Politicians: reform is impossible without serious political will [Archives:2008/1121/Local News]

By: Mohammed Bin Sallam
SANA'A, Jan. 15 ) “Reform is impossible unless the government has serious political will,” said politicians at a political reform symposium organized Monday by the Yemeni Center for Strategic Studies. They stressed the necessity of Yemen adopting political reforms to help limit the powers of the totalitarian ruler, activate the role of institutions and hand over security and military institutions to a civil authority.

Symposium participants affirmed that the nation is experiencing a sharp political crisis, which may lead to unprecedented collapse in all economic, political and social areas, further attributing continued economic deterioration to political disorders.

Inaugurating the symposium, the center's chairman and Sana'a University economics professor Mohammed Al-Afandi noted, “Political reform in Yemen is both an old and a new issue that emerged in the 1930s, but it has become an urgent demand since Yemen's reunification. Political reform is the basic demand and the national necessity advocated by all political forces, particularly as building the modern state of Yemen requires healthy institutions that reflect the peoples' will.

“The symposium attempted to answer some questions regarding the issues and horizons of political reform, how it's implemented, where it begins and whether the government has serious plans and strategies to carry out reforms,” Al-Afandi added. Like other academics, he was not optimistic that political reform can be achieved under the current government, but afforded numerous researchers the chance to share their viewpoints on the “complicated” issue.

In this regard, Mohammed Al-Dhahri, chairman of Sana'a University's Political Science Department, presented a comprehensive study diagnosing Yemen's political situation by comparing the Joint Meeting Parties and President Ali Abdullah Saleh's initiatives regarding political reforms.

In his study, Al-Dhahri praised the JMP's initiative for thoroughly diagnosing the actual situation and suggesting workable solutions to it whereas, according to him, Saleh's initiative is ambiguous and lacks detail.

Al-Dhahri considered what he described as a “continual phenomenon of releasing initiatives and constitutional amendments in Yemen” as evidence of the regime's instability, adding that it implies multiple weaknesses in the state and society.

The academic further cited the Sa'ada wars, protests in southern Yemen and the most recent presidential initiative as evidence of the regime's instability over the past time period. He ascertained that there are some prerequisites before implementing such a political reform process, such as institutional building, faith in the transfer of power and improving citizens' living conditions. “Yemen is living in a period of a peaceful extension of power, not a peaceful transfer of power,” he commented.

Noting that economic deprivation leads to political instability, Al-Dhahri urged the government and the ruling party to fulfill the promises in Saleh's electoral platform by which he won the people's support. He expects the opposition parties to win the majority of seats in the 2009 parliamentary elections if the ruling party continues performing this way.

Official JMP spokesman Mohammed Al-Sabri presented the JMP vision for reforms, declaring that the opposition group strongly rejects any return to “the house of obedience,” meaning not opposing government policies. He considered the ruling party's call for dialogue a type of misleading and deception, as, according to him, General People's Congress leaders have their own concept of dialogue.

Al-Sabri continued, remarking that GPC members have a random approach, restarting everything from zero when dialogue fails to achieve the sought-after objectives. He affirmed that Yemen is in the midst of a “gloomy tunnel,” which the late Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ahmar warned against progressing toward at the Islah Party's third conference in 2005.

According to Mohammed Saleh Ali, chairman of the Yemeni Socialist Party's Political Circle, political reform initiatives no longer are feasible, nor can they suggest workable solutions to the current situation.

He called for creating true and effective initiatives to help rescue the nation from its current crisis and halt its progress toward unprecedented catastrophe. “Once [such] initiative is being made, we can talk about real political reform,” the YSP official reacted.

Ali likened today's government to an ailing man who is pessimistic about his recovery. “Saleh's initiative doesn't meet the requirements and conditions of true initiative; rather, it's merely composed of ideas presented for discussion, a fact President Saleh himself acknowledged before JMP leaders at an Aden meeting,” he pointed out.

Mohammed Abdulmalik Al-Mutawakel, deputy secretary-general of Yemen's Popular Forces Union political party, remarked that “totalitarianism” is a persistent problem Yemenis have battled since the 1948 Revolution.

During the symposium, which focused on JMP initiatives regarding political reforms, Al-Mutawakel highlighted the most prominent attempts thus far by national forces to deeply root institutionalism and end totalitarianism since the 1948 Revolution until 1990's national unification.

According to Al-Mutawakel, formed after reunification, the Presidential Council helped bring balance between the two regimes of Yemen, but the 1994 Civil War ended such balance.” He clarified that amending the nation's Constitution in a way befitting the totalitarian regime was the first thing done following that war.

Al-Mutawakel stressed that there's no meaning to the system of governance – whether presidential or parliamentary – unless there's a transparent electoral mechanism to reflect the people's will. He added that the nation's military and security institutions must be neutral, stressing the necessity of affiliating both institutions to a civil authority.

Political writer Abdulnaser Al-Mude described the government's insistence to form the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum, or SCER, of judges as a legal violation of the democratic process, mainly because it means that Yemen has no independent judiciary. Instead, he recommended the SCER be comprised of those from all political parties, adding that the Yemeni government needs to establish a special court to handle election-related issues.

Further, political analyst Ahmad Sa'eed Al-Dahi emphasized the necessity of making essential amendments to the Yemeni Constitution in order to specify the powers of the ruler, Parliament and the army, maintaining that the government is responsible for the nation's deteriorating situations.
——
[archive-e:1121-v:15-y:2008-d:2008-01-17-p:ln]