Repression does not bring stability [Archives:2007/1098/Opinion]

Zaid Al-Shami
Popular concerns are increasing with the passage of days because of price hikes, poor services, and lack of justice and equality. On the contrary, protests tend to adopt peaceful means, the most recent of which is the collection of tens of thousands of signatures in Marib governorate in a civilized behavior proceeding to the advantage of people and Joint Meeting Parties as well.

The escalating demands in the country reflect the negative situation, which Yemen has reached as a result of imprudent policies adopted by the consecutive governments of the General People Congress. In addition, corruption has spread rampantly in all the government institutions while we still hear unsatisfactory justifications and baseless excuses, coupled with blaming unknown parties for the spread of administrative and financial corruption.

The way the government describes what usually happens can no longer be tolerated or accepted. And, people vented their anger at the government for attributing skyrocketing prices of basic foodstuffs to international factors and alleging that all the world countries share the same problem. This compels us to say to the government that we no longer accept its carelessness and indifference toward the deteriorating situations in the Country of Belief & Wisdom, as authority is a composition of political decisions, financial and human capacities, and broad powers. And, those holding such powers and authorities have no right to escape from the responsibility toward the deteriorating situations.

All the false excuses and justifications are over while the current government policies are primarily responsible for the repeated crises.

We don't know why the authority gets upset with the peaceful struggle. We are also shocked at why this authority foments chaos and rioting and works on transferring the squares of sit-ins and protests into battlegrounds and scenes for firing at protestors. This is a strange behavior as the government, along with all its agencies, is expected to maintain public safety, security and stability.

Currently, the means of prevention and repression have become unable to stop angry protestors who take to streets of main cities to claim their constitutional and legal rights. Also, such means can never resolve any real problems but they may help these problems to increase. Those, who plan to face any peaceful demands with violence and vandalistic acts, should review their wrong policies and strategies. They should quit all the means of beating, killing, kidnapping and attacking as such means are no longer applicable at a time the Yemeni people are realizing that other world countries have progressed much in the areas of democracy, human rights and public freedoms.

What makes the mud moister is the campaign launched by the official media against the effective political forces in Yemen, as they denied any effectiveness for their existence, shunned their viewpoints and comments, and accused them of treason. The country's problems will continue to increase until the authority recognize the availability of these problems, begin diagnosing their causes and identifying those who cause them and then suggest possible solutions to them. If no admission of the deteriorating situation is being made, the country and its people will reap nothing more than thorns.

If our brothers in the ruling party don't acknowledge the existence of effective political forces in Yemen, the country's situation will go from bad to worse. Admitting what happens in real-life situation means that the government and its ruling party have got out of the gloomy tunnel.

Source: Al-Sahwa.net
——
[archive-e:1098-v:15-y:2007-d:2007-10-25-p:opinion]