Jarallah Omar to YT: “They can dissolve our party and they can even take us to prison, but at the end of the road, they will never be able to destroy our ideas or put an end to our existence.” [Archives:2001/04/Law & Diplomacy]
January 22 2001
It was also announced by the SOCC that it will vote “NO” on the constitutional amendments referendum scheduled to take place along with the elections. A strong and united stand by the opposition led by the YSP, observers say, may be a potential threat to the easy domination of the PGC and Islah in the upcoming council elections. Their stand may not change the results, but it could shake the two main parties, they claim.
Hence, on this occasion, and to shed light on the preparations and views of the YSP in regard to the elections and referendum, Bassam Jameel of Yemen Times met with Mr. Jarallah Omar, Under Secretary of the YSP, a former field commander during the NDF insurrection, as well as a former minister in the post-unity government, Mr. Omar is a well-known figure. He has extensive local following and wide-ranging international connections.
As usual, Jarallah Omar was strong, daring and straightforward in his answers. He revealed shocking information for the first time. Below is the complete text of the interview, with no amendments:
Q: How well is the YSP prepared for the upcoming Local Council Elections? Will you still continue to participate in the elections without the governmental financial support?
A: Of course we are somewhat ready for the elections. However, we are not in our fully readiness because the announcement of holding the elections came extremely late and surprised us all. In fact, even the Supreme Elections Committee (SEC) was not ready and could not complete the essential preparatory procedures necessary for any elections. The SEC did not even start the arrangement for the elections sections throughout the country. This forced them to carry out arrangements on a war footing for this purpose.
In any case, this is no more than an experiment, as the SEC itself claims that it is a transitional operation. What is important for us is that we decided to fully participate in this process depending on the joint efforts of our party’s affiliates and supporters.
As for the financial support of the government, I am proud to tell you that we won’t depend much on the facilities or funds for the elections. We were able to stay as one party from the time of the 1994 civil war until today because of our strong determination, not because of assets or fund allowances given to us by the government. This is despite that such funds were of great significance, especially when hearing that the PGC had received hundreds of millions of Yemeni rials. In fact I heard of a staggering number that I don’t dare mentioning thinking that others may feel that I am exaggerating. On the other hand, the Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) also had a good share of funds. I believe that the funds, media coverage and power was fairly distributed between the PGC and Islah in a way such that they both got what they needed, except for power, in which Islah got some of it, but PGC got it all.
Not to forget that the PGC is the party of the President of the Republic, and the party of the Republic is the one that wins in the third world and in Arab countries.
As for us, the YSP, we think about people and stay in touch with them. We will rely on our human resources and the struggle and unleash efforts for t he welfare of the Yemeni people. As I said before, we were able to stay despite the difficult circumstances since the 1994 war because of our strong determination to live on, and because the Yemeni people want us to stay.
As for our allowances, we have none, except for the one provided by the government. All our deposits are with the Central Bank of Yemen, and as you know, most of our properties were reserved following the 1994 civil war. Frankly speaking, we are only surviving on our personal efforts, on which we will depend in this election, as well as in forthcoming elections.
Q: Are there any plans to raise a lawsuit in an effort to retrieve the confiscated properties and assets of the YSP after the 1994 war?
A: First of all, the properties and assets were not confiscated because there was no decision to confiscate them, but they were reserved. As for going to court, we don’t plan to do this for two reasons. Firstly, the case is a political one occurring as a result of war, and so it cannot be resolved in courts. Secondly, we don’t believe that the judiciary is totally independent. Hence, we are waiting for a decision by the President at a personal level, as he is the only one who could order their release.
Q: Do you mean that the current judicial system cannot release the reserved YSP properties?
A: The judicial system can order no one to do anything in Yemen!
Q: In your view, does the Local Council Law meet the expectations and ambitions of the Yemeni people? What are its shortcomings?
