A word of appreciation to our president [Archives:2002/30/Viewpoint]

Despite the many problems that Yemen has today, we need to be just and somewhat objective when evaluating and consequently appreciating the leadership role of President Ali Abdullah Saleh throughout the last 24 years.
Our president may have had his shortcomings or mistakes, but that is normal and part of human nature that no one should take advantage of. On the other hand, he has also accomplished undeniable achievements including achieving unity of former south and north Yemen. He had adopted democracy, human rights, and freedom of the press and made their path irreversible.
President Saleh needs to realize that there are many positive things that he has done indeed, and those things have indeed helped the people of Yemen in many ways. But there is yet a lot that he can also do to help Yemen and its people.
He should not be bothered by the accusations or critiques coming from some -and not all- opposition parties, whose role has been belittled because of their continuous attacks without suggesting any useful solutions.
At the same time, not everyone who criticizes the president is an enemy or an agent of some sort. For example, we at the Yemen Times have been very frank and open in expressing an opinion that may contradict with the presidents way of seeing things. However, we only received from the president understanding and action after expressing those opinions. This also resembles a feature that President Saleh enjoys, and that is tolerance and understanding. Therefore, we get encouraged to continue presenting the different ideas and opinions without fear or hesitation because we believe that those ideas will be respected whether they conform or do not conform to the presidents views.
We would like our president to be aware of those individuals around him who glorify his image by continuously praising his moves no matter what their consequences are, and who try to tell him that everything is doing fine under his leadership and there are no problems whatsoever.
This unfortunately brings the illusion that everything in the country is in perfect condition, which is not true. Those individuals do more harm to our president and country than good because their fear of any response from the president when mentioning the truth drives them to lie, which leads to dire consequences. They tempt to hide what is negative and present a rosy image of what is happening in the country perhaps thinking that it is better to keep the president uniformed about those problems.
We are delighted however, that with the level of democracy we are enjoying today, those individuals have little effect in the overall picture. They will ultimately look like idiots if they continue their theoretical acts, and the president has been very active and keen lately to know the truth for himself. Only through field visits and sitting with opinion makers and journalists will he be able to know the true picture and to correct what is incorrect and avoid accumulation of problems, which may lead to an ultimate explosion.
Mr. President,
You are on the right track. You only need to continue listening to the critics no matter how harsh their words are. Keep your tolerance level high, and please dont believe the ones who try to emulate Utopia in Yemen. Having problems is natural and is a healthy thing, but what is ever better is tackling them on time and in the appropriate manner.
We know your duties are tough, but we take the opportunity to thank you for what you have done and wish you all the best on your 24th anniversary as the President of Yemen.

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