The way Parliament operates [Archives:2006/924/Opinion]
Mustafa Ragih
The ruling party has no presence in the real sense, which is a fact known to everyone. What is more important is the real assessment of this fact in the pace of consecutive events to know whether something has undergone change. Ruling party MPs knew last Tuesday night that they still are immature and have no right to select representatives, even by decision of those constituting the majority in Parliament.
We do not talk about Sheikh Al-Ahmar and the post of Parliament Speaker, as ruling party MPs quite know their limits. They believe they were able to elect two Parliament board members, abiding by the President's directives concerning reelecting Sheikh Al-Ahmar as Speaker of Parliament.
A type of change restores their hope of having confidence in themselves and being able to make decisions, so they have no better opportunity than this. This is not the budget to enrage the President and it has no relation to gravitation between authority and the opposition, nor is there intervention in issues due to spark confusion in ruling party MPs' allegiance to the ruler.
Ruling party MPs, constituting the majority in Parliament, met and with absolute freedom, elected two MPs, Sakhr Al-Wajih and Mohamed Al-Shadadi, to Parliament's board, in addition to Sheikh Al-Ahmar and Yahya Al-Ra'ee. They elected the two Tuesday night and their credibility vanished with the ring of mobile phones. The President decided to retain the former Parliament board and its entire staff, an order involving only commitment and obedience.
MP Al-Shadadi was forced to withdraw amid countless telephone calls and embarrassments. For his part, Al-Wajih decided to fill his ears with cotton and obey his colleagues' decisions, botching all the mobile calls, and last Wednesday morning he made a candidacy bid for Parliament's board. He told his Parliament colleagues that if he stopped talking, many irresponsible MPs would open their mouths and merchandize themselves saying: “We told you to take part in the elections. The ballot box will judge between us.” He then stood in the elections while irresponsible MPs lost. He won 125 votes, which can be counted metaphorically in favor of his colleague Al-Shadadi. The total number of votes will be counted as a parliamentary bloc, with no distinction made between an opposition MP and another loyal MP.
There are MPs who never attended any Parliament sessions except under instruction on days of voting for the budget and elections. These MPs are with the ruling party and the President. So what's the problem if they selected the above-mentioned two MPs for Parliament's board? Is this a coup against the President and the regime? On the contrary, this was about enhancing their confidence in themselves and pouring an emergency dose for Parliament's status and public confidence in it.
The presence of a strong ruling party bloc has a uniform decision strengthening Parliament, political life and regime and the President too. The President is advised to reduce the burden on him, rather than collect all the threads in his hand or prove everything via his mobile.
Ruling party MPs are part of a legislative authority that ought to have its own status. No one can argue that they are ruling party members and representatives in Parliament. However, dealing with them as employees makes them only a herd without enthusiasm for the ruler, his party and regime. What kind of democracy or peaceful transfer of power are we talking about if the President never accepts any decision from his party bloc?
How can these MPs discuss corruption files, draft laws and monitoring issues when they open their rounds in this manner? This past year witnessed failure of the propaganda of the ruling party's conferences, as the majority of conference chairmen were appointed by recommendation. Moreover, in Taiz, the ruling party branch conference represented exceptional propaganda. While the move, influenced by pressure from capital officials, proceeded to recommend former branch chairman Sheikh Jaber, Sheikh Sultan Al-Barakani, backed by a great majority, insisted on conducting competitive elections, as they stood behind Al-Himyari.
To sum up, the entire image was meant to consolidate democracy and competition. Afterward, many people called Sheikh Sultan “The Rebel,” manifesting the ruling party's majority experience, considered a step backward. The days to come will reveal this experience's impacts on the ruling party bloc's performance and Parliament as a whole.
Mustafa Ragih is a Yemeni journalis
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[archive-e:924-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-02-27-p:opinion]