A: No. The Local Council Law does not meet the demands of the Yemeni people because it only regulates a number of artificial councils of consultative natures with no right to give or take away. These councils will not be able to decide but rather agree on whatever is enforced on them and they may try to give some recommendations to the central authorities and their executive systems (ministries) through the governors. At the end, the Local Council Law is no more than a measure to legitimize the available centralization. In reality, there would be no local governance whatsoever, simply because all the governors and province managers are being directly appointed from top. Besides that, all of these councils can be dissolved with a simple order from the president of the republic in case they stand against a central decision, not to forget that these councils will be monitored by the central authorities and will be held accountable for their actions.
I believe several international experts have expressed their views about the law and recommended to the government to change it by saying that it is not a true local governance law as there is a serious drawback in the law. The experts stated that the Local Council Law simply contradicts the present constitution because the constitution states that heads of administrative units should be elected and the elections of local council should take place in a phased manner. On the other hand, the Local Council Law states that heads of administrative units are to be appointed. This means that the state had made constitutional changes to adapt the new council law with the constitution. This has never happened in any country on this planet except in Yemen.
What is suppose to be is adapt the new laws to the constitution and not the contrary!
Q: We know that the YSP’s stand in regard to the constitutional amendments is negative. Assuming that the public rejects the amendments, what would the state’s and elected local councils’ position be?
A: If that happens, there will be several major legal problems. But the authorities did not take this into consideration and did not care about these legal violations simply because the political ends justify the means.
Q: Knowing that the ruling party will -as you said- be using government funds and media to serve its interest, in the forthcoming elections, and as you claim, if the Local Council Law is illegitimate and the Local Councils will only be artificial, why are you then participating in the elections?
A: It is true that we are entering an unbalanced election process. It is also true that it would have been justifiable and easy for us to boycott the elections as we did in the past. However, we believe that the politic of boycott is the politics of void, and hence we do not think that boycotting political events is always the right choice. The Fourth YSP Congress decided that we participate in the elections, either future parliamentary elections or local council elections, or even civil movements. We decided to do so because only then will we be able to fight peacefully and work on correcting the democratic process through long struggle and determination. We know that our country cannot become a democratic nation (like western countries) overnight. We also know that the leader of our country cannot present us democracy. We are the ones who should go to the fields, fight, and participate. Only then, with our efforts and patience will we be able to develop the democratic process, and we are ready for that.
Participation in elections is the solution, boycotting it is not. Yes, we know that there are many clear and obvious violations taking place in abusing governmental funds, the media, army and police forces, which are all in the hands of the state. We also know that there are high-ranking orders that PGC must be granted all local councils. We know that all of this is taking place. However, we are trying to prevent this from continuing and exceeding certain limits. We also know that lists of electors are filled with fraud. Mr. Mohamed Hussein Al-Farih, an expert in election affairs, had himself stated to Al-Sahwa newspaper a few weeks ago that the registered male electors were more than the male population in some governorates! This has not occurred anywhere else in the world. There are many outrageous violations and openly made faking attempts in the lists. The right response to that should be confrontation in the arena. We should participate, fight, and correct the violations happening in a legitimate, peaceful manner in a long-term plan. Boycotting elections and staying at home condemning these violations is no more than verbal action that will neither change the situation nor be in the interest of the people.
Q: From the time of its emergence, and during the times of being in power and in opposition, what has the YSP achieved so far? How do you evaluate your situation after the 1994 civil war?
A: I cannot simply tell you in brief what our achievements are. We are a political party, and any political entity or group sometimes commits mistakes and other times makes tremendous achievements. We continue to state once and again, that we did commit mistakes during our political life, but when we look at the current situation of Yemen, and compare it to the situation of former South Yemen during the YSP rule, you would find that we had many accomplishments. We established a strong country. We united more than 24 sultanates and emirates and formed a new state. The national front -former Socialist Party- emerged and built the state of law and order, with security and a reasonable level of income. The YSP had gone a long way in diminishing illiteracy in the south. Don’t forget that in the late 1980s only 87,000 people in southern governorates were illiterate. It was going to be an easy task to complete the work and totally diminish illiteracy.
