Focus (Opinion) Of the Week - Issue 05

05 - January 29th thru February 4th 2001, Vol XI

Local Elections Delirium 2/2

COMMON SENSE
By: Hassan Al-Haifi
"All right everybody take your seats, the choice of the people has arrived", yelled Tawfiq as he escorted Salah into the diwan of Tawfiq's house.
Salah was amazed at the large gathering Tawfiq had managed to put together: "I did not think that the upcoming Local Council Elections would create such a fuss".
"Can't you see how everyone is excited that you have accepted to attend the meeting" said Tawfiq as both men walked up to the top of the modestly long diwan, when compared to the diwans of more wealthy citizens.
Tawfiq commented to the gathering: "Twenty years ago this was the biggest diwan in the city of Sana'a, now it is a second rate qat session room. However, we remain simple in outlook in the old city of Sana'a. We want to make sure that this simplicity carries on for the next generations to come on. We not only have to preserve our buildings, there is a lot of culture in here that must be saved, otherwise centuries of cultural and civic upbringing will go down the drain and the plastic culture of the Diplomatic Quarter of the city will take away the breath of life out of the city. Here is the man who knows Sana'a and its traditions and he is the only I know who can uphold the traditional values of the city and echo our concerns."
"Wait a second there Tawfiq, I only accepted to attend your meeting; I have not said that I accept your nomination. I am truly honored and grateful for considering me as your candidate. However, you are really asking me to make a big leap from my normal trouble-free life. I believe as my father always said, 'the doorway to trouble is found by getting into politics. To keep trouble as far away as possible, you have to stay out of politics'". Salah reiterated his hesitation about being drawn into the game of politics.
Yet, Tawfiq did not fully register Salah's last apprehensions: "All right folks, here is the man to represent our neighborhood in the District Local Council. I just can't think of any better nominee. All of you are aware how much searching we have done amongst our fellow citizens for that right candidate, who will become our voice in Government. It is about time that the local authorities are activated and only people like Salah can give us a glimmer of hope that this whole affair will not turn out to be a meaningless flop like the national democratic strides."
A friend of Tawfiq suggested: "Look, let us convince our friend here that we are not accepting no for an answer to our call". Turning towards Salah he continued: "Salah, when public duty calls on you there is just no grounds for second thoughts".
Salah was somewhat embarrassed: "Thank you very much Fawzi, but I am not sure that I am the right man to meet your expectations. I have little experience in political positions or the experience to take on the more experienced political muscle that are bound to be confronted as issues come before the Local Council. Moreover, I am not quite sure that the Local Councils can deliver much in the wake of the Local Administration Law and the new amendments to the Constitution. I am not convinced that decentralization has truly been entered into our political set up. Somehow there is something missing".
Tawfiq took the floor: "What did I tell you people, Salah may be reserved at times, but for sure, he understands the inner intricacies of the society that most people tend to ignore". He continued, while turning towards his friend, next to him: "You see Salah, that is why you are needed for the job. We want you to be our voice, who can prove that the proper legislative framework is still missing for real local rule and government. If all the local councils managed to have one or two members who could speak their minds constructively as you can, surely some sense is bound to reach the worshippers of centralized Government, that have turned government into a monstrous do-nothing bureaucracy. You will have substantial support at the grass roots level and you can always count on them for support. I know you very well. How can we forget how you were able to turn our secondary school Parents and Teachers Association into the most active and effective citizen's lobby. That turned our school