Bandar and the Man

Yes, Bandar Report, Part II has come out. God knows where this country is going.. I was just commenting on Dilmun's blog that I have hope in the Crown Prince as our honest, intelligent and visionary future leader. Well, CP, this is exactly when we need leaders like you.

For those not familiar with Mr Bandar here is my crash course: around September 2006, Salah AlBandar, a former Sudanese-British Advisor to the Bahraini government unleashed a scandalous report that releaved an alleged secret strategy by the government to rig the elections, marginalize the Shi'a population, skew the demographics of the country in favor of Sunnis, foster sectarian divide, and ensure Sunni primacy over a divided society. A newspaper called Al-Watan was established as the media-arm of the strategy. The alleged leader of the ring is Sh. Ahmed bin Ateyatallah Al-Khalifa Minister of Cabinet Affairs. The report included classified documents and copies of bribe-checks to journalists and parliamentarians.

Then the government, in order to truly investigate the claims and punish those responsible, fired and kicked Bandar out of Bahrain immediately. That Minister was re-appointed and newspapers were forbidden from mentioning Bandar's report. Best of all, the government sued Bandar for "stealing government documents!" As for Ateyatallah, he issued a statement defending himself by saying that the checks he wrote to all those journalists, parliamentarians, and officials were actually for "personal business." (very nice)

The plot revealed could not have been the making of a Minister alone. It clearly needs financial and political backing of a very strong power in country. Now as netural as I would like to be, the report is very difficult to dismiss, given the behavior of the government (e.g. demographic-altering naturalization etc). Initially, Bahrainis thought "the usual suspect" was behind it, and looked to the country's leadership for at least some sort of reaction, outrage, or probe into the issue. In November, a delegation of Shi'a Ulema lead by Essa Qassem was met with the assertion that he really didn't know anything about it and that we should continue to live in la la land because it's nicer.

As of now, Part II of the report is available to download at http://www.3radnet.com/ff/showthread.php?t=16518

Politically, Part II is even more alarming because it exposes (alleged) involvement by Sh. Khaled Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa, Minister of the King's Court. This is significant since the Royal Court, representing the King, was viewed as a relatively trusted arbitrar. Now the picture can potentially be completely flipped. The report raises significant questions about the role of the Royal Court in undermining the opposition and Shia Ulema Council, illegal demographic engineering, and distributing roles on alleged accomplices such as Faisal Folath (Consultative Council appointed by the King) and Samira Rajab (notorious for her calls to close down Shia Matams over alleged "weapon" stocks somehow only she knew about).

With the passive [non] reaction by the leadership, it is becoming increasingly the conviction in Bahrain that the Royal establishment may be the driving force behind sectarian practices in Bahrain. More importantly, sectarian tensions within the country are at their peak and parliament just seems to be sound asleep. Mahmood Al-Yousif says that refusing sectarianism on the popular level is the answer. I agree totally. The "Just Bahraini" idea [http://justbahraini.org] is really powerful.

But please, to both government and parliament, you need to wake up too!! We are not Iraq and don't want to be. Someone stop those who "allegedly" are taking this country to its doom. Also, while you're at it, why don't you find some issues to treat (hint: you can start by unemployment, corruption, housing, education, privatization, ALBA, Gulf Air).