Yemen: Drastic situation needs drastic solution

In my article on Yemen published in Gulf News on January 15, 2013, I painted a rather pessimistic picture about the future of my country of origin. I asked: ‘Will [President Abd Rabbo Mansour] Hadi, abetted by his inner circle, learn from the mistakes of his predecessor, or will his clinging to power blind him to the suffering of innocent Yemeni victims? His recent appointment of numerous commanders from his own tribal area of South Yemen — presumably ones he can trust against a likely military coup by General Ahmad Saleh — suggests the latter.’

There was hope at one point that the National Dialogue Conference might come up with a roadmap for the country, but two years on, at the official end of its mandate, it would appear to most Yemenis that the only people who benefited have been those 565 delegates who participated in the conference at Movenpick Hotel.

This is partly because it gave them visibility, allowed them to entrench alliances and, most importantly, provided them with very generous daily allowances that most Yemenis can only dream of. No wonder there is talk of extending the life of the dialogue group by another few years!

Such an extension would also mean a de facto extension of the Hadi presidency. He is the same man who professed great reluctance at assuming the post of president, and had the Yemeni nation go through the charade of electing him in an uncontested plebiscite.

In the meantime, the current parliament appears unwilling or unable to act in the interests of the public, yet its members continue to consolidate their personal gains, and those of their families and friends. The inner circle of government ministers, from the different political factions, carry on with their chronically corrupt ways, and cannot reinvent themselves as guardians of the people. The absence of any effective opposition facilitates such corruption.

More importantly, there is total absence of accountability, something that in the end depends, in a democratic society, on the courts. These are apparently run by Islamist judges, approved by the Islah party, not necessarily for their legal qualifications. The ‘rule of law’, taken for granted in western society. Its absence in Yemen is what my late brother and lawyer Dr Isam Ghanem lamented all the time.

And when the citizen encounters an absence of accountability and a corrupt system that enslaves him, what does he do? He naturally turns to criminal behaviour or, in the case of Yemen, to the tribe that can afford him some degree of protection. And thus the vicious cycle continues. Corruption in Yemen is rampant and systemic. It permeates all levels of society, from the ministerial level to the local council, to the traffic policeman and the tax collector. A recent story doing the rounds suggests that a certain minister cost the government $900,000 in travel expenses last year. This year, on the occasion of the Eid holidays, it was reported that two-thirds of cabinet ministers and their families were vacationing abroad. Rumour has it that huge amounts of cash are being transferred outside the country on these trips, facilitated by diplomatic passports! I am witness to one such transfer.

In this huge mess, one might well ask, why would any Yemeni support any of these political parties? The short answer is another question: what is the alternative — given that they all share that reputation, and that all those in power, including the president, have been part of the Saleh regime? But to be fair to the relatively uneducated Yemeni people, this is also true for many governments in the West, that routinely spend millions on pulling the wool over their people’s eyes.

So, after all this lamentation, what should Yemen do?

n What Yemen needs is a dedicated and visionary leader, one who is not interested in the glory and perks of power but in spending the four-year term cleaning up the house, declaring ahead of time that there can be no extension of the presidency. At his age, Hadi would leave a legacy that would vie with that of Ebrahim Al Hamdi of Yemen and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia.

n The entire cabinet must be sacked and replaced by an interim cabinet of technocrats, with no political affiliation as has been done in Europe. Hadi must make sure there is proportionate representation of such technocrats from the South,

n The ordinary citizen’s concerns are not foreign affairs or mineral wealth or Al Qaida. He could not care less if his president was Hadi or Saleh or Satan. What he needs in a country with one of the lowest per capita GDPs in the world is: safety, shelter, nutrition, water, electricity, transportation, health and employment. Those technocrats in the cabinet know how to achieve that.

n Establish a non-corrupt judicial system, using expatriates at first to oversee local judges. This point cannot be overemphasised.

n Unfortunately, all of the above requires a stable government that will not be threatened by some aspiring military dictator. This won’t be easy in a country with a military history. But winning the hearts and minds of large numbers of Yemenis should make a coup much less likely, even impossible given the sacrifices already made to rid Yemen of Saleh. We may already have such a leader now. Will President Hadi rise to the challenge — at last?

Dr Qais Ghanem is a retired neurologist, radio show host, poet and novelist. His two novels are Final Flight from Sanaa and Two Boys from Aden College. His non-fiction My Arab Spring, My Canada is found on Amazon.com. His collection of English and Arabic poems From Left to Right (2nd edition) was published this year.Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@dialogueluta