into a model school, and its students achieved the highest grades. All your fellow students remember that it was Salah who was the guiding spirit that made his father move the other parents and even the teachers into constructive criticism and action to upgrade our school significantly. Your father was the one who insisted that the administrators and the teachers of the school should be accountable to the PTA. Any complaint signed by five parents and or teachers against the school official or teacher would subject the latter to a hearing and possible dismissal. Yes, there is no question about it, you have a knack for behind the scenes maneuvering. We believe that this qualification will be handy in the kind of obstacles that truly sincere and serious LC members are bound to face".
A pessimist in the meeting aired his views: "The Local Council is not the school PTA and there is considerable money involved. In addition Government now is not what it was 15 years ago, both in size and in complexity. Salah would be one out of twenty members. The Government will have considerable influence on quite a lot of them. Salah will have to cultivate a lot of political muscle to outdo these guys. I am not quite sure, he or anyone else for that matter will be allowed to nurture such support."Tawfiq was ready with the response, but first threw a twig of qat to the pessimist: "Look, Abdullah, if Salah has trouble inside the machine, he can always count on us to support him, by maneuvering subtly to activate us behind him through using all the legal means at our disposal to let the Government know that Salah's ideas and views are shared by quite a lot of people. On the other hand, the Government just can't own everyone, the LC members are not going to be paid from the Central Government, if they are going to be paid at all. In addition, they have a right to make public officials accountable to them in their jurisdiction. This is the first time that even the idea of accountability has been given some procedural consideration. Salah understands how to use such minor powers to the maximum benefit of the constituency".
Salah cut in: "In all fairness to Tawfiq, many of those PTA ideas came from him. He knew his parents were not able to make them move in the PTA, so his wisdom got him to coax me to get my parents involved, since he knew my father, God bless his soul, was outspoken and convincing when he wanted to be so. I insist that it is Tawfiq who is the more qualified for the position than yours truly. In all fairness to all of you and the people of Sana'a, I say it is Tawfiq who should be the subject of your attention here and not I, although I am honored by your consideration."Fawzi was quickly interested in Salah's nomination of Tawfiq: "I agree with Salah that Tawfiq is indeed highly qualified and more interested than Salah is for the position. There is no question about Tawfiq's political acumen. Had it not been for all the finagling with the Parliamentary Elections in the last round, Tawfiq would have been in Parliament acting as our representative. There was no doubt that he was going to win, but he was literally forced to withdraw his nomination at the last minute, because the Government had wanted the deadmeat we now have in Parliament there to represent us. To this day, I have never seen the guy's face on the televised sessions of Parliament and I have never seen him anywhere in the District, let alone in the neighborhood. I say we should give Tawfiq another go at it. Perhaps the addicts of tight centralized government will not worry about Tawfiq being far away from the capital city". With Tawfiq as our choice, we will give the big parties the message, that when it is local, we want the decision to be ours. We are tired of your failures and your contempt for our interests and concerns"Abdu added: "We know that democracy is still a long shot from being a fact of life here in Yemen, but at the local level, we want to see as much of it as possible. We are behind you Tawfiq, and let us see how far we can go. Let us pray that it shall be forward. When the machine is awesome and aloof from the will of the public, prayers are bound to be called for to solicit God's mercy on the people of Yemen. After all God's mercy is more accessible than that of our autocratic Government". Amen.

