A coalition government to supervise the election [Archives:2006/947/Opinion]
Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Baidhani
In compliance with Article No. 5 of the Constitution stipulating the peaceful transfer of power, President Saleh declaration not to run for president in the upcoming elections functions as an introduction to a play staged before local and international public opinion after 28 years in power. The statesman devoted government institutions and property of the country to make persistent calls on him to stand in the poll under the allegation no body is eligible enough to replace him.
Al-Wasat weekly said last April that Hodeida Branch of the Political Security Organization prepares for a huge demonstration to insist on Saleh to back out on his decision. The paper added that sums of money estimated between fifty and two hundred fifty thousand Riyals were distributed to sheikhs, district chiefs and the governor henchmen to contribute in persuading citizens to register their names and signatures in lists planned to be forwarded to President Saleh and to take part in the demonstration.
Definitely, such behavior will be seen in other Yemeni governorates. The government bodies may put signatures in the poll boxes and there will be no need for voters to come to the voting centers. This confirms the upcoming presidential elections will be similar to previous ones by being merely formal and subjected to vote-fraud by mercenaries of the totalitarian regime who club and increase suffering of Yemenis as they say there is no alternative to Saleh. These mercenaries are likened to say “there is nothing better that unemployment, poverty and starvation and nothing easier than suicide, giving the opportunity to terrorism to buy the idle people”.
These behaviors convince the Yemeni people that a development plan, conditioning a new leadership with scientific judgment and practical experience for establishing a modern state, is impossible. We have to be merry for being the poorest worldwide, as former Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Ahmad Sufan stated to Al-Ayyam Newspaper on the seventh of March 2002. Most of the international loans and humanitarian grants are pocketed by officials without any monitor or accountability, as the Central Organization for Control and Audit announced and published in Al-Shumou Newspaper on the 24th of January 2004 and no official reacted.
Is this the type of governance that has no alternative? Yemen is living on a volcano due to break out as an inevitable result of unemployment, poverty, starvation and despair. The situation led university graduates to sell grilled durra on roadsides and join terrorist gangs in and outside Yemen. Besides, population boom threatens the strategic location of a country obliged to provide security and stability, considered key to reforms in a nation of armed civilians and armed forces belonging to the poor classes. The situation warns that these classes will join rebellion following the outbreak of the volcano of unemployment, starvation and animosity toward officials who plundered the country's wealth and stored it abroad.
So, our country is in need of a political qualification to help make available a good will for economic reforms from within a democratic regime hailing the opposing ideas in a collective leadership based on sound reform and not detentions and threats.
Also the country is in need of media qualification to liberate constructive criticism from the control of security apparatuses. This is due to enable opposition to disclose defaults of corrupt officials having negative impacts on the nation's wealth, grants and loans. In addition, there is a persistent need of administrative qualification to provide an efficiently trained administrative staff to shoulder the responsibility of the nation.
Another demands are associated with judiciary and unity qualifications. In case of the former, the country needs an independent judiciary qualified enough to run investment affairs to gravitate Arab and foreign capitals. The judicature must be separated from the executive while control and audit apparatuses must be qualified to be capable of referring any corruption suspect to court without consulting the executive. These apparatuses must be separated from the presidency powers. With regard to the latter (unity qualification), efficiency and competence must be the standard for occupying posts and not family, ethnical or racial relations. It is impossible for a country, suffering discrimination between citizens and lack of work specialization, to cope with technological advancements of the era.
I remember that when I was Vice President of the Republic and Prime Minister, I selected competent people to help in building the new state, most of whom were from Sana'a and the surrounding areas. As the contemporary state is the goal, its means should involve science and competence plus continued improvement.
After confirming the evidence of vote-fraud in presidential elections and the president's use of public money and security and media apparatuses, it is impossible for the country to have free and fair elections until a coalition government supervises all the electoral stages and under an international monitoring. Aired debates between presidential candidates are necessary to help people select the most eligible one who can build a contemporary state with stable development to achieve security and peace. The country does not need anything more important than security and peace to protect corruption or a backward tribal and military state driving Yemen to catastrophe.
I made a bid for presidency and proposed a debate with President Saleh to ask him how he led the country to catastrophe and how he can rescue the country from this catastrophe. By this, we did not undervalue efforts of Saleh who worked harder for the sake of the nation and no soul can afford more than its capability. Last but not the least, every candidate must give an oath on his wealth and prove legitimacy of its sources.
Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Baidhani is a well-known Yemeni politician. He was the Vice Chairman of the Revolution Council after the 1962 revolution, a former Vice President of the Republic and Prime Minister. He currently resides in Egypt.
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[archive-e:947-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-05-18-p:opinion]
