Democratic practice and national unity [Archives:2006/982/Opinion]
Iskandar Al-Asbahi
It's an interrelated relationship between democracy and national unity. Anyone of us should not slip while practicing the democratic right, to impinge on national unity, the connecting element between our citizens. According to the democratic culture there is no major affiliation or secondary affiliation that occupies the priority to or lords over affiliation of the homeland.
There is no one in our Yemeni society who is against the national unity exposing its fabric to a shaking. Our society is simple in its composition and there is no range of ethnicity, religion or sects, but rather one origin and one religion.
In the period before the revolution the national unity and affiliation had not taken root. The isolation imposed on Yemen by its rulers overcame this value. A citizen recently joked saying when he was unable to do anything to find himself with others who migrated to East Africa in the forties of the last century and when he was asked by someone if he was from Yemen he would deny his heritage. He didn't know he was from the country of Yemen. All that he knew was he had passed by the thicket of Yemen when he traveled for the first time to East Africa. He thought he came from a village a little farther from the thicket of Yemen.
It was a period of imposed isolation which separated the society and made the society fabric too loose. But that was only an exceptional period and it disappeared after the September 26 revolution especially after Yemeni unity on May 2, 1990.
Although this value is as strong in our society as it appears today it does not mean it cannot be affected or influenced. The influence may come from domestic forces under various banners and hide behind democracy or by the external forces of so-called creative chaos that assume the same excuses and through them try to infiltrate societies.
Whatever the matter, the relationship between national unity and regional peace in any country is the connection and adherence. It's national unity that binds the citizens in the affiliation of the homeland and the state. Unity and national safety creates preservation and protection of the state integrity. Both of the national unity and territorial safety for lead to a strong national sovereignty. I do not believe that while practicing its democratic rights, our society will allow any attempt to impinge upon its national unity.
Iskandar Al-Asbahi is a Yemeni journalist. He is the editor in chief of Al-Mithaq weekly.
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[archive-e:982-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-09-18-p:opinion]
