“People are equal in human dignity, and citizens are equal before the law in public rights and duties. There shall be no discrimination among them on the basis of sex, origin, language, religion or creed”. Bahrain, the Gulf, article 18 of the 2002 Constitution. Good, one might think. At last we have found democracy in a tiny constitutional monarchy. A very small country, with an area smaller than the nearby King Fahd airport of Saudi Arabia, but an oil-based, rich and fast developing nation.
Nonetheless, despite the significance of words and even as its new Trade centre and Financial Harbour stand out against the sky, citizens look at the future with increasing anger and disillusionment. A section of them, to be precise the Shiite majority, feels confined outside business, opportunities and fundamental social rights. Recent international events, such as the Lebanon conflict, have reignited concerns about the constant menace of protests, arson attacks and civil conflicts.
Indeed, going back to the 90s, Bahrain has often been affected by conflict, that caused some forty casualties in struggles between the government and Shiite political activists. Nowadays, the scenery introduces itself again. In 2002, king Al-Khalifa promulgated the new Constitution, which states the existence of a two chambers Parliament. Deputies of the lower chamber are elected by people, with universal suffrage, while the higher chamber is still appointed directly by the king. However “democratic” this may seem, things have not changed since then. Shiites lay claim to affordable housing and redistribution of public land, whose biggest share is given either to the Sunni minority or to the royal family. Far from addressing these issues, government reaction has been to block access to “Google earth”, whose satellite images demonstrated discrimination to anyone who searched the net.
The contradiction goes beyond sectarian challenges. On the one hand, Bahrain is a close ally of the United States, which sponsors its economy by sustaining the oil business, and of Saudi Arabia. Consider, for instance, that the government changed the weekend from Thursdays and Fridays to Fridays and Saturdays so as to have a weekend that it shared with the rest of the world. The change took effect from the September 1, 2006. On the other hand, internal balance is related to religious differences as much as to democracy. Relations between Shia’s and Sunni’s are not all about welfare and it was not difficult to see Shiites manifestations in favour of Nasrallah after the ceasefire took hold in Lebanon.
Facing the situation, the government decided not to accept any requests. On the contrary, Al-Khalifa’s clan kept suspecting Shiites of being fomented by Iran, while its big neighbour, Saudi Arabia’s concerns grew. Actually, Tehran officially claimed sovereignty over Bahrain till 1971, as Bahrain gained independence from the United Kingdom, but Manama believes that Tehran backed at least one coup attempt in the 1980s. The government also suspected Iran of setting up a Bahraini branch of Hezbollah in 1996. As a result, Sunni and Shiites nowadays are deeply wary of each other, even among the haves and the have-mores and are usually less involved in politics. The latest liberal decisions took by the government were hardly able to restore cohabitation.
What’s more, the country is approaching parliamentary elections, which will take place next November. Shiite opposition accuses the government of granting citizenship to foreigners serving in the armed forces in order to alter the demographic balance of the country. On October 6th, while presenting his candidates to the press, Sheikh Ali Salman, leader of Al-Wefaq, the most important Shiite party, called for independent local and international election observers, adding that he feared that the electronic voting system proposed by the government might be used to manipulate results. On the same day another political party, named Nub, showed its eight men and a woman candidates and called for constitutional reforms and legislative power so as to completely in charge of the Parliament.
Despite these campaigns, power is still fully in the hands of the king’s clan, and the
Shiite fundamentalism grows alongside disillusion. Yet in May 2005, the non-profit association “International Crisis group” produced a document expressing alarm over Bahrain’s political balance. “The moderate Shiite leadership’s control over more confrontational elements within its community” the ICG report stated “is showing signs of wear. While some opposition members advocate reconciliation, others are pushing for a more dramatic showdown. As this dangerous dynamic sets in, government and opposition moderates may lose their tenuous hold on the situation. Both need to act quickly to prevent this from happening”.