Ayoon Wa Azan (What Has Violence Achieved In Two Years? Nothing)

The BBC, including the radio, television and websites, is my favorite news source among all international media outlets. And yet, I found its coverage of the events in Bahrain to be lacking in professionalism, as its reporters believed whatever they heard, while denying some of the practices they saw by some in the opposition who have Iranian-Persian loyalties. Nevertheless, I did not gloat when senior figures in the BBC along with junior ones fell from grace, after the recent sex scandals, both real and imagined. Instead, I hoped that there would be a lesson learned from the BBC crisis, where the BBC would seek to handle news objectively and impartially, away from its liberal tendencies – which I share with the British network. I honestly do not understand how the United States and Europe are spearheading a campaign to topple the clerical regime in Iran, while defending the advocates of clerical rule in Bahrain. True, the opposition in Bahrain has legitimate demands, but leaders of Al-Wefaq such as Ali Salman and Supreme Guide Issa Qassem exploit these demands to further their plans for a Persian client state or colony ruled by a supreme cleric. I mean every word I say and I am willing to defend it all in a court of law. My short visit to Bahrain coincided with news from Tehran where Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi made a statement stressing that any bilateral talks with the United States can only be decided by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. In Bahrain, there is an elected parliament, and a democratic regime that is open to reform. So if the opposition had its way, will political decisions be left to a supreme leader like Issa Qassem or someone of his ilk? In other words, is it reasonable to have the foreign policy of the country be decided by a Friday sermonizer in a Shiite mosque? Having criticized the opposition, however, does not mean that I am defending the government. I am still waiting for the latter to implement the rest of the recommendations made by the Bahrain Independent Committee of Inquiry (BICI), of which the majority has already been put into effect. I have also some personal notes on the performance of the opposition. I had hoped, for instance, that the latter would play its role from within parliament, as it had done in previous two sessions, instead of boycotting, resorting to the street and harming Shiites as well as Sunnis. To be sure, Bahrain is a small country, and clear-headed Bahrainis are those who seek to build bridges and cooperate, rather than antagonize and confront others. Furthermore, the pro-Iranian elements of the opposition have started accusing Shiites who work for the government or who deal with it of treason. But to me, treason happens when Bahrainis replace their loyalty for Bahrain with loyalty to Iran, i.e. to poverty, boycotts, and embargos rather than to economic prosperity and regional cooperation. In Bahrain as well, there is a modern family law that guarantees the rights of the mother and the child. However, Shiite leaders refuse to sign it because they prefer for women protected by the law to be oppressed instead, and because they insist on having minors or children marry, even if they deny this. What has violence achieved in two years? The answer is nothing. Instead, it brought ruin upon all the people of the country, and 31 of the individuals who have loyalty to other countries than Bahrain had their citizenship revoked. Here, Minister of State for Information Affairs and government spokesperson Samira Rajab cited articles of the Bahraini constitution that allow for the citizenship of those accused of undermining the state’s security and the supreme national interests of the country to be revoked. The opposition did not have to go this far in the confrontation with the government. The paths to dialogue were all open to the opposition. When I met with Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad at the beginning of the crisis, for example, I was certain that he was going to reach an agreement with the opposition. I hope that the opposition is aware of how much it has lost since March, 2011, and I hope that the government will show some flexibility. For one thing, an outcome where there is a winner and a loser is not what is desired. Rather, there must be more patience until the opposition returns to the dialogue table. If this happens, the opposition would be proving all those who say that it does not have control over its decisions wrong, including myself. In the end, I would rather be wrong and for the opposition to make the right decision, for the sake of Bahrain, its people and their future. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.