Bahrain king opposes reforms, people demands

Bahraini security forces have arrested a human rights activist in the country

Nabeel Rajab with the interior ministry giving no particular reason for the act. Rajab is head of Bahrain’s Human Rights Organization which the government has already announced as illegal and is currently restricting its activities. He was arrested immediately after his return from Beirut and two hours after a joint televised interview with the WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange. Abdulhadi al-Khawaja,

another human rights activist, has been on a hunger strike for three months in protest at his life sentence. Bahraini King was obliged to order a retrial for al-Khawaja and a number of other convicts. They had previously been convicted by a military court and this time they are supposed to be given trial at a civil court. Al-Khawaja’s daughter has also been arrested several times. Al-Khawaja’s supporters say his retrial would not be acceptable and call for his release as well as the country’s other political prisoners’ freedom. Al-Khawaja is also a citizen of Denmark but the Bahraini government does not agree with his transfer to this country. The Bahraini government’s pressure on human rights activists is among its weak points in confronting the popular uprising in the country which has claimed the lives of more than 60 people over the past 14 months. The government in Manama hopes to establish order in cooperation with Saudi soldiers and the United Arab Emirates police.

The Bahraini King has recently changed certain articles of the country’s constitution to control the situation and put an end to protests. Demonstrations staged immediately after the King’s decision in Bahrain showed that such amendments failed to win the public opinion. According to these changes, the Council of Representatives is given greater authority to impeach and withdraw its vote of confidence in the government. But ultimately, it is the king which has the right to retain or remove the prime minister. The king should also consult the heads of the Council of Representatives and the Shura Council before dissolving the parliament. Thus, the Bahraini king is still at the center of power and he has only granted permission that the representatives be consulted to a limited extent in cases related to the government. The chief demand of the Bahraini people is the establishment of a conditional kingdom where the king has no responsibilities and all the power is vested in the representatives of the people and the government. The head of the board of government should also be elected by the majority in the parliament and not be appointed by the king.

There are two councils in Bahrain, each of which has 40 members. The members of the Council of the Representatives are chosen by the people in elections and the members of the Shura Council are appointed by the king. Every law should be ratified by both councils. If only a small number of the members of the Council of Representatives were allies of the king, then he could pass any law that he wanted. Despite the new changes to the constitution, the prime minister is still appointed by the king and not the Council of Representatives. Bahrain has only had one prime minister, the king’s uncle, since it separated from Iran and he intends to remain in the post as long as he lives. In the 14 months that has passed since the start of the uprising in Bahrain, the opposition has called for free elections that are based on the correct delineation of the constituencies. The opposition says the election laws in Bahrain do not allow for a just ratio between the constitution and the number of representatives. New changes in Bahrain’s constitutions ignore all these demands. In order for new changes to be legitimate, the lower and upper houses of Bahraini parliament have passed them. The opposition, however, says neither houses of the parliament are legitimate, and none of them represent the people, especially after all opposition representatives resigned and were replaced by new ones close to the royal court. Aided by the Western companies, the government of Bahrain held the fourth stage of the Formula 1 car races in late April to show that the situation in the country is normal. International attention to this sports event, however, increased focus on developments in Bahrain and added more heat to street protests. Bahrain’s popular uprising has not received due attention from foreign news agencies as well as regional news networks. This is partly a result of the Bahraini government’s decision to prevent entry of foreign correspondents and their free movement in the country. To a larger part, however, it is due to reluctance of powerful regional news networks owned by Saudi Arabia and Qatar for reflecting the situation in Bahrain. The United States and the West do not care about Bahrain either. The US Fifth Fleet is stationed in Bahrain. The West is concerned that any change in Manama may get it close to Tehran and help Iran find another ally in the Arab world and the Persian Gulf after Iraq. If the West had given to Bahrain only one-hundredth of the attention it is paying to Syria, the Bahraini king would have had to give more concessions to people. Comparing double standards applied by Western states and the US to crises in Syria and Bahrain will show that their main priority is to protect their own interests, not to help people, promote democracy, and protect the human rights in the Arab world.