Saleh is Running in the Elections

Filed under: Yemen — by Jane Novak at 5:24 am on Saturday, June 24, 2006

It was all a ploy, how predictable and tiresome. In response to a crowd of military and public employees holding pre-printed signs, Salah said something like this: “I am responding to this crowd of people, I am responding to the tears of kids, old men and women. I do not want any advantages from the authority, but I respond to my nation’s desire, who came to this place,” Saleh said.

He added, “We are all on the ark, to go to the rescue, safe, stable, freedom, and democracy beach. ..I trust you to stay behind me as well as you did in the past. The future is not spread of flowers. I’ll be a honest soldier for you ”

Pathetic, just pathetic.

The last time there were wide spread public demonstrations in Yemen was in July of 2005 when millions across the impoverished nation took to the streets to plead with Saleh to reinstate oil subsidies. At that time, Saleh unleashed tanks, guns, and soldiers against them. Dozens of Yemeni citizens were killed, hundreds injured, and hundreds arrested including young children.

12 Comments »

Comment by Arthurِ

6/24/2006 @ 6:33 am

I would like to congratulate the Yemeni people on this huge development, which will help insure the stability of Yemen and the region for years to come.

Jane, it’s tough to say no when you’ve already given strict orders against any demonstrations, and then 1.3-1.5 million people show up from different parts of the country. It just shows that the opposition can’t move one person.

I also like to correct the facts about the oil subsidies protests, the numbers were in the hundreds, and they were violent, that’s why you release security to keep the peace.

Once again, the honorable Ali Abdulla Saleh, proves his loyalty to his people.

Comment by alsabri

6/24/2006 @ 8:15 am

yemen people suffer from illetracy healthenss and poor.i think no nation in the world doesn’t want to be free and the yemeni nation is one of them. but in yemen the GPC people who leads the country and gets benefits most of them are illetrated. when saleh came president he soppurt them and the educated people were ignored. so they want the president to run the country to remain their intereses. if he goes they also will go,so they use averything,power,money,army etc to keep the situation as itis. but iam sure that most educated people want democracy freedom,president to be elected every four years. they want the dependent of army,couts,employement and these things can not be fullfild if these people still leading the country

Comment by petiole

6/24/2006 @ 9:20 am

this is a person who said in a gathering of sheiks and notables: “I’m a president without ethics”. Now he is just a taxi. how could a statesman do such un-repairable damage to his legacy and lose such a rare chance to make history? All people I talked to said “dont believe him” but i did. now who would belive him?

Comment by Jane

6/24/2006 @ 9:48 am

Yes he could have had a legacy as a democrat and now his legacy is that of just another dictator. If he had done as he insisted so sincerely for a year, it would have been a source of pride and a high point in Yemeni history. But it was all a ploy and I’m like you, I hoped this one time he was telling the truth and he looks so stupid now, with no credibility but good acting skills.

Comment by m_heykal

6/24/2006 @ 7:14 pm

I don’t know who of us get clouded faces, whom get pure eye washed . we saw the people were expressing of their grief since it had been surely lamentable decision of Yemen’s purveyor and hope’s aspiration Citizens around threaten to put in jeopardy so many national interests in case Ali does not back down. in fact personally i started to organize plans and scenarios to create diplomatic crisis and cause chaos if saleh does not take no for an answer. all that just cz we as Yemenis believe we have the right to fully exploit democracy to mirror our wishes.

why now I see u shifting ur stances. if he disregards our feelings then he is such democrat and history maker. on the other hand if he gives up his own desires and become as always he is, selfless, then he s dictator. Remember no call for resentment in democracy, we don’t have really to be blunt about it.

the democratic euphoria and carnival in Yemen represented by the last transparent scene in GPC conference and demonstrations really is a source of pride and high point in yemen history and amazing picture for masses rights in selecting their leader.
.
nothing like that ever happened in the arab world, may be just one time with the historic leader of Egypt Jamal Abdu alnaser. but surely this historic point of Saleh is more important democratically since it did not follow defeat in a war, the reverse true, it followed such historic points in Saleh record.

finally, i wish we get levelheaded analyzing the situations rationally and practically without resentment or paranoia . we should build our understanding professionally according to realistic conclusions rather than conspiracy and distrust, we should move from de medo to de facto. between “saying is believing” and ” conspiracy” the facts shin up more without siding to neither the extreme left nor the right.

due to successful efforts of his wide constituency, Ali Abduallah Saleh decided to ride the storm but with such remarkable agility, he put stern stipulations for his recantation, the most important one was Free Hand to uproot the corrupt lobby which obviously constitute upheaval turning point sign that the war on corruption is the battle now and up.

