Back home:Rolling back the political clock! [Archives:2008/1142/Opinion]

Continuing from where one left off last week, it seemed that the Civil War of 1994 came not so much as to instill unification, but rather to bring about an environment of hatred, animosity and at best mistrust among the various racial, social and to a certain degree ethnic affiliations that make up the social fabric of Yemeni society. This is a far cry from the spirit of jubilation, great anticipation and cohesiveness of emotions demonstrated after the signing of the Unification Agreement of November 30, 1989. For sure, if there was a major cause for the latter, the democracy that accompanied the unity of Yemen then was certainly at the top of the list. Surely people of both the North and the South of Yemen then had been suffering unjustifiably from oppression, political tyranny and a gross misrepresentation of sound governance in their “eastern”” and “”western”” leanings of the Cold War delineations then. The democracy and political pluralism of the post unification period to many opened a new era of political and cultural dynamics that would launch the country into a new era of rapid progress and prosperity that simply was impermissible under the totalitarian and dictatorial regimes of the south and north respectively.

When the evil forces that thrived under the previous regimes saw their days in power numbered as could only be expected in a democratic environ