The UNHCR Branch in Yemen: Has it Gone Astray?
The Organization meant for the Good of Refugees Turns out to be to their Harm!!?

When an international charitable body, of the volume, vitality and importance of the branch office of the UNHCR in Yemen, swerves its humanitarian mission, the consequences tend to be disastrous for its 'clients,' the refugees. It is due to the fact that the emancipatory organization has not achieved a single success for the benefit of the refuge seekers, that those who are living in permanent states of 'sublime fear' have given up resorting to the humanitarian organization!
Such a conclusion hasn't been reached arbitrarily in favor of the emancipatory organization branch. On the contrary, it has been reached by close scrutiny and a painstaking inspection of the inconsistent behavior of the organization's branch conducted over a number of years.
The first negative result of such demeanor that can be observed at the branch is a lack of discipline, which manifests itself in matters such as the loss of files of some of the applicants for refugee status, and deliberately misguiding some of those applicants about the decisions taken in their cases regarding recognition of their refugee status, and telling them that their cases are pending. Or in the permanent delay in taking decisions in cases which are supposed to be decided with great urgency. Other than that, there is an incredible negligence in the settling of some applicants' claims, or in ignoring the claims themselves. Besides the high costs of contacting the organization which refugee's have to bear: it is entirely forbidden to see an officer - let alone his "excellency", the representative. The deputy representative and the protection officer are not to be seen unless there is a prior appointment, and when you ask them to specify that date, they tell you that it is not possible! - as if all the cases presented before the office need to follow the whole zigzag route, or as if those people, including the representative himself, are not there for the purpose of helping the poor refugees! Nevertheless, even the two reception days have recently been canceled after the well-known "Somali-stone-assault" against the emancipatory branch, nearly two months ago. This goes on while the branch protection unit practices its dubious criteria to evaluate similar cases differently: Very often there have been similar cases judged in a discriminatory manner resulting in improper assessments. Other times, the protection officer, who is a volunteer herself, does not inspect the claims of a given group of applicants as "case by case study"; she would decide plurally on them. e.g., she regards the sum of the Sudanese claims as the same, despite the apparent differences.
But the most miserable situation a candidate at the office can be made to endure is the lack of transparency. And this can vary to take the form of elusion in evading the enquiries of the refugees or withholding the necessary information under the pretext of official secrecy, a thing which is capable of disabling the efforts of any mighty giant.
Numerous cases have been given up while following the crippled and uncertain process because of sheer exhaustion. Many cases have been pending for over a year; other applicants have been left to meet their miserable fates in the hands of their native embassies and consulates (a number of applicants have handed the office a written complaints on the issue), a third group (refugees from Arab countries) were told that the Yemeni government does not accept Arab refugees within its borders and yet, the protection unit did not hesitate to hand many of them letters telling them "they do not meet the UNHCR criterion for resettlement"É! And thus applicants give up following up their applications, making the whole matter a sheer waste of time.
Meanwhile, all refuge conventions (the 1951 convention in particular) urge the doner countries to provide their guests with the necessary means to lead a decent life, and to give them priority regarding job opportunities. Neither the UNHCR branch (except for a limited number of Somalis who are granted very little sums of money), nor the Yemeni hosts supply the refugees with the above mentioned facilities. The annual report issued by the office last December states that despite the fact that the Yemeni government has recognized and signed the various refugee treaties, it does not accept political asylum seekers from Arab countries. In the circumstances, all the refugees around the world are totally dependent on what the UNHCR and the hosts offer them.
This happens at a time when the branch office has completely stopped receiving any further applications for protection! And this was a fact that Mr. Dugheish (a former employee at the UNHCR subsidiary organization "PAD" in the managing staff of the RCC) articulated in an interview on the Jazira TV Channel; that the whole affair in the office is messy and mixed up with rampant corruptionÉ For whose benefit do such things happen, or why does a UNHCR branch which is essentially founded to comfort and lessen the sufferings of the refuge seekers, turn out to be a means of adding extra burdens onto the already weakened shoulders of these poor refugees? Really, I don't think that what is going on, in the UNHCR branch office here, can benefit a refuge seeker in any respect.