The YSP was able to establish a strong infrastructure despite its limited resources and the sanctions imposed on the south. It also ended tribal revenge, and established true security. You were able to walk anywhere, sleep anywhere and not worry about yourself or property.
What is happening today, is totally opposite. We see tribal revenge taking place everywhere. We can see horrible security flaws everywhere in the country, which makes it no more a country with dignity. There are sheikhdoms and sultanates with almost total independence from the state, all doing what it likes within its boundaries. In today’s Yemen, the strong prevail over the law. We are trying as the YSP to do what we can to re-establish the civil society. As an opposition party, we are doing our best. You should not forget that we were beaten up, and a war was waged against us that led thousands of our members to turn to streets and be displaced. Despite all of what we had gone through, we were able to say “NO” on many occasions, the last of which is the current constitutional amendments.
Some groups, who used to clearly oppose the constitutional amendments surprisingly changed their position fearing the state’s response against them.
Q: Do you mean Islah in your last sentence?
A: I don’t mean a particular party, but rather all the people or groups from various parties including the PGC itself, and many prominent individuals as well. All of them were surprised when the amendments were initially proposed, called them unsuitable, and rejected them. We were the ones who openly stood strong in our stand in regard to the amendments despite all the threats and blackmail we received. We are still strong and confident in our stand in saying ” NO” to the constitutional amendments, which represent a shameful retreat backwards in our democracy and the rights of the Yemeni people.
Q: In the 4th General Congress of the YSP, you decided to participate in the council elections. Your decision was later confirmed in the second assembly meeting. However, the YSP’s Hadhramout Organization stated that it would boycott the elections. Does this indicate a division within the party? What will you do in that regard?
A: Indeed, we formally decided to participate in the elections, and confirmed that in our central committee. However, don’t forget that the 4th General Congress of the YSP made another decision as well. We also decided to allow various groups within the party to express their viewpoints independently and openly. I must say that this is a new unusual step in the way political parties operate in Yemen and even in the Arab world. This is what we call internal democracy. We don’t want to impose a decision on all the various sections in the party. You may have read in the Thouri edition (mouthpiece of the YSP) a few weeks ago, which published the complete view point of the other Radical Wing in the YSP openly and freely. Naturally, there was an opposition from the Central Committee as 17 voices out of 199 voted against participation in the elections, while 18 were absent. This means that even though the Radical Wing is not of great influence on the overall votes, its stand was clear and represented its viewpoint in regard to the elections. It had a different opinion towards the elections, as it sees the elections as not so serious a matter and inappropriate because Yemen is still in the state of war and should remove all the war’s aftermath impact before continuing with elections and that there should be national reconciliation involving all parties. They also claim that Yemeni people from various parties and positions should only start elections after they have rejected all their misinformation about the other parties. Even though the wing voted against participation, the overall number of votes favored participation, so that is what we will do.
Today, there are two different stands in Hadhramout. The first, which represents the majority, asks for participation and the implementation of the 4th YSP Congress decision, while the second asks for boycotting the elections. The Hadhramout Governorate Committee held a referendum and came out with a final decision of participating in the elections. In any way, the Hadhramout Organization announced that it would go with the majority decision and maintain their stand in regard to the elections. Despite that, some of our brothers decided to stay away from the election process.
Whatever happens, I want to assure that we will always stay united under the YSP and will not be divided or dismiss any group in our party. We want to continue to live with these differences with respect to each other. This is the simplest way to develop our party under common grounds. Even though our experiment of internal democracy is one of its kind in the region, and somewhat awkward to deal with, yet it is our guarantee for a bright and strong future.
Q: After the threats of the Vice President to dissolve the YSP, the Party Affairs Committee sent you a note threatening to take legal action against you. What is your response to that? And how legitimate do you see this threat?
