It is not universal Your Excellency! [Archives:2007/1020/Opinion]
By: Abdulrahman Al-Ahdal
In his speech before the Yemen Women Federation in Aden in December, the president said the rise in prices was resulting from world rise in prices. This is untrue absolutely. We wish the president to be sure from the staff of his government and those around him that they do not tell him the truth, if he is depending on what they offer him of information. But if he were unleashing his statements simultaneously the tragedy is greater. A Yemeni citizen who is distressed about the current state of affairs said the president's campaign to eliminate poverty, launched in his electoral campaign, was meant to put an end to the poor in Yemen. We have to tell our rulers we are humans and feel and coexist with the failure of your policies and the reason is that you hand over the responsibilities and destinies of the people to people who are not efficient and have no qualifications but the false loyalty to you.
It is the tragedy of despotic regimes who do not care about realizing the interests of the people as much as their interest in their own interests. When there are lies alongside with developmental and services failure, as is the case in Yemen, there lays the tragedy. The reason is that the people all know it is a lie to attribute failure of price control to world pressure. Talking about world issues is no longer secrets known by the elite because they are available for all through various means of communication therefore we know they are not true. It is thought the head of the state be a good example in word and deed, be accurate in what he says and keen on the importance of the post he occupies and committed to texts of the constitution on which swore to respect.
The price hikes in Yemen is a big failure of the governance in its ability to create real development and the management of the country's resources in a manner serving interests of the citizens and achievement of the minimum degree of dignified living. Citizens now know that corruption is the legitimate child of the existing regime and it receives good care from the state authorities. What they do not imagine is that the rule justifies acts of the corrupt in its addresses as if giving them the green light to continue robbing the country's destinies and the continued protection of their corruption. Don't theses people who granted you their voices deserve some attention from you to protect them from the greed of merchants? We have them begging fort votes in the election campaign and the use of tempting and frightening warnings of coming dangers if they would not vote for you. Nevertheless if there were dangers to come they will be the product of the regime's ill policies. The regime itself used extremist elements and it is the one that used the military and security as a terrorist force possessing weapons and equipment making them a threat to security and stability and that made Yemen a safe haven for terrorist groups even after the 9/11 events.
The claim that the rise in prices is universal is groundless. The world is stable through the good management of its resources. Even the five poorest countries in the Arab world do not have price chaos like that in Yemen. It is one of the important reasons of that is that the rulers in those countries are not merchants as is the case in Yemen.
Despotism is a savage political state and a ferocious behavior in its severity and a practice killing the spirit of creativity among the youth. But what distinguishes despotism besides its corruption is deluding the citizen with noble values and slogans like freedom and democracy, but not for noble purposes. It can almost be a crime against the nation and the homeland. That is how our rulers do with noble ideas and principles. Democracy as a noble idea contributed to build and develop many of the world countries but our rulers have misused it. They deformed it and in its name they violated the rights and freedoms of its citizen's.
The reality of the people's situation belies what the rulers say and they are in a state of despair. They feel there is no truthfulness and seriousness in fighting corruption. Over years they listen to words and will not find acts. The area of poverty is expanding and the number of unemployed is increasing and the lies of officials are continuous.
Source: Al-Thawri Newspaper
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