Rising tension [Archives:2005/826/Viewpoint]
Demonstrations are one way in which masses express their opinion regarding a particular issue, most of the time condemning it. Last week hundreds of Yemeni people went to the streets protesting against price hikes and demanding that the government would not go ahead with the latest economic modifications.
However, there is no excuse for turning such processions into dangerous events, where violence and injuries result from clashes between security and the public or among the public themselves.
Demonstrations as such are an indicator of how much awareness and freedom of opinion citizens have. However, when these events are mismanaged and manipulated to threaten public welfare and people's lives, then this freedom is abused.
Internal disputes in any country only weaken its stance. As long as there are instabilities, everything else will not function well. Instability harms investment, harms infrastructure and development, and most of all it gives a reason for intruders to interfere in the country's affairs.
The government and public are partners aiming at the best interests of this country, and they have equal responsibility in achieving this aim. Good governance is crucial and the government should earn the people's trust. At the same time the public should put more effort in cooperating with the reform policies and trying to direct the government and shoulder their responsibilities in development.
Only when the two partners understand each other and come to a mutual understanding, will the internal scene be stable.
As complicated as it might sound, there is actually a simple equation to it. Transparency of the government's strategies combined with integrating the public in decision-making are one part of it. The other part is building capacity of the people and making them more aware, so that they could become more positively involved in building this nation.
This equation must be balanced, or else the rising tension will mount and eventually explode in our faces, both in the government and public.
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