A: You might have read the opinion of legal experts in newspapers saying that this as a whole is a political threat that has nothing to do with law or the constitution. The YSP held a formal legitimate congress attended by 2,500 people, and came out with appropriate decisions for the sake of the party. The (governmental) Party Affairs Committee wanted to veto a number of our congress decisions for political reasons. We believe that the main reason behind that is our stand in rejecting the constitutional amendments of rejection. This is one reason behind their threats. The other reason is that the governments wants to frighten and discourage the Yemeni electorate against voting for the YSP, and to also place the YSP under the continuous threat of the government’s sword.
We know what the issue is all about, and will not allow anyone to change our agenda. We will continue to focus on the main issue in hand, which is to participate fully with the democratic operation, and call upon people to say “NO” to the constitutional amendments in the referendum.
Q: If the Party Affairs Committee carries its threat and raises a lawsuit against you, what do you think would be its consequences?
A: This is not in our hands. We are a party that has been in political life before this government. We are the ones who established, or among those who established the Republic of Yemen, and will continue to practice our right, which is one of our political rights as citizens. Practicing this right is also an obligation to the Yemeni people. Hence, if they want to dissolve the party, they can do it. They can dissolve our party, and they can even take us to prison, but at the end of the road, they will never be able to destroy our ideas or put an end to our existence.
Q: In the special session of the congress for Islah, President Ali Abdullah Saleh stated that the constitutional amendments are not temperamental or disparaging the people’s rights. But is considered a confirmation of democracy and national unity and whoever says anything but that is a liar. What is your comment? And how on earth will you be able to encourage the public to say “NO” to the amendments?
A: The constitutional amendments speak for themselves as they tampered with the balance between authorities making the executive authority dominate the legislative and judicial authorities thereby widening the gap among the three authorities. It also enabled the Shoura Council, which will be appointed by the head of state to appoint the legislative authority. The amendments will increase the period of the members of parliament to 6 years without elections, and the period of the president to 7 years. This means stagnating the political activities for 7 years. It also enables the change of the constitution without even a referendum, which will create constitutional instability in Yemen. All the amendments are an obvious step backwards and has nothing to do with strengthening democracy whatsoever. This is exactly what the latest letter of the president to the Parliament mentioned when he suggested withdrawing the amendment increasing the tenure of the office of the president to 7 years. In his letter he said that he is committed to strengthening the multi-political environment and the peaceful transition of power.
This obviously shows that they know that the constitutional amendments are not in favor of our democracy. The amendments are in fact going to hold back our democracy.
In regard to encouraging the public to say “NO” to the amendments, we are trying our best. What is important is that we express our viewpoint, and we believe that there is a majority of the public who don’t believe in the effectiveness of the amendments. However, there are many ways to affect and threaten the public so that they would think otherwise. One of these ways is the use of the media (TV and Radio) in which all the officials are openly encouraging people to vote “YES” for the amendments. On the other hand, the opposition is not given the least of opportunity to invite the public to say “NO” to the amendments on TV, Radio, or even on posters.
A few days ago, a few individuals in Aden tried to post posters calling upon the public to say “NO” to the public. They were taken to prison. There are also a number of reported arrests for the same reason in Dhamar governorate and in some governorates in the south. YSP members and activists are the main target of these arrests.
This is what the other side is doing, and that is what we are doing. But we still bet on the people and the Yemeni nation and we feel they would do what we think is right.
Q: The government has considered the extension of the president’s term of office to 7 years and the parliament’s term to 6 years as a step to decrease the economic burden. Is it true that they are doing this for the sake of the economy?
A: Never. What will be spent now on the local councils for two years is a lot of money and what will be spent on the appointed Shoura Council is also a lot. There is no financial or economic reason that could be considered an excuse. This is not logical at all. Funds are spent on occasions and even when there are no occasions. For instance thirty five billion Yemeni rials was spent on the unification anniversary last year.
