From military rule to a civilized nation [Archives:2005/894/Viewpoint]

Editor
Since the Yemeni revolutions of 1962 and 1967 took place, the passing of power has continuously been from one military regime to another and mostly through coups, assassinations and violent conflicts and blood baths. However, the experience of President Ali Abdullah Saleh through 27 years of ruling gave him a good chance for changing this series of massacres. And he did express his intentions when he declared that he will not be running for elections next year and it is time for a peaceful passing of power in Yemen. However, regardless of his good intentions, President Saleh ignored a crucial point: It is not so much about passing power as it is to whom the power is passed.

Any visitor who comes to Yemen would certainly be astonished by the dominance of the military and militants in the daily life of civilians. To start with, their huge presence in the streets of main cities is alarming. Not only do they really have no particular job to do being armed forces present in the cities, it is a tragic fact is that their meaningless presence consumes a great deal of the annual national budget. Moreover, most of the Yemenis enrolled in military are those who are unable to do better in other domains of life. In other words, their level of education, culture, and sometimes even ethics are the lowest in the job profile hierarchy.

Institutionally speaking, most of the government offices relating to international relations such as the immigrations office, airport authority and taxation, ministry of foreign affairs, the Identity and personal affairs authority and many others are dominated by the military uniform to the extent that you feel that you are not in a government office but in a military camp. Even for simple paperwork that is only about procedures and the system is dominated by the military attitude that is mostly rough, rude and complicated.

So basically Yemen is trapped between the tribal system which symbolizes power, arms and disorder and military rule which is everything but civil. The minority of the Yemeni population who are neither tribes nor military are clearly feeling lost and out of place, hence they are mostly immigrating to a different country where the rule of law is enacted more than the rule of guns.

Today, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has an excellent opportunity to change all this. And he is a man with enough political intelligence to be able to do so, of course only if he has the will. While many political parties, opposition and state are entrapped in the dilemma President Saleh has put them in by deciding not to run for elections, the true questioning should rather be how to change the whole system so as such dilemmas do not occur in the future; when President Saleh said he will not run for elections many cried out “But we do not know anyone else to be our leader but you!” and THAT is the real problem not who will be the next president. I don't mind president Saleh backing out and running for elections although he said he wouldn't, because I see that the system does not allow much change anyway. What I am hoping is that somehow during his next 7 years of rule he understands the significance of leaving a legacy behind, reforming a nation all together. Transferring Yemen from a nation built on force and weapons to one based on law, order and civilization.
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