You know the English expression of something sticking out like a “sore thumb”? Well, try finding the names that stick out like that from the following list of worthy people His Majesty the King selected to fill the Shura Council of 2006, and tell me why?:
Ali Saleh Al Saleh; Ibrahim Mohammed Bashmi; Ahmed Ibrahim Mahmood Behzad; Alice Thomas Samaan; Dr Bahiya Mohammed Al Jishi; Jamal Mohammed Abdulrahman Fakhro; Jameel Ali Al Matrook; Jehad Hassan Ibrahim Bukamal; Dr Hamad Ali Al Sulaiti; Hamad Mubarak Hamad Al Nuaimi; Khalid Hussain Mahdi Al Maskati; Dr Shaikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Duaij Al Khalifa; Khalid Abdulrahman Khalil Almoayyed; Khalid Abdulrasool Mohammed Taher Al Shareef; Dalal Jassim Abdulla Al Zayed; Rashid Malallah Abdulrahman Al Sabt; Rabab Abdulnabi Salem Al Arrayed; Saud Abdulaziz Qassim Kanoo; Sameera Ibrahim Abdulrasool Rajab Sayyed Habib Makki Hashim; Sayyed Dhiya’a Yahya Ali Al Mousawi; Sadiq Abdulkareem Al Shehabi; Dr Aisha Salem Mubarak; Abdulrahman Abdulhussain Mirza Jawahery; Abdulrahman Ibrahim Abdulsalam; Abdulrahman Mohammed Ahmed Al Ghatam; Abdulrahman Mohammed Jamsheer; Abdulla Rashid Ibrahim Al A’ali; Essam Yousif Abdulla Abdulkareem Janahi; Ali Abdulredha Al Shaikh Salman Al Asfoor; Dr Shaikh Ali bin Abdulla bin Khalid Al Khalifa; Dr Fawzia Saeed Abdulla Al Saleh; Fuad Ahmed Jassim Al Hajji; Faisal Hassan Abdulla Fulad; Mohammed Hassan Baqer Jassim Radhi; Mohammed Hadi Ahmed Mansoor Al Halwachi; Muneera Isa Saleh bin Hindi; Nasser Hameed Al Shaikh Ibrahim Al Mubarak; Huda Azra Ibrahim Nonoo; and Wedad Mohammed Hassan Al Fadhel.
update 1719: I’ve created a page with more details on the member of the 2006 Shura council which contains their educational background and whether the member is returning or newly appointed. This will be the page that I will update from time to time as and when required.
Comments
No one really sticks out because they have one major thing in common: loyalty and obedience to the regime in one way or another, either by being an enemy of the enemy or paying direct allegience.
I see a bunch of rubber-stamping bootlickers…from Fulad that has been incriminated in bandergate, to Mosawi who has been drumming on about the great strides of ‘reforms’ for the past four years like a programmed robot. To Sameera Rajab the ex-baathist whose reeling anti-religion hate seems to reap respect in the royal quarters. And of course the rest are notorious business tycoons who have their hands in the cookie jar with their master khalifites in business deals from construction to foreign investements.
Rather than being a sore thumb, more likely they form the different fingers connected to the same hand.
Mohammed Hadi Ahmed Mansoor Al Halwachi! what has he done or can do to this country other than kiss ass by his poem. This shows that kissing ass could to take you to places…
The really good name that stands out for me is Jehad Bukamal.
If you want to be objective the Shura now has a far greater number of educated and practical people than the “lower” house. Indeed one would have liked to see in the ‘nuwab’ quite a few of the appointed members of the upper house – for one thing they would have the intellectual ability to look at issues far more rationally. And frankly speaking, in the previous parliament, the level of debate and discussion in the Shura was far superior to anything seen in the “lower” house.
I say give them a chance before we start with name-callings. :yes:
I agree to give them the benefit of the doubt, and also agree that they have some very good people within the list.
What I do NOT agree with; however, is allowing implicated, even if their involvement is not fully proven yet by an independent inquiry, persons to be re-selected and put in a position where they can do even more damage to the country and its people, simply because they are seen “loyal”, or rather “easily and cheaply bought.”
That “whiff” of implication is enough for the selectors to let them sit this one out, at the very least. This would have shown that the selectors have some respect for social sensibilities.
As it happens now, people feel that they have been slapped in the face and are expected to coyly say “thank you sir, can I have some more?!”
Only fairly elected representatives of the people have any political credibility in a democratic system.
This Shura council needs to be abolished or have its role relegated to purely consultative.
Appointed people, who have not reached this position via a ballot box, have no legitimacy whatsoever. So the entire Shura council is sore thumb full stop.
nice to see a chemical engineering, and a biologist on there! =P
The could’ve roled that onto one and but me on the council! lol, al though I don’t have a phd!
How about some foreigners — after all we are almost half the population and more than half of the workforce?
Mahmood said:
Unfortunately, this has been the case in Bahrain for quite a while — literally. Think of the numerous employees of the Interior Ministry who have done a lot more than just slap people in the face. Most of them have continued in their positions or have even been promoted, and no one is saying anything about it (except for a few “extremists”).
If the ruling regime can get away with torture, then why would they think they can’t get away with XXXXXX-gate?
When Salah al-XXXXX gave his press conference in London a while ago, he spoke about a telephone conversation he had with Shaikh Ahmed after the release of the report. He paraphrased what Shaikh Ahmed said to him:
“The Baharna have a very short memory. Who is talking about Flaifel at the moment? So if you think the Baharna will talk about this issue, let us wait and see. After the elections, they will forget about it, and they will have another issue at hand.”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7158604986203919896
(skip forward to about 18:30)
I really hope not, but so far it looks like his prediction is turning out to be true.