The current authority is the last to talk about economical spending as it spends without limits for the simplest things. Even if we assume that there is some spending on a political or democratic process (such as elections), then it is an investment for the future and in the right place.
Q: What is the government and opposition crisis in Yemen? What are the reasons behind the absence of the opposition in the political reality? What is your response to the government’s accusations that you bombed your own branch in Dhale?
A: In my opinion, the crisis is in the whole political system in Yemen, government and opposition. This country entered the democratic process after unification, and had quite a good experience during the transitional period which I personally believe was a unique period in our history. It was a time in which we had tens of parties tens of newspapers of different affiliations. Yemen was a forum for discussion and awareness. There were many activities that were both exciting and eye catching.
However, then came the war and broke the balance that was there, and removed the basis on which the democratic process was founded. The war ended the initial conditions for democracy. Hence after the balance was disturbed after the war, the political system weakened so did the democratic process and the middle class. Most of the intellectuals and educated Yemenis left the country, immigrated, or became displaced. Then the whole system atrophied. Add to that the deterioration in the development of the country and the spread of poverty. The war caused deterioration of everything and at all levels, causing a crisis in the opposition and the political system as a whole. I believe there is a crisis in the opposition and another crisis in the party in power, because the project that was planned for after unification relapsed and the authority’s main concern today has turned out to be survival. The opposition does not always compete with the rulers, but competes within it for the rulers. Today’s opposition and other parties seem to be in continuous competition with themselves for the authorities or whoever is close to the authorities. In other words, the project turned to become a total failure. We should however, not give up hope but plan for the future and develop new political projects.
As for the accusation of the government that we bombed our own YSP branch in Dhale, it is an accusation that smacks sarcasm. Even though we did not hear an official accusation, we only came across them in some official newspapers. This accusation is only to cover up the government’s weakness, particularly in the security issues. The government is unable to establish security, hence it is trying to accuse this and that. It is impossible for anyone to bomb or destroy himself. This has been said once and again. Hence, don’t be surprised that the official media and press are losing their credibility everywhere. No one any more believes in what the government says in its explanation about the lack of security in Yemen.
Q: What are the solutions for the opposition to get out of its present crisis?
A: I believe that the opposition cannot get out of its crisis alone, but ask ” How could the whole country get out of its crisis?” This cannot happen if two steps are not taken. The first step is to admit that the country is going through a crisis, because a patient cannot be healed unless he admits his illness. The second step is to sit and diagnose our crisis and work on getting quick remedies and start an overall economic and political healing process. There must be harmony among the Yemeni public as a whole and reconciliation between all of us. All the ones who left the country should come back and work on finding a solution other than the one we had before. It is easy to get written proposals but it is difficult to implement them.
Q: When you said “all the ones who left the country” did you mean the 16 men accused of organizing the war?
A: I mean all the ones who left the country, including those 16 men because they were the ones who represented a main constituent in accomplishing Yemen’s unification in 1990. It is quite strange to understand how Yemen would be built if many of its people are out of the country displaced and deprived of Yemeni citizenship rights. I believe that if we wanted to build a strong Yemen, we should build it all together and it should accommodate all of us. We should be partners in this country in the good and bad times.
Q: Despite being a former Minister of Culture, you seem to have a stronger political than cultural position. What has your party done for spreading cultural awareness?
A: This is a topic that would require time to go into. However, if you look at the past and compare it to the future you would see that the YSP had done a lot during its time in power. You should go to the Ministry of Culture and ask where the various cultural bands that used to operate in the time of YSP. Examples are numerous, some are dancing bands, music bands, theaters, etc.. Today, all of these are being dominated by politics. As I said, the 1994 war was the main cause behind all of what we are seeing because it has become a social coup which gave the authority to the traditional powers, that are against culture. We have done a lot for promotion of culture, but the time limit prevents us from going through all what we did.
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