go down that route (unless they’re led by and followed by complete morons) and would wish to reach an agreement with their populace to continue their reign, but under a different set of rules.
Kuwait is a good example of that actually, the parliament CAN remove an Amir from power, and they must approve his selection of a crown prince. As the Bahraini constitution is build on the Kuwaiti constitution in part, then it is not too far fetched to see that this amended can and should be made to ours.
But let’s get back to the bridge which I hope I have made (my personal opinion and analysis) quite plain: the only way forward to both sides is to concentrate on providing a good education which promotes tolerance, self criticism, moderation, and critical thinking as a way of life.
Mahmood,
It’s difficult from “the outside” to see what changes this election will actually bring about, other than new people in the parliament. Maybe I’m wrong and maybe you can help clarify a few points.
As far as I can see the supporters of a theocratic system could still gain more power from this election. Right/wrong?
Will the shias will get more influence? And if they do get more members in the parliament what could that mean for the next 4 years?
Could an increase in the number of liberal members mean the king will have to listen to them, even if they should decide to call for reforms he didn’t like?
And congratulations.
Mahmoud, Can women run for office there or was your use of “man” gender specific?
Laury
Yes they can, and they can vote too. Unfortunately in the 2002 election, although some 8 women stood, and the electorate is constituted of 51% women, not one was voted in.
Egads. We do the same over here in the States. Women rarely vote in women. Sorry to hear it.