What flowery and shining record this man would have in history. stability, changing geography into the national dream unification, establishing democracy, freedom, free media, reunifying the nation, end border’s conflict so peacefully and philosophically, giving the example of peaceful handover of power, uprooting corruption, later on the way is shining and clearer, Yemen shall play her historic and civilizational role in the region and the world as well. Surely Ali Saleh is committed more than any man in the country to 26 revolution where we now harvest its fruitful outcomes.

thanks a lot Arthur, we all Yemenis should celebrate it.
now we can enjoy the world cup peacefully without being panic. haha

not to forget congratulation to Messi, Rekillme ” recuelmi”, Vatez, Kersbo fans

Comment by Majid

6/24/2006 @ 8:38 pm

Heykal and Jane
this is a good response Heykal
u know–the problem is that people are not always blind to a certain truth; it’s just that they are not close enough to see it.
take Jane as an example: I really appreciate her effort to support democracy in Yemen. Yet, she does not seem to understand the social politics of Yemen. It’s difficult to judge democracy in Yemen through the American lens. a better way, however, would be to visit Yemen and talk to the masses.
there is no doubt, a lot of people struggle to survive.but the question is where is the alternative? and don’t tell me the “JMP,”for the constitute a mixture of the most heterogeneous ideologies. before talking about change, there need to be a more serious talk about the alternative.

Comment by petiole

6/25/2006 @ 10:11 am

To say that the “purveyor” backed down in response to a popular demand is an insult to the Yemeni people. No people would freely champion a dictator to power for another 7 lean years. Dictatorships can mobilize crowds by coercion or manipulation but to claim that any such crowd is people’s will is self delusion. The majority of the Yemeni people didn’t believe the dictator and cared less if he will back down or not. The GPC was rebuked by the dictator for failing to rally enough crowds during 11 months and 4 days especially in Taiz and Hodiedah last May. Finally the job was given to the security apparatus. Army units were issued with civilian clothes then were transported by military trucks to demonstrate. Government agencies were evacuated and public employees were pressured to board buses which took them to Saba’een square. Tribesmen and villagers were told by their sheiks that they were going to demonstrate for projects for their deprived and impoverished villages, beggars and jobless workers were gathers from streets and paid a days wages, every ‘demonstrator’ was paid various sums of pocket money according to his (there were no women of course) “demonstrated loyalty”. Everyone knows what happened, it was a fake show on which huge public resources were squandered. It can’t be kept a secret. But this regime is not exactly a dictatorship, it is worse. It is a mafiocracy. This is a more accurate characterization of regime that is a coalition of corruption, dictatorship and organized crime. It has marginalized, impoverished and starved the Yemeni people for 28 years. Can the Yemeni people endure it for another 7 lean years? I doubt it. Tomorrow the whole world will hear the real voice of Yemen’s Popular Will.

Comment by Jane

6/25/2006 @ 10:15 am

mafiaocracy, good one

Comment by Anonymous

6/25/2006 @ 10:46 pm

As a Yemeni citizen ourside Yemen…I find no hope in the near future… what can Ali saleh do right now in coming seven years that he could not do in the last 28 years??? Gor God Sake… Wake up guys…

The biggest alliance for the president is the widespread intentional ignorance. What would you expect? the man has the keys to the media, army, finance, oil, and tribemen? he created the mess and apparently he can not fix it.

In order to rule Yemen for the last 28 years, He did create power centers that he can rely on when he needs them… Those power centers are represented by the army, tribes, and the horror systems (Political Security).. In order to keep them in his sides, he gave them more authority… The y grew and grew.. he can not control them any more and they ripping off the people… He knows the corrupted people; one by one… Can he do some thing against any one of them? of course not… It is not in his hand any more.

Those guys will threaten him if he thinks to give up power.. They will threw him away if not killing him

We will fight .., fight and fight … I am afraid that they leave no option except the sixties style.

Be well Jane,

Comment by petiole

6/26/2006 @ 3:03 am

this is not the sixties, it is more complex. in the sixtees the army coup was an option but what did army coups do? they repalced one authoritarian regime by another. now the JMP is adopting the option of peaceful struggle learning from success and failures of many change startegies all over the world. the election mechanism is only one element of this struggle. but no one is under any illusion that change in yemen can be achieved by the pallot automatically as in a traditional democracy. the election process is still used by the mafiocratic regime to add a cosmetic shade of legitmacy to its ugly face, to hide its hedious crimes. peaceful struggle is more than participating in elections, it is the process of empowering the masses to deprive the regime of its sources of pwer and ultimately to repalce it with a new order that is built from the grass roots of the society. there are no short cuts.

Trackback by Searchlight Crusade

6/26/2006 @ 5:02 am

RINO Sightings

George Santayana Edition

“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”