And as expected, the line up is disappointing; briefly:
- We have THREE more ministries created in this cabinet, there were 21 ministers in the past, now we have 24 (including the prime minister).
- We only have 5 new members: Jawad Al-Urayyedh (3rd deputy premier, been in various cabinets before), Nizar Al-Baharna (foreign affairs), Khalid bin Ali Al-Khalifa (takes over the newly amalgamated Justice and Islamic Affairs), Mansour bin Rajab (Muni & Agriculture) and Mohammed bin Abdullla Al-Khalifa (takes over a newly created ministry of defence affairs.)
- Two ministers left the cabinet: Abdulla bin Khalid Al-Khalifa who was the 1st deputy premier in the previous cabinet and Minister of Islamic Affairs, as well as Mohammed Al-Sitri who was the Minister of Justice.
- 19 remain at their positions
- Mohammed Abdulghaffar had the Ministry of Foreign Affairs remove from him and given to Nizar Al-Baharna. Abdulghaffar (unfortunately) remains as the Minister of Information. I would have liked to see the dissolution of this ministry as I still maintain it is unrequired.
- The best news of this reshuffle however is that the Ahmed bin Attiyatallah remains in the cabinet, which means that parliament led by Al-Wefaq will have a lot of fun immediately Parliament convenes and they can sharpen their teeth with an immediate questioning demand levied against Attiyatallah and I suspect that they will ask for his head very quickly indeed. So he will provide a lot of fun still!
For a complete list of cabinet ministers, please look at this page I’ve just created.
Comments
Just realised they’ve got the pictures of one of the ministers mixed up.. Shk. Mohammed bin Abdullah AlKhalifa,
Akhbar AlKhaleej and AlWasat got his picture wrong,
AlWaqt got it right,
As for AlWatan, they didn’t even bother putting his picture.
I have heard that one of the ministers refused to put his resignation not until he sign the new contract!!
Serious?!
Hahah, which one was it?
You forgot Sheikh Ali as the retunring Deputy Premier but no longer Transportation Minister. They brought back the oil ministry and renamed it the ministry for oil and gas affairs. They have removed the transportation ministry portfolio as they did before for oil and perhaps they will reinstitute it after 4 years.
Why would you need 3 Deputy PMs?
Transportation needs a ministry for implementation of laws. How can you make it a public authority? Perhaps I am wrong or naiev.
We have defence and defence affairs now? What is all that about…?
What does and information ministry do? Does it inform us what we can and cannot do?
😆
Did they club Justice and Islamic Affairs together because of and Islamist parliment or sharia rules?
Can they ban parliment from chatting about ALBA@^%&* case?
Akmet ben ate-it-all-ah is immune from anyone….mere fact he in office again shows that he has support and confidence of the biga boss 😯 :blush: :undecided:
We need and ministry for drains and water supply since water and agri or muni has not helped…..
We need a ministry for alcohol too since if it is monitored and controlled well (since it is one of the largest consumed commodities next to petrol and gas) we may have less problems.
We may need a ministry for tourism and culture to monitor the distribution of resources to this sector and to boost and cater this sector.
😆 😉
Now that is loyalty bought and paid! For you…….
😆 😆 😆
PM Court Affairs website cannot be opened and Cabinet affairs web page is disabled. 😡 😯 😕
Significantly:
You forgot one more thing. Nizar Al Baharna is a Wefaq member.
Thank you Adel, that is significant too of course. Though officially remember he broke off from Al-Wefaq and started his own party (did Taqi Al-Zeera join him in it too?) But that didn’t go too far.
Regardless, he is close to Al-Wefaq (as he was a founding member) and that is a plus for the government to make him into a minister in the hope he would be the required bridge between the two.
I would have liked the government to give him one of the service oriented ministries though, he would have been more effective and “right in your face” then.
Still, a good start nevertheless.
They threatened to break off and form their own party but they didn’t cos their new party split into two even before they started. Also they somehow felt that one of their main goals which is participation in elections was going to be realised.
Ah,one more thing. Ali Salman asked for ministerial positions for Alwefaq two days before the rumors about appointments got out.
Let’s wait and see what the ‘new’ cabinet will offer his people. Will housing problems be solved ever? will political Bahrainization be stopped and controlled to be under the direct supervision of Parliment?
Many issues await this ‘new’ cabinet. I don’t want to be an optimist nor pessimist. But how long will “He” of ‘Good’ service to his “country”?
Seeing is believing.
I don’t quite consider the current cabinet changes to be anything significant. An interesting move to give Dr. Nezar a ministerial position, though initial rumours about him receiving a different position (Commerce) which argueably is more suited to his profession, nonetheless, it is a good move to have a current AlWefaq member with such a high reputation as part of the current cabinet.
Especially as the previous Opposition member (Dr. AlAlawi) has done quite a good job at his post since being picked out of the opposition to do so.
It only proves that unlike some people like to project, the Opposition, be it AlWefaq or other political parties DO have professionals that are a benefit to the country, and not some ranting protesting activists as some might want to tell us.
Interesting commentary!
Also, commentator number 1 is right..That isn’t the Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla .. you should update the ministers’ page with the new mug instead!
And it doesn’t seem that Al Wefaq is interested in the who-we-can’t-name report…because they kept their traps shut about it the whole time..or am I wrong???
Have I been away for long?!
SBG I’ll correct the error re Shk Mohd when I get the right picture, and you’re wrong on the second. If you followed one of the pre-elections Kuwait TV 6/6 interview (shame that our very own Bahrain TV didn’t bother to do anything of the like) you would have heard him say specifically that questioning Voldemort is going to be their very first action in the forthcoming parliament.
We wait and see.
They will, will they not, be restricted to discuss issues relating to the current Parliament, not issues that predate it? They used this argument to stifle debate and full investigation of the naturaliation issue in the last Parliament.
Not true. They are not allowed to discuss issues before the first parliament convened (Dec 13, 2002) but there are no restrictions as to events post that date.
mahmood you’re right,
the MarinaGate issue could still be rised, though i’m not really so sure about when they could bring it up, Shk. Ali Salman seems to be doing his best to keep relations with Asala and Menbar at a good level, so an issue that directly points the finger at a minister AND a couple of members of these two ‘political’ societies will definately not be taken lightly by them.
Especially since AlWefaq already have ‘elected’ parliment members like Mohammed Khalid that are willing to do everything in their might to make them look bad….
tough call really..
More important is that the 66% of voters in Bahrain who have voted for Al-Wefaq want them to take up the case, and strongly.
They can be smart and ask for an immediate and transparent investigation, and based on the outcome question the minister and people involve and then ask for a vote of confidence, using only constitutionally available tools works to their advantage.
How much of a majority of the parliament do they require to question a minister as well as push for a vote of confidence?
5
Then it’s more than doable, question is whether they would or not.
I think that Dr. Nezar Al-Baharna was given this post to appose the opposition in their foreign agenda. This has been the policy of Al-Khaleefa long time ago; putting the brothers to fight against them selves, while they watch. Time will tell who is the man and who isn’t.
I am sad that your forcast that the PM will be released from his place… it seems mahmood that your wispering voice “from within” is only halocinating.
The ruling family represent less than 1% of the population, and yet they are represented by 50%! They have been given more than they deserve, i terms of the financial and economic supports, so why the hell do they still want to control what is meant for the poeple!