Hit the killers with the law [Archives:2003/01/Focus]

COMMON SENSE
By Hassan Al-Haifi
Yemen is not a stranger to assassinations and the latest spree of killings shouldn’t surprise anyone when considering the state of lawlessness and chaos that seems to dominate the air. But judging from the huge funeral cortege that followed Jarullah Omer’s (no relationship to the mysteriously disappearing Mullah Omer of Afghanistan of course), funeral cortege, the Assistant Secretary General of the Yemeni Socialist Party, it is quite clear that the Yemeni people are fed up with all the procession of killings and wanton violence that has taken over this land.
Although this pitiful environment was sometimes inspired by outside influences, the fact is that most of it is derived from the inability of the government to maintain the sense of respect and common mutual interest that Yemenis were well noted for. What should we expect if our government fails to apply the law towards the criminal elements within it and the criminal elements among the people of influence that it relies on to maintain its stranglehold it has on the Yemeni people?
Ironically, Jarullah Omer has been screaming for years against this aura of violence and carefree attitude towards the right of the people to enjoy peace and quiet and the right to move around free from fear. It is really getting pathetic to see hundreds of armed hooligans running around the streets of the cities of our once peaceful land, waiting for their victims to come by, or waiting to carry out their vengeance and hatred against any innocent victim.
Oh, politically motivated assassinations are much a part of any society that succumbs to autocratic regimes, as is the case of most of the Arab World and the Third World. But in Yemen these were confined to those who were within the circles vying for power and authority. People like Jarullah Omer, however, were usually immune to such things, because they had strong grassroots appeal, and because they were a part of the valve that controlled too much carelessness on the part of the prevailing regime.
Jarullah Omer, may God bless have mercy on his soul, was not an ambitious power broker, but a voice of reason and wisdom, who had courage to say what he felt should be said, out of concern for the welfare of the people in the street, in the homes, in the farms, in the factories – the common folk, yearning to feel free and safe. He did this within the power structure that loomed in the former days of the ultra socialist regime in Aden.
In fact, Jarullah Omer was among the first voices in the Yemeni Socialist Party, who advocated for an immediate transition of the platform adopted by the YSP, even when the YSP was indisputably in full control of the situation in the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. He was quick to seize upon the tidal wave of reforms sweeping the most radical regimes in the late 1980s and realized that it was time for Yemen to abandon extremism in all its forms – religious and ideological – and to adopt a pragmatic approach to government that is primarily concerned with the welfare of the people.
As for the Americans who worked at the Jibla Baptist Hospital, the fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of Yemenis find no religious doctrine in Islam that supports their murder. Surely, it is dishonorable for a Moslem to kill anyone who is a guest and who is providing assistance, as long as that guest does not seek to disrupt the religious convictions of the people of Yemen. Thus, most Yemenis clearly condemned the killing. Even those opposed to any religious missionaries echoed their displeasure at the killing of unarmed innocent people, who were motivated by philanthropic ideals, albeit under a different religious persuasion. Humanitarianism is a common trait of all God fearing people everywhere.
Thus, it is not enough for the government to simply condemn the killings that occurred last week, but it must work diligently and sincerely towards safeguarding the people from these wanton savage acts. As a true gesture of respect and tribute to the martyr of democracy and the fight against lawlessness, it is time that the government adopt a pragmatic practical approach towards eliminating the “extremism”, which it protected and guarded for close to thirty-five years, under different cloaks – radical, ideological and religious – and now wants us to believe that its problems are none of its doing.
It should start by disarming the hooligans that it supports and protects from accountability for all the corruption and the violations of law and order that they perpetrate, and by significantly reducing the armed detail guarding its worthless officials and partisan dignitaries.

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