Bahrain Undergoes Political Reform

In the first elections in twenty-eight years, the small island country of
Bahrain overwhelmingly approved a referendum calling for political reform.
The national charter, authored by the ruling al-Khalifa family, establishes
Bahrain as a constitutional monarchy, and enacts two parliaments, one
elected and one assigned. The charter also constitutes Bahraini citizens as
equal, and allows both men and women to vote and run for office. The
referendum, in which over 90% of eligible voters participated in, received a
98.4% approval rate. Political reform has been credited to a six-year
popular uprising, as well rapprochement from the ruling Emir. Over a
thousand political prisoners and a hundred more in exile were pardoned two
weeks earlier.

Bahrain, whose inhabitants are majority Shia Muslim, has been ruled by the
Sunni Muslim Al-Khalifa family since the turn of the 19th century. It was a
British protectorate up until it gained its independence in 1971, two years
after which a constitution was put into force, and an advisory legislative
body was partly elected by male voters. In 1975, Sheikh Isa Bin-Salman
Al-Khalifa, Bahrain's supreme ruler from 1961 up until his death in 1999,
dissolved the assembly due to complaints from the prime minister that it
impeded the government's work. His son, Sheik Hamad Bin-Isa, now the ruler
of Bahrain, is seen by many Bahrainis as more liberal and open to reform.

The Al-Khalifa family ruled the small island with autocracy, under the
oversight of the "Western democracies" of Britain and the United States,
and the island served as their main naval and military base in the Middle
East. Despite the oil boom in the 1970s, Shia inhabitants are largely poor
and disenfranchised compared to Sunnis, and have wielded very little
political power. Bahrain, however, remained more open than its neighbors,
particularly Saudi Arabia. Women can drive and work, restaurants serve
alcohol, and religious freedom is tolerated.

Since the annulment of portions of the 1975 constitution, a coalition of
opposition forces that included intellectuals, nationalists, secularists,
and religious leaders pressured the government for reform. The movement,
which was suppressed by the government, took a more militant and Islamist
tone in recent years. One of its leading figures is Sheikh Abdul Amir
al-Jamri, a respected Shia clergyman and former member of the suspended
parliament, who was repeatedly put under house arrest since riots started in
1994. His son, Mansour al-Jamri, has been an influential figure in the
London-based Bahrain Freedom Movement, which in recent years has lead an
international campaign to expose human rights violations in Bahrain.

The uprising, organized by an increasingly unemployed Shia youth as well as
students and other dissidents, erupted shortly the government arrested a
leading Shia cleric, Sheikh Ali Salman and several others prominent figures
on December 5, 1994. Sheikh Salman was instrumental in a campaign to
collect signatures from the public for a petition calling for the
restoration of the constitution, sponsored by fourteen pro-democracy
leaders, which included Islamists (both Shia and Sunni), secularists, and
leftists. The petition, which was signed by over 25,000 Bahrainis, was to
be submitted on Bahrain's National Day, December 16. The government
responded to protests demanding the release of Sheikh Salman with brutal
repression. A few were killed and hundreds more were wounded, and the
government embarked a campaign of arbitrary arresting thousands of suspected
activists.

In subsequent years, riots spread from the predominantly Shia villages to
the capital Manama, and street clashes between demonstrators and security
forces became frequent. Youth sprayed walls with slogans calling for the
restoration of democracy, freedom of thought, and economic reform. In a
number of incidents, arson and bombings were directed at businesses
employing foreign workers, who are blamed for the high rate of unemployment.
Since 1994, more than 40 people have died in the conflict.

During his Friday prayer address, opposition leader Sheikh al-Jamri welcomed
the referendum, calling the popular approval "a positive sign of the people'
s trust in Sheikh Hamad's political reform." He called for the
reinstitution of terms in the constitution which were repealed in 1975,
"particularly those which guarantee freedom of speech and the forming of
unions." His call for repealing the State Security Law, which allows the
police to arbitrary detain political dissidents three years without trial,
was granted today by the prime minister in a television announcement.

In a statement issued in Beirut on Friday, the Islamic Front for the
Liberation of Bahrain expressed concern that the referendum took place
without international observance, and whether people "were able to vote
without intimidation." Other critics argue that the referendum was a
successful tactic to contain opposition, and to sanction al-Khalifa's
illegitimate rule over the island. Bahrain Freedom Movement, which was
critical of the undemocratic and nontransparent way in which the charter was
authored, hailed the reforms, calling today "the most important day in the
troubled history of the nation."

arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)