Is Our Democracy Going Backwards? [Archives:2001/02/Viewpoint]

After the many events that happened within the last few years, I could not help wonder, Are we going backwards in terms of democracy and freedom of press? It is not only me asking this question. Many others concerned about our countrys future ask the same thing. We all wonder why we are witnessing a somewhat deterioration in our democratic process. I may be wrong, in fact, I hope I am wrong, but let us take the facts and events of the last few years in their historic sequence and make a conclusion:
1) During the period from 1990 to 1994, there was tremendous feeling of power balance, there was equal shared high ranking positions between two parties, the PGC and the YSP. The balance was almost evident everywhere, and reflected in almost all aspects of life. You can see various newspapers at newsstands, each with a different point of view, speaking it truthfully and freely. We felt that we had some sort of competition for the good of the county between three strong parties.
2) In the 1993 parliamentary elections, the results were reasonably equally distributed according to population of the affiliates and supporters of the different political parties. We felt that there is a great future ahead of us, full of democratic competition under the law. This competition was a fair one that was mainly for the sake of the serving the people. In other words, we felt there was no monopoly of power whatsoever.
3) But then came the 1994 civil war, in which the attempt to divide the country was made by vice president by then, Ali Salem Al-Beidh. However, after the war ended with the defeat of the former YSP leader, Al-Beidh, things started to change, but to the worse.
4) Within a few months, the equilibrium started to shake and fade away. The country is strongly united, that is without doubt, but there was no more balance of political power. There was no more competition with the ruling party. Many newspapers that were once among the best selling, vanished for many reasons, but mainly political affiliation to the YSP. There was no more strong opposition, and there seemed to be rising concern whether this would affect the democratic reforms in the country.
5) The gap between the ruling party widened further after the 1997 elections. Just as we thought things would go back to normal and see some strong opposition presence, we were shocked to find that the YSP decided to boycott the elections. This must have been a dreadful mistake by the YSP. But whatever their excuse, this made the gap between the once two strongest parties become even wider. Consequently, YSP fell into third place after Islah, which gained relatively more votes in this election than the last. This seemed to be the beginning of the end for the YSP, once a glamorous and powerful party, but later a party that had no seats in the parliament, marking the beginning of the period of PGC domination.
6) As time passed, the presidential elections came in 1999. The nominee of the YSP, Ali Saleh Obad (Moqbil) was rejected candidacy because he couldnt get the 10% parliament approval. Hence, the president, as expected, won the elections with an incredibly high percentage of 96%, leaving little hope for YSPs role in the future to compete for the position of head of state.
7) Some concerns about prosecuting several independent and opposition newspapers started to rise in 1999. This consequently affected freedom of expression in Yemen. Campaigns against newspapers intensified in the last few years in a visible manner.
8) In the year 2000, things seem to have gone into another level as the parliament approved the constitution amendments calling for adding 2 years to the presidents period and 2 years to parliamentarians period. This raised a lot of concern in terms of competition for independent candidates and others from less prominent parties, which will have to wait for more years so that to compete.
9) The controversial NGO law, which is expected to be passed soon, will probably limit the capabilities and freedom of NGOs. According to the law, NGOs will need permission from the government before receiving any funds for their projects.
As if all of these points were not enough, we are still waiting for the government to start implementing the Sanaa Declaration of the Emerging Democracies Forum held in 1999. We are still waiting for private media to emerge, freedom of press to be promoted, and competition of less prominent parties to be encouraged.
In any case, I do understand from the historic sequence provided above that there is somewhat a concern about our democracy. For any democracy to flourish, there must be more effort to allow participation of others in decision making, and this cannot happen if we extend the period of parliamentarians and oppress the press. This also cannot happen if we do not have any competition between parties, and this obviously cannot happen if we continue to weaken the already weak opposition.
Once again, I am not sure whether our democracy is weakening or going backwards, but my love to my country makes me concerned. I hope I am wrong, but if I am wrong, I do want to know where I went wrong in thinking that way!

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