ReflectionsLawful larceny, the will, Yemen’s equal deterrence policy,The four billions & Almighty’s bounty [Archives:2004/744/Opinion]

By Yahya Al-Olfi
[email protected]
I once had a chance to attend with some of my friends a banquet held by one of this country's illicit nouveaux riches. At one of the tables near me I noticed that there was a cluster of seemingly state administrative officials, may be ministers and below as I have heard.
After a while they appeared to be somewhat drunk and deeply absorbed in a friendly discussion, for they spoke about everything at their complete ease and vented lots of their suppressed secrets. They spoke about their many villas' different styles; their many new annually built villas sold and acquired, the new model cars and most importantly their new techniques in pilfering public moneys as well as some investments in schools, universities and hospitals domestically and other lucrative ventures abroad. One of them appeared to be a liquor connoisseur for he was absorbed trying different brands, when asked how about him?
He answered lightheartedly and most of the time kept laughing uproariously, dear friends! We are all lawful thieves!
After some prompting, he asked them to listen to what he was going to tell them, so he said “look here! My dear friends my late father, may his soul rest in peace, once told me a wisdom about legitimate pilferage. All of a sudden most of them kept mum and attentively concentrated on what he was going to say (perhaps wishing that such a wisdom might become of use).
The connoisseur said that his father was a prominent administrative official and it is indeed very unfortunate that Yemen had lost such a perceptive expert. That he himself because of being his son, has become a responsible, something which he avoids to mention publicly and always alleges that he climbed the ladder step by step through lawful means and because of his being a highly qualified element. Being drunk he also bragged that his father was a real red-eyed man (i.e. a local Yemeni term used to refer to a dexterous official pilferer).
His friends shouted at him, interrupted him and urged him to divulge his precious wisdom once and for all, instead of beating about the bush. So he said “guys listen! I once confessed to my late father about my qualms namely my fear of being caught red-handed stealing public money.
After some meditation, my wise and experienced father may his soul rest in peace! told me “My Son although nothing shall happen to you because you shall have first to give influential people their share at the finance ministry and at the Inspection organization, but, always do abide by and do not ever follow another advice other than this precious one:
“”Never ever, forget that you can all the time pilfer public moneys with complete impunity provided that that be as per the law””. So friends “as per the law” I have now many villas, I travel abroad five to six times on fake missions including pretending to be ill and even fraudulently obtain exaggerated medication charges (he always lies that he has got a cardiac disease and travels annually under this pretext). I have many bank accounts all over Europe and beyond.
Furthermore, my children are American citizens and I am going to be Canadian within a few months' time. One of them seemed to be still an amateur in the field, asked him, how come! How do you do it? The man answered pretty easy make any project such as a wall, a gate, purchase furniture, organize a seminar, purchase a building, a landplot etc. and agree with the entrepreneurs on a real and an exaggerated phony price and get the difference for yourself.
He then scoffed at the inquirer and said “it seems you are still an apprentice and still have a long way to go! Anyhow, having had the chance to witness personally the level of some of our responsible men, who are in most cases, assuming high positions I easily discovered how such low level people are in control of our destinies and how idiots we are to believe or even expect anything positive from them.
During the same day in the evening while skipping through channels I came across an unpopular channel based in London and sides with that who pays more, ironically the channel named itself “The Independent” and was airing an interview with two of our great ministers. Albeit, I knew that the men wouldn't come with anything new my curiosity urged me to force myself and hear what they were going to say.
The first minister named Mohammed Altayib, when asked about the incomparable corruption Yemen is undergoing he declared. Look, these are mere conspiratorial lies our country has no corruption occurrences and these are lies by those people who have ill-consciences and those harboring evil towards our homeland, Yemen has no corruption at all. It is poor and thus stealing is not an easy a matter. We are the best in the region with regard to democracy, human rights, and freedom of press. We have presented lots of reform proposals and this is why we are invited to the G8 summit.
Easier said than done! I tried to convince myself that what he said was true but found out that unfortunately it was completely contradictory to reality and everybody knows for sure that Yemen incontestably boasts having one of the most corrupt administrative systems on planet earth. When will we ever learn that pitiful lies do not work, that truth and transparency are always our first steps towards a better situation.
We badly need transparency and if one cannot say anything positive better keep silent and act by the Arab proverb “”if talk is silver silence is gold””. So please Mr. Minister, be a little rational because President Ali Abdullah Saleh himself has acknowledged that Yemen suffers from corruption and how can the president order reform if we have ministers ready to cajole necessarily and unnecessarily.
Later Mr. Qirbi our foreign minister in a deplorable declaration that made me laugh incessantly, like the prime minister's wisdom concerning “Catha Edulis” mentioned that the spread of arms amongst Yemenis provides what he termed as an “equal deterrence” opportunity! What a genius discovery? Because of Mr. Qirbi's deterrence policy huge numbers of Yemeni individuals are being killed by the minute all over Yemen in tribal, clan and even due to trivial causes because of the abundance of arms.
Even our governmental newspapers are brimful every day with such sad incidents, so please Mr. Foreign Minister do not defend the indefensible because based on my own observations and the doubtful report of the interior ministry, killings and homicides in Yemen are the highest and I am not convinced the least by your so called equal deterrence formula.
Because only a few days ago eight policemen were savagely killed by armed men in Al-Rawdah. Also, to substantiate what I am saying, recently youngsters from Khowlan killed a boy because he defeated them in a football match. They killed him savagely with their Yemeni Jambiyas (traditional Yemeni Daggers) and the affair is still pending judgment.
If Yemen had followed the Omani policy regarding sealing Jambiyas (Taljeem Al-Khanajir) wouldn't that have been better let alone carrying arms and machineguns.
The minister when out of office in order to exercise equal deterrence shall have to carry constantly a machinegun. Another deplorable incident happened in Rada and involved the death of the security manager and his fellow policemen, so where is your equal deterrence?
No stability can take place when there is corruption and injustice. Stopping the corruption process perpetrated by ministers and their underlings and having a fair and express judicial system shall lead to less arms.
The president and the government should concentrate on the equality and abandon the “Chieftains Authority” because it is a tool for chaos and anarchy and is counter productive on the long run for it makes us develop backwards not forwards.
Some of our corrupt officials make their wives give birth in USA so that they can get USA nationality. So if they do trust Yemen's status quo, its being secure and prosperous why they are anticipating the unanticipated!!?
Returning to the banquet thing I forgot to mention that at the entrance of the pilferer's castle a beautiful Arabic inscription reads, “This is from the Almighty's Bounty”.
Jokingly one of the invitees mumbled no this is somebody else's bounty . how ungrateful! Crossing the gate we were ushered into a beautiful garden with an immense marbled swimming pool.
At a corner another inscription reads ..””Regarding Almighty's bounty bestowed on you , unquestionably you can always brag “” by the way the owner of this paradise two decades ago was merely a penniless poor fellow.
To end this I would like to comment on a declaration made by our Prime Minister in that Yemen has a 4 billion income and that it is merely half the deficit of a neighboring country,(The prime minister has proven his being quick-witted in sophistry).
For his information most of the Yemenis unlike their neighbors are hard working people, they are farmers, fishermen, Shepherds, craftsmen, expats ..etc and are not awaiting for the government's meager salaries so if the said amount is believed to be true undoubtedly half of it goes at least to private pockets, given the crystal clear daily lawful stealing as mentioned hereinbefore.
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