Bahraini MP criticises colleagues for incompetence, raising absurd issues

Last week, it was obvious that Ahmed Bah-zad could not take it any more. The senior member of the Bahraini elected parliament suddenly burst into anger, lashing out at his colleagues' for what he called "incompetence."

Bahzad, who is the chairman of the House of Deputies' security, defence and foreign affairs committee, complained that the MPs had become a "laughing stock" of the public. They did nothing worth of their seats, he alleged.

One year after its election, many agreed, parliament was not doing en-ough, although they didn't go to the extreme as Ba-hzad did. "The MPs have the tools but they need to know how to use them," said Abbas Abu Safwan, the Arabic daily Al Wasat's chief home reporter.

Bahzad's lashing words were directed at the Islamists, who control almost half of parliament's 40 seats. Safwan, who writes extensively on parliamentary issues, prefers to call them "conservatives". Bahraini parliament, convened for the first time in December last year, was elected in October 2002 for the first time in nearly 30 years. The last time Bahrain had an elected parliament was in 1975. The restoration of the parliament has won the kingdom outside praise and stability inside. Bahrain has become the second GCC country, after Kuwait, to have a directly elected parliament.

However, since its election, parliament has been "tied up with ridiculous issues," Bahzad told his colleagues. The last straw for Bahzad was a proposal by one of the 'conservatives', Islamist MP, Sheikh Jassim Al Said, a Salafi, to issue a law to incriminate those who "sniff glue", a practice used by some youngsters to give them a drug-like effect. A week earlier, Al Saidi, a long with another Islamist MP, Sheikh Ali Matter, introduced a motion to allow soldiers and policemen to grow their beards. Other Islamists got parliament tied for a day last month to debate the issue of allowing fully veiled women to drive.

"What kind of proposals are these? Is that all you are interested in? What happened to real issues such as unemployment, attracting investment to the kingdom and healthcare? We have become a laughing stock," an angry Bahzad said, poi-nting his finger at Al Saidi.

"Irrelevant debates are the signs of a weak parliament," said Dr Anissa Fakhro, a noted sociologist. "Our parliament, unfortunately, has many inexperienced people. The voters now harvest the seeds of the opposition's mistakes," she said.

The four leading opposition groups had boycotted the elections. They were protesting the new constitutional changes, which had been introduced in February 2002 and according to which the appointed Shura Council has been granted legislative powers equal to those limited traditionally to the elected house. Bahrain has a bicameral legislative system.

Dr Anissa hopes the next round will bring in more seasoned politicians. She said the voters were tired of religious bickering. "We need deputies who can deliver. The people have real issues that need to be addressed," she said.

The opposition argues the problem lies in the "many constitutional cha-ins" which make it difficult to have an "effective" parliament. The appointed members of the Shura can block any move taken by the elected house.

"This is not entirely true," said Safwan, the parliamentary reporter. "Constitutionally, the elected parliament has all the tools needed to exercise the dual role of legislating and monitoring the government performance," he explained. The MPs have the authority, for example, to question the ministers, but they seldom use this right, he said. Also, the MPs tend to shy away from legislating, he added, "They tend to recommend to the government what they would like to see done. They don't fully realise they can make things happen."