Hanafi Mohammed Saleh
A Sudanese Refugee in Yemen

A Word from the Christchurch and Ras Morbat Clinic in Aden

On 1 January 2001, at approximately 0530, a bomb placed just outside the perimeter wall adjacent to the kitchen area of the church residence in Tawahi detonated. Fortunately the two people in residence at that time were neither killed or injured.
The property damage was extensive: window frames and glass on the ENTIRE side of the building were destroyed as was a large section of the perimeter wall. Doors were blown in and damage occurred to many items in the residence. It is estimated that cost of repair will be about $25,000 to $30,000 USD, money which we would much rather have been spent on resources: medicines, equipment and supplies which we use in the treatment and care of people who come to Ras Morbat Clinic for medical and eye care. Damage also occurred to people in the neighborhood, their homes and small businesses.
There is another kind of damage also. We are saddened by the fact that some apparently see the Christian Church of Aden and its community as an enemy of Islam. We, the Christian community and people, are not an enemy of Islam. The Church does not have a primary motive of changing Muslims into Christians as some declare. More than half of our staff of 25 persons are Muslim. Our staff are a diverse group of people who have learned to work with and care for each other in our common effort to serve the people of Yemen, and dialogue is a goal.
There are common enemies of Islam and Christianity, and to society in general: they are ignorance, unfaithfulness and selfishness - (use of resources for self-gain and benefit rather than for the common good) among others. Our scriptures, the Bible, teach us that we are to serve and care for one another, to visit the sick and those in prison; or to help the needy. Islam through the Quran declares respect for the "people of the book," Christians, and to the prophets; Mohammad (PBUH) and Jesus (Issa) among them.
We appeal to all God-fearing persons to promote justice, kindness and caring for all people. The people and country of Yemen are beautiful and attractive in many respects, something to be treasured and developed for the good of all. We at Christchurch and Ras Morbat Clinic cannot believe that what has happened is representative of Islam or of Christianity. Further, as the world draws ever closer together with modern communication, it is necessary that all people learn to live with respect for each other, allowing all people freedom to follow the religion, culture and way of life of their own choosing. The Yemeni newspapers, and announcements from various agencies speak of democracy, fairness, openness: let it be in reality and not just in words. Mosques exist in many Western countries of the world; and we hope that this old Adeni church can exist in the city of Aden. References to past injustice, even hatred, are never useful. We cannot live in the past, we wish to live and build a better life and society with justice for all.
We at Christchurch and Ras Morbat Clinic intend to maintain our life and work here among the people who are our neighbors and friends. We thank you, those who have helped in cleanup and repair, and expressed their sorrow at this time. And we wish the very best for Yemen, Aden and its people.

Dr. Roger A. Bruggink
Pastor and Project Manager
(Christchurch/Ras Morbat Clinic) - Aden

Survival of
Communism in Yemen

by Mohamed Kadri
When I remember him, I feel miserable. I used to see him cheerful and smiling, but last week, his face was pale, his frame looked older. The man was known as rich, as wealthy, now he is in his late fifties, almost begging to meet his daily expenses.

I couldn't bear what I saw. I failed to control myself and couldn't refrain from inquiring about what he had gone through, which made me look as if I was interfering in his personal life. I asked about what on earth led him to such a miserable condition. To my dismay, I got to know that he had been unemployed for the last seven years and had failed to obtain a job. But why? His answers were even more shocking. He said that he was rejected because he was overqualified or over aged.

I allowed myself to inquire more, and asked about his properties, which had been nationalized and confiscated a long time ago by the communists in Aden. His immediate response to my question was horrible and disastrous! Not a single flat, out of eleven huge buildings that he once owned, was restored to him by the government of the unified Yemen. No rent whatsoever was collected from the supposed renters of my old friend's commercial outlets. Not only that! Once when he started demanding his right on his own properties from the residents and renters, their response was devastating. They called a group of gangsters from the backstreets. Guess what they did to the old poor fellow. With no mercy at all, they beat the hell out of him, tore his old fashioned clothes, and insulted him with the most outrageous words one could imagine. He must have been thankful that he was not killed. They advised him not to come back again if he loved his children and wanted to see them again! His properties might have slipped away from the Communist government in the south, but now it is the hands of a group of people whom he had never seen before. His land was taken from one party and given to another!

Knowing the man well, I expected him to have been given a key position within the new government after unification; A person with his skills and knowledge must be honored and taken good advantage of. For him, it was not important to be offered a position anywhere. All he wanted was that his nationalized properties be returned back to him, the rightful owner. The poor guy had lots of plans in his head. He intended to sell his properties and launch a huge investment project in the united Yemen, a thing that several others refrain from doing because of the state negligence and continued efforts to nationalize the properties of others. He wanted to help the national economy through his investment, but he was not given the chance to even start.

After seeing with my own naked eyes how the state had failed to restore my friend's rights and properties, I started to wonder: Even though we were able to get rid of communism after unification, did the Republic of Yemen use Islamic regulations so as to give us back what has been taken away by communism? Doesn't the current constitution protect private rights? Didn't all political parties, during election campaigns following the unification, promise the owners to struggle towards nationalized proprieties' restoration? If the answers are no, then let us not dream that we have escaped from communist rule. Let us admit reality. Even though we are not formally so, what we see around us suggests that indeed, we are still living in a communist country.