You’re right of course, and it seems that even Ahmed Attiyatallah is too due to the fact of arbitrary applications of the law which terrorises people to just forget, look at the way that Mohammed Saeed and Hussain have been treated and what did their arrest do to potentially others who hold the same views. Just kept quiet or went underground so they don’t suffer the same fate, and who could blame them?
Look at law 56 of 2002 which allows torturers to walk amongst us with impunity. And instead of the whole of Bahrain fighting that law, we find an MP establishing an organisation to support that law and try to turn the table against the tortured and dish out some more on them.
There are so many things of this sort happening here, that makes one wonder why is it so? While you look at 3rd world countries the people of which are looked down upon in our community like Nepal and others who come out in the streets whenever they feel that their rights are trounced and get them back by massive demonstrations and resolute stances; here, we would just rather turn the other cheek and walk meekly away from our rights.
This must be a social phenomenon that deserves a PhD thesis!
Loyalty aside, it is also possible that this is a way to ensure that some more business men, women and educators are present to counter the whopping onslaught of a lower house filled with all but 1 or 2 Islamic leaning persons.
Let us hope that some good comes from these persons. we can only hope. Revolutions will not help. Dialogue, healthy discussion, patience, interaction with representatives may help if they have a willling ear and willingness to help and make a difference.
For example, the respected Shaikh Ali Salman has expressed a wish to have the consitution changed. Even in all MPs and Shura members agree to it and come up with amicable changes, you think the guarding of the consitution will sign the deal if he does not like it….and big big question eh???!!! :no: =D
Got to be tried though. We cannot just let this obtuse constitution stand unchallenged just for the reason of the attempt’s failure. It behooves the new parliament in both of its chambers, all of them, to diligently work to:
1. restrict the power of the Royal Court
2. respect and increase freedoms (personal and press)
3. work towards the creation of a true constitutional monarchy headed by the good people of Al-Khalifa
4. clear separation of the branches of government
5. increase the economic chances of success (in fact, the EDB is doing an excellent job here which leads me to believe that we should give them the chance to lead this country politically as well! Anybody with me to demand that Mohammed bin Isa for the next PM?)
6. peaceful transition of government with an elected PM.
Now I fully realise that these are long term goals, and cannot be actioned in a single term of parliament; that’s okay, but they have to start.
And there is no reason for the parliament not to be multi-tasking. There is no reason for them not to parallalise their approach to legislation; they could easily take on the “social” aspects (jobs, housing, education) together with the legal aspects as I outlined above.
Well spoken and with clarity M. I could not have put it better. Perhaps the CP can be PM too. He is approachable, intelligent, articulate and young. I certainly hope that what you stated can be achieved even in 4 or more years.
What also needs to be done is to cancel the 3 months summer vacation per year, considering that only 3 years are being used for legislation etc and 3×4=12 months for summer vacation. 1 month is sufficient per year, considering that the labourers get 60 days after 2-3 years slogging. :grinnod:
“Anybody with me to demand that Mohammed bin Isa for the next PM?”
no, not yet. he’s doing a great job where he is right now. economic reforms, labour market, education and tourism.. with controllable resources. the ministries are too archaic. all in good time…… be patient..
that would be like throwing a lamb to the slaughter.
let the government sort its relationship with parliament and with the ruling family. and then, once that balance is somewhat stable, put the right people in place in government.
if i were in charge, i would have actually given seats in cabinet to the opposition 4 years ago. i would have given them the tough ones. labor, education, electricity, industry. any of the ones that have to do with the growing problem of demographics in the country. i would have made them fight for their budgets. i would have made everyone realize the tradeoff between defense/security spending and between education/health/electricity etc.
and then i would have gotten the government to agree on a 5 year plan of economic reform that was NOT dependent on $50 oil.
after that battle is fought and won, and after the agenda is set, i would then appoint the next largest opposition to reform in bahrain (who are leaders of the private sector) to oversee the execution of my brilliant plan. Maybe give the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry, perhaps even Ministry of Labor. And again, I would have to give them time to realize that they cannot continue to argue for a right to protectionism in the GCC.
And then I would go on a looooong vacation.
it might not stop the momentum towards ‘jamhouri islami bahraini’, but at the very least, i would put up a good fight and buy some time for the tide to turn …
Now why didn’t I think of that? In fact, why didn’t they think of that!
This is a well thought out agenda JJ and given half a chance, it might actually work as you have thought well of the destination before you turned the ignition on.
The powers that be will be well served to consider this and so would the opposition.
Right, I just want to add an view about these people of Bahrain. I think they played a very positive part in Bahrain. In fact, it is true that the government of Bahrain is correpted. this fact is proved by most of the official human rights bodies in the world. But still these people praised and helped the king of Bahrain to take more actions to develope Bahrain.
At the moment most of Bahrain is suffering of the discrimination against the Shia by the Sunna.
The Royal Family in Bahrain is Shia. it is beleived that the government of Bahrain is abusing the rights of the Shias. There is clear suggestions from the human Rights bodies around the world to apply in Bahrain to make it a safer place for the investment. but still the bahraini government will be recommended to consider employing more Shia faces in its government.
Our mission in Bahrain is to make it a happier place because most of the Bahrainis are known to be highly civilised citizens in the Middle East which put Bahrian in the first place to be one of the best countries in the world in some areas.
No they don’t. Get your facts right and don’t bandy about half-assed conclusions.