Thank you, Mr. President, butIs it really over? [Archives:2005/842/Opinion]

One cannot say how appreciative the observer is to heat that there are signs that the uncalled for war in the deprived Governorate of Sa'ada is coming to an end. Yet, with Mr. Al-Houthi having so many children and the military brass in the area and the Governor of Sa'ada being so trigger happy, we hope that with the quietly mentioned pardon, the President of the Republic has kindly taken the time to issue for the Scholar Badr-Aldin Al-Houthi, those trigger happy merchants of war can sit back and enjoy their take from two ugly moments in the tested history of modern Yemen.

We believe that the revered Scholar Badr-Aldin Al-Houthi was sincere in his candid letter to HE the President declaring that he and his followers had absolutely no intention of creating any insurrection and that there has been a deliberate attempt to create havoc in the region, so some of the evil interests in the land can carry out the kind of adventures that will fill their coffers or serve some evil renditions of Islam for which Mr. Al-Houthi was able to hold back from spreading its poisonous venom in the innocent land of Sa'ada, and to corrupt its highly moral communities, who are steadfast in their moral convictions and their simple but dignified understanding of Islam that sees the religion of Islam as a religion of peace and high morals.

This observer has discussed the Sa'ada problem with a number of enlightened officials and non-officials, with a fairly proper understanding of the Yemeni situation. There is a strong consensus among all these loyal but conscientious dignitaries that indeed the Governor of Sa'ada and whoever he is trying to serve to advance his political arithmetic could have acted more responsibly and patiently in handling the issues involved in the Houthi crisis, in both of its renditions. Moreover, the Government should have noticed that executive authority in Sa'ada was lacking a sense of national responsibility and accordingly should have sought an alternative to “letting things work out” or else “see where all this will lead to”. To put it bluntly, the Governor of Sa'ada has over exceeded his authority by declaring war on the constituency he was supposed to serve and give them a sense of feeling that someone in the Government House of Sa'ada really cares about them and does not want to see their bodies burned and dragged around to emphasize an ugly aura of hatred that hangs over the Governor's mansion in Sa'ada. Really, the people of Sa'ada did not deserve such amassment of military hardware and sectarian hatred, which was inflamed to serve the venomous evil intentions of a few politicians, who are failures in their capacity to serve their country in the proper dignified manner expected of officials. Maybe the Government should also exercise a higher degree of selectivity when deciding to assign the high officials that are responsible for the welfare of whole regions in the country. Such people ought to be better qualified than just to respond to political inclinations that may serve a narrow interest for awhile, while the national interest is thrown out the window.

What happened in Sana'a was unforgivable by any means, because of the ugly spillover that filtered down to as far as Yarim and threatened to ignite a sectarian strife that Yemen could do well without, when considering the pathetic economic state of the nation and the awesome deficiencies in the management of just about every facet of the country's affairs.

There is still a lot more required than just a pardon for the unfortunate Mr. Houthi, who has lost half his offspring and remarkably still managed to maintain his high scholarly stature and not get on the brink of insanity after so much undeserved suffering. There are thousands of Yemenis imprisoned by their very own government which is supposed to uphold their right to be free to worship Allah as they see fit and in the manner they have been doing for over a thousand years. It was not from Sa'ada that the attackers of the USS Cole or the World Trade Center came from. On the contrary, the people of Sa'ada with their puritan and innocent renditions of Islam would be the first to denounce and abhor such ugly renditions of Islam, if we are to believe that those behind these unfortunate incidents had anything to do with Islam or were serving the interests of Islam. These prisoners are also due a pardon and a chance to live in peace with their families, especially as they have not been charged with anything that deserves all the mayhem that evolved out of the ugly war in Sa'ada Governorate.

The observer is also saddened by the fact that many young innocent soldiers and security personnel lost their lives, while carrying out their duty. The officials who mismanaged the Sa'ada affair are responsible somewhat for their unfortunate deaths and injuries as well and they deserve to be remembered and compensated accordingly. The people of Sa'ada have no grudges against them whatsoever, for the people of Sa'ada are truly a God fearing people, who are guided by conscientiousness and high morals and know that our boys in Sa'ada had no intentions to harm them, but orders are orders!

If one thing is to be learned from the sad events of the last year or so in our deprived northern Governorate of Sa'ada, it is that the officials in the Governorate of Sa'ada have not learned that the world has truly taken a different course than whatever it is they were envisaging in their minds. The world is seeking to expand the chance of people to become free to plot out their destinies and look at the Heavens in their own perceptive ways. We cannot let the evil die hards in our society continue to spread their hate filled convictions amongst our peace loving and proud people, who cherish nothing more than to worship God in their own peaceful ways.
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