Press Review [Archives:2001/23/Press Review]
RAY weekly, organ of Sons of Yemen League Party, May 29, 2001.
In its editorial the newspaper says that there are many indications pointing strongly that the presidency is intent on effecting a ”change” that the president has talked about its inevitability on many occasions. The most recent one is how the president has instituted a program for uprooting corruption in the military establishment.
The editorial maintains that building both military and security establishments on scientific professional foundation will spontaneously lead to converting the armed forces into a safety- valve protecting the country and its civil institutions. It is a safety -valve characterized by neutrality and standing aloof from political and partisan conflicts and dealing impartially with national issues. Such a change would be an actual action preventing the existing overlap between the military and partisan institutions on the one hand and the military and tribal on the other. Al-Balagh weekly, May 29, 2001.
Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper has devoted his article this week to dealing with the question of religious institutes. He says that the fact that must be ignored by anyone is that the problem with the religious institutes has never been the curriculum taught in them, but rather they have created a dangerous environment dealing within a certain framework. Moreover they are prepared to die for the purpose of publishing their ideas and visions. The article mentions that it is much regretted that the religious institutes have generated youth extremist in dealing with others; they see only themselves, refuse coexistence and see themselves as representing the right and the wrong with their society and homeland.
The youth fashioned that way by the institutes can be described as pious or specialized in religious sciences. One can affirm that there are many youth specialized in religious science but graduates of religious institutes are not all fanatics or extremists. They usually are coexisting in peace with their society and homeland.
The writer requests the state to observe and be aware of this dangerous environment that has existed in those institutes. And that the problem could extend to schools in the ministry of education if the officials have not taking heed of it. On the other hand we ask the ministry of education to give special interest to the subjects of Islamic education and the Arabic language because they are the basis for preserving our Arab and Islamic identity.
Al-Shoura weekly May 27, 2001.
Dr Abdulmalik Al-Mutawakil saying that observers of the new government’s program, especially the part concerning the law of elections can find a non-democratic orientation. More dangerous than that is the ruling elite’s tendency towards using power for dwarfing other political forces that may be a factor resisting its program. Particularly, The Yemeni Congregation for Reform Party, the Socialist Party, the military and social centers of power. The maintenance of this strategy are the years of resolution evident in the minds of the ruling elite.
The author listed certain points that he thinks could explain the orientation of the ruling elite.
– The first step in making the non-democratic future was the constitutional amendments that facilitated hegemony of the ruling elite over legislative and local powers, as well as its existing domination over the judiciary power.
– The second step was the battle of doctoring the elections. Despite the fact that the desired results of the elite were not realized.
– The third step was the government formation grafted through appointing personalities known for their good reputation, but they could not find those who would encourage them to invest their good aspects.
-The fourth step is the government program to affirm the authority which is not satisfied with the state of hunger and poverty of the people, and therefore has come out with a destructive economic program at a stage of absolute corruption.
– The fifth step is the formation of the Shoura Council, some of its elements have an important role in the future.
Dr Al-Mutawakil concludes that the main battle is that of preparing the masses since this moment for the coming elections through studying plans of the elite and setting up the alternatives to encounter them as the coming elections can represent the point of determination.
Al-Wahdawi weekly, organ of the People’s Nasserite Unionist Organization, May 29, 2001.
The weekly editorial has devoted its theme to highlight the honorable struggle and sacrifices of the Palestinian youth against aggression and atrocities of the Zionist occupation. It says that these youth have put their feet on the right path and comprehended the lessons in order to move overnight from pupils getting lesson to efficient professors teaching people the techniques of martyrdom and sacrificing their lives for the homeland, dignity, freedom and principles.
The editorial lashes out at those who explain and issue legal opinions. For instead of offering legal indications that urge and encourage jihad and martyrdom in confrontation with world tyrannical forces and Zionism, we find them issuing opinions against this honorable act, considering it as a form of suicide that judges those adopting it as infidel and doomed to hell. The editorial goes on to say that those agents who term themselves as religious scholars are passing on themselves the verdict of being ignorant and showing with their opinions have betrayed the trust that religion has entrusted them with. Their legal opinions are in service of the colonialists and against the freedom and dignity of their countries. In the recent past they have legalized seeking support from the forces of world tyranny and permitted the colonialists to desecrate the holy lands and to stay as long as they wished.
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