Democracy… not tolerance [Archives:2002/28/Focus]

BY MOHAMMED HATEM AL-QADHI
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I do really agree with the Dutch Ambassador for Human Rights Renee Jones-Bos when she said at a recent gathering session held in Sanaa with human rights activists that some governments have taken the US-led war against terror as a pretext to oppress freedoms and hassle press. That is completely true as such totalitarian regimes or leaderships do not believe in heart in democratic values, including human rights and freedom of speech and thought. They have been, in a way or another, forced to bring such norms to their countries. But in reality these norms and their activists are for them a pain the neck.
The same thing is happening now in Yemen. The margin of freedoms is continuously backsliding . Journalists are being detained in a way similar to kidnapping by intelligence agents. Others are being put on trial. What is more cynical is that a court judge ordered the public prosecutor to issue an arrest warrant against Wajdi al-Ahdal, a novelist, and seek the help of the Interpol to repatriate him to be tried in Yemen as he escaped from the country following murder threats from extremists. What is his crime? He wrote a novel depending on his creative and polished imagination. The ossified mentalities at the Ministry of Culture could not understand its symbolic gesture and allusion and according to their narrow-mindedness it was an abuse and insult to religion and the so-called the countrys conventions and traditions. What nonsense are you talking about? Even traditions which are the main detriment of our being lagging behind, have become a taboo. No judge has been courageous enough to order arrest warrant against kidnappers, other outlaws. The verdicts, courts issue against journalists and writers, are more than those passed against criminals. It is something funny, isnt it?
We are scared
The Ministry of Information has scared us by its warning reports not to report such and such issues. They believe such topics will disturb the national interests or unity of the country. I believe the entire people of Yemen do suffer oppression, injustice, inequality, and lack of access to basic services- all basic human rights. Therefore, they already live such ailments and articles written on such issues can add nothing to provoke regional sentiments. It is the rulers unequal treatment of people of different regions that incite such regional or sectarian sentiments that everyday get their way to peoples minds. Let me tell you a story. The MP Saad Eddin bin Talib, from Hadhramaut, was insulted by the Vice Speaker of the Parliament, Yahia al-Raee when he told him you donkey stop talking. A tribal MP went to al-Raee and rebuked him for insulting an MP. What was his answer? He said he did not insult a tribal figure but a person from Hadhramaut. He even said he could beat him up. Later, he promised to apologize to bin Talib but he never did it. It is this behavior that instigates regionalism, sectarianism and other sorts of such stuff. These people still look down upon others, considering them inferior to them.
Law and order in first place
Another point is this. President Saleh gave orders last week that two detained journalists, Abdulraheem Mohsen and Ibraheem Hussein, be sent to court to be tried for inciting sectarianism. They have been in jail without any trial. Again the president interfered to get the MP Ameen al-Ukaimi, detained by the military, released. That is kind of him. But we do not need this kindness. We need our democratic rights to be respected. We do not need the rulers tolerance, but the implementation of law and order. We need this to become an institutionalized culture we exercise and practice as a daily routine. This is because tolerance of the rulers is different from democratic rights ensured by the law and constitution. The first can be usurped; it is like a gift.
To drive the point home, we need to be equal before the law that should be respected and be made a terrace that can not be surpassed by anyone despite his rank in the society. But, if things continue to run loose, we feel scared and concerned over the deterioration of the freedom of expression in the country.

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