Survival of Communism in Yemen [Archives:2001/05/Focus]

by Mohamed Kadri
When I remember him, I feel miserable. I used to see him cheerful and smiling, but last week, his face was pale, his frame looked older. The man was known as rich, as wealthy, now he is in his late fifties, almost begging to meet his daily expenses.

I couldn’t bear what I saw. I failed to control myself and couldn’t refrain from inquiring about what he had gone through, which made me look as if I was interfering in his personal life. I asked about what on earth led him to such a miserable condition. To my dismay, I got to know that he had been unemployed for the last seven years and had failed to obtain a job. But why? His answers were even more shocking. He said that he was rejected because he was overqualified or over aged.

I allowed myself to inquire more, and asked about his properties, which had been nationalized and confiscated a long time ago by the communists in Aden. His immediate response to my question was horrible and disastrous! Not a single flat, out of eleven huge buildings that he once owned, was restored to him by the government of the unified Yemen. No rent whatsoever was collected from the supposed renters of my old friend’s commercial outlets. Not only that! Once when he started demanding his right on his own properties from the residents and renters, their response was devastating. They called a group of gangsters from the backstreets. Guess what they did to the old poor fellow. With no mercy at all, they beat the hell out of him, tore his old fashioned clothes, and insulted him with the most outrageous words one could imagine. He must have been thankful that he was not killed. They advised him not to come back again if he loved his children and wanted to see them again! His properties might have slipped away from the Communist government in the south, but now it is the hands of a group of people whom he had never seen before. His land was taken from one party and given to another!

Knowing the man well, I expected him to have been given a key position within the new government after unification; A person with his skills and knowledge must be honored and taken good advantage of. For him, it was not important to be offered a position anywhere. All he wanted was that his nationalized properties be returned back to him, the rightful owner. The poor guy had lots of plans in his head. He intended to sell his properties and launch a huge investment project in the united Yemen, a thing that several others refrain from doing because of the state negligence and continued efforts to nationalize the properties of others. He wanted to help the national economy through his investment, but he was not given the chance to even start.

After seeing with my own naked eyes how the state had failed to restore my friend’s rights and properties, I started to wonder: Even though we were able to get rid of communism after unification, did the Republic of Yemen use Islamic regulations so as to give us back what has been taken away by communism? Doesn’t the current constitution protect private rights? Didn’t all political parties, during election campaigns following the unification, promise the owners to struggle towards nationalized proprieties’ restoration? If the answers are no, then let us not dream that we have escaped from communist rule. Let us admit reality. Even though we are not formally so, what we see around us suggests that indeed, we are still living in a communist country.

——
[archive-e:05-v:2001-y:2001-d:2001-01-29-p:./2001/iss05/focus.htm]