In Its Opening Session, YSP 4th General Congress : Accuses Official Media Of Totalitarianism, & Calls Upon Its ‘Ousted’ Members:  Al-Beidh, Al-Attas Noman To Return Home [Archives:2000/36/Law & Diplomacy]

The second session meetings of the 4th General Congress of the Yemeni Socialist Party began last Wednesday (30/8) . All political spectrum in Yemen were represented at the congress. The session which was held at the Military Academy Hall in Sana’a continued until September 1.
The opening session was preceded by a one-day preparatory meeting during which organizational directives over approving the Congress agenda as well as the congress operative bodies proposals: presidency, secretariat, challenges, information committee, were discussed.
At the inaugural session the national anthem was played, followed by a reading of verses from Holy Quran and then the Party anthem was played.
Dr. Saif Sayel, YSP Politburo Member, submitted a brief report to the organizational committee on the attendance of delegates and the legality of Congress proceedings. He maintained that out of 2,500 delegates 2,384 male and female attended with 186 absentees. The delegates who had arrived from different provinces and Party organizations abroad shall elect a Central Committee and its bodies.
A number of children read pro-Party poems while from within the audience some groups chanted pro-Party slogans.
Then Mr. Ali Saleh Obad (Moqbel), YSP Secretary General delivered what was described as “igneous” speech criticizing State policy in the democratic process. “Constitutional amendments aim at diminishing the role of the Parliament . It is like a fraud against democracy as these amendments will not observe any referendum” he said. Lashing out at the official media, he described them as ‘totalitarian’. He urged for a national reconciliation and called upon all those Party members who were forced to leave the country to return home and take part in politics.
The Secretary General added: ” The 1994 War was taken as a pretext to undermine the political thought of the YSP and; to destroy the human structure which embodied this thought; therefore the military weapons alone were not the means of the war. These went concurrently with propaganda and psychological campaign. Those two means were combined in the course of one destructive process. The first means was directed towards material destruction of mankind, installations and capabilities whereas the second was directed towards uprooting the thoughts, brainwashing and re-forming of sentiments in distorted mold.”
He added: ” The object which this huge destructive process aimed at was to turn everything into shambles: actions into ruins and thoughts into ashes.
Mr. Moqbel went on to say: ” What the YSP is facing in the light of the official media campaigns launched against it from time to time are part of a crisis intensified in the official media address which still employ the same old tactics. We do still hear that old-style propaganda. Our official media offer a caricature image on the means of totalitarian propaganda which used to be practiced in the 60s of the last century.”
The YSP Secretary General further said: “The plan to effect constitutional amendments is an example of the State catastrophe. Through these amendments, the authorities want to deliver a deathblow to the remaining possibilities of changes through democratic means by continuing to weaken that legislative and supervising institution (the parliament) and bringing it under the mercy of the executive power, which due to these amendments, will be able to abolish the Parliament without any referendum. Moqbel had wondered : “After effecting such amendments, what shall remain out of the alleged democracy in Yemen?”Touching on Arab issues, the Secretary General emphasized his Party’s support for the realization of just and comprehensive peace which could not be achieved without restoration of the occupied territories and establishment of a Palestinian State and ending colonization policy.
Mr. Moqbel renewed his Party’s solidarity with the brethren people of Iraq who are exposed to cruel and destructive sanctions. He called upon the Arab countries to break these sanctions.
This was followed with a speech delivered by Mr. Abdulmalik Mansoor, Minister of Culture & Tourism, Member of GPC General Committee who launched a bitter attack against the YSP accusing it of creating crises where one of its groups adopted stances which harmed both the YSP and the homeland. While he was delivering his speech there was hooting, chanting “Mansoor” . As a result, no sooner he finished his speech, than he left the hall.
In his speech, Mansoor had said : “It is regrettable to state that YSP’s insistence to keep clung to the separatist group that which declared the secession and wanted to shatter they Unity and the Party’s repeating that same old statements and going as far as to include that group in the Party program and its documents – all these reflect a mistaken and irrational directive leading to the YSP bearing the burden of the sin which the group committed against the homeland and the Party itself. Marching along those directives will not produce but calamities and pains. Mansoor charged that the Party was adopting those old sterile theories which proved to be a failure. Those theories failed to meet the needs and aspirations of nations and their hopes in freedom, progress and advancement.
Then Mr. Mohammed Abdullah Al-Yadoumi, Secretary General of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform delivered a speech which was described as ‘moderate’. It came as a surprise as the Islamic party has always been critical of the YSP until recently. In his address, Yadoumi urged the cooperation of political forces in the Yemeni arena to impose the Shoura-type democracy as a reality in the life or else it will remain a fragile gain, with defective features, without any context, subject to retraction and discrepancies under the influence of ‘moody’ and capricious circumstances.
The Islah senior official added: “We see that non-participation of the YSP in the 1997 parliamentary elections led to a political imbalance which did not serve the process of democracy.”
Dr. Ahmed Ben Al-Shaikh Abubakr, In-Charge of Sana’a Office of the League of Sons of Yemen, in his address urged the need that the YSP relieves itself of past conflicts and, through this conference, comes out with resolutions which would activate the institutional system, impose a local government system with wide-scale powers, realize the peaceful transfer of power, work on the principle of separating the duties of each authority and to use the language of dialogue in solving disputes.
In his address delivered on behalf of the Higher Coordination Council, Mr. Tareq Al-Shami, Director at the Political Division of the Popular Forces Union, affirmed HCC’s clear-cut and categorically denying attitude towards the constitutional amendments. He urged a serious stand in the face of economic crisis and disasters in real life which have appeared as personal interests overcame the national interests.
At last a cable of congratulations sent by Shaikh Abdullah Ben Hussein Al-Ahmer , the Speaker was read out. He conveyed his greetings to YSP 4th Congress and wished it all the best in its tasks. In his cable, Al-Ahmer expressed regret for not being able to attend due to his trip abroad.
Deliberations of the second session then began. The agenda consisted of: approval of ad hoc committees’ proposal on discussing the Congress documents, a political report, a report prepared by the control and audit committee, concluding statement, resolutions and recommendations, reading of the political report in the third session.
At the fourth session a summary of the control and audit committee as well as draft resolutions and recommendations were read out.
An approval was already secured on the number of members in the Central Committee as well the number of members in other Party committees.
Reported by Yemen Times Staff


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