Armies of Liberation

He promised a new constitution, parliamentary system, national accord government, regional governance and a new election law based on proportional representation, all by the end of 2011. It is was what was on the table in return for the JMP’s capitulation in 2006, and over the next five years, Saleh and his cohorts blocked every attempt to bring these initiatives to fruition. Saleh has just lost all credibility because he has lied at every turn.

Update: Now that JMP is not jumping on the proposal, GPC says proposal was to people not the JMP But the people instantly rejected it as well.

Update: elections cannot be held on time SCER until rolls revised:

SCER discusses new tasks following voters’ rolls cancellation

SANA’A, March 10 (Saba) – The Supreme Commission for Election and Referendum (SCER) discussed on Thursday priorities in the light of law No. 6 for 2011 amending law No. 26 for 2010 in accordance with law No. 13 for 2001 to cancel the 5th article of Law No. 26 for 2010.

The commission affirmed, in the light of the this enforced law, that it could not hold parliamentary elections on time according to the current voters’ rolls until it revises and amends voters’ rolls in accordance with article No. 12 of Elections and Referendum Law.

“embattled” Saleh..

(RTTNews) – Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said that he is ready to make constitutional reforms that will transform the country into a parliamentary democracy. (Read on …)

Reuters

The Houthis, Jadban said, want effective representation in a national dialogue to take place if the popular movement manages to remove Saleh from office.

Jadban was until recently a member of Saleh’s ruling party, the General People’s Congress Party until he resigned last week along with 11 other parliamentarians to protest Saleh’s refusal to meet street demands to step down. (Read on …)

True. The JMP missed a good opportunity to reach out to the southern opposition. With the external pressure and an enhanced coalition, they might have forced real reforms. All the reports today sound as if the contest is to be the mayor of Sanaa, which maybe it its.

The National: On numerous occasions, party leaders have openly opposed him during news conferences, only to sit with Mr Saleh later in the day behind closed doors.

Experts believe that opposition parties are still not ready to govern and there is no obvious successor to Mr Saleh.

Unlike Tunisia, Yemen’s six opposition parties are united under the umbrella of the JMP, however, Ali Jaradi, the editor in chief of Yemen’s independent Ahale newspaper said the situation could quickly change. “Currently, the JMP is uniting the opposition against one person, which is Saleh.” But when he is “out of the picture, disputes among them will start due to them being from six differently ideological political parties”.

The Yemeni political analyst Mohammed al Khaberi said the goal of Yemen’s largest opposition party, Islah, is not to rule but to change the regime and ensure a transparent government. All other JMP parties want the opposite, and are craving the seat of the government. They see Islah as a brick wall standing in front of their political ambitions. (Read on …)

1- media censorship makes all problems disappear, actually there are NO PROTESTS, its all opposition propaganda
2- plain clothes police who arrive in vehicles with official license plates to kidnap activists
3- crowds of civil servants regularly bussed in to chant lovely things like, “Our blood for you oh Ali”
4- both are old senile men with brain damage who dye their hair and hate the internet
5- wont run in next election!!! Saleh said that before he won the last three elections
6- announces will reform, two years later announces really really will reform (continue for decades )
7- magic glasses make millions of starving kids on the streets invisible, and other unflattering statistics a foreign conspiracy by people who can’t find the country on a a map,
8- prisons worse than your worst nightmares and palaces like a Hollywood set
9- more money than Oprah but a nominal salary, must have hit lotto several times
10- Junior!!!! and a whole second generation of elite with a Porsche and foreign education

Hosni and Ali, two bums in one pair of trousers.

Saleh suddenly wants to talk. And reform. Maybe the JMP will decide to ratchet up their protest colors from pink to fuchsia. Watch out if they get to red. Update: Woops, Saleh made the announcement but forgot to invite the JMP to dialog.

Yemen Post: Opposition leaders will sit today to discuss the President Saleh’s call to end protests and come to the dialogue table.
The call by the president came after he met with high ranking officials from the ruling General People Congress GPC party yesterday.
Sources in the opposition told Yemen Post that they will not have dialogue with the ruling party until all decisions made by the ruling party over the last three months be cancelled.
The opposition source also mentioned that they are not optimistic about returning to the dialogue table with the ruling party as history has shown that dialogue always makes matters worse due to the negligence of the ruling party.

With the advent of protests in the capital, President Saleh promised a raise for the military, somewhere around $40/month. There are an approximate 600,000 on the military payroll, and an average of ten dependents each, meaning about a quarter of Yemenis will directly or indirectly benefit from the raise, if it is in fact implemented. And promising pay raises is a tactic that has worked before in Yemen to defuse social tension.

President Saleh previously and successfully promised wage increases in order to short circuit civil unrest. In response to the 2005 fuel riots, Saleh enacted the revised Wages Strategy which purported to offset higher fuel costs with salary increases for civil servants. Designed with a multi-staged roll-out, the failure to implement the second phase of the strategy later triggered strikes, notably by the teachers union, when the “type of work” bonus over base line pay was not dispersed to those qualified. In negotiations, the teachers union demanded the salary increases should be retro-active to the date they became law. Saleh’s current promise to increase military wages is being framed by the regime, correctly, as implementation of the third phase of the 2005 Wages Strategy.

In the weeks prior to the 2006 presidential election, Saleh promised a bonus to civil servants–payable after the election. Another regular tactic in response to anti-government protests is the counter pro-regime protest. Often school children and civil servants are ordered to attend under penalty of retribution. Students who did not attend protests were prohibited from taking their finals. Arrests, arbitrary violence and suppression of the media are other characteristic tactics of the Sanna regime, deployed against Southern protesters and civilians in areas of the northern Houthi rebellion. These tactics invariably swelled the ranks of the Southern and Houthi opposition movements, and if implemented again in Sana’a will have the same effect on the new born Northern protest movement.

Yemen Post: In a move described by observers as unhelpful and aiming to avoid a revolt like the one that forced Tunisian President out of office and out of the country this month, the Cabinet approved at its weekly meeting on Tuesday to start implementing the third phase of the Pay Strategy as from next month.

It ordered the Ministries of Civil Service and Insurance and Finance to prepare the executive mechanism to start the strategy that calls for a 30 per cent rise in the wages of the state employees. (Read on …)

International lawyer Adel Al Dhahab diagnosed the central obstacle to reform in Yemen: so many are guilty of serious legal infractions. There is no latitude for reform when the establishment of the rule of law would penalize those who are required to implement it. The structural component that has been missing from all proposed solutions to Yemen’s crises is a general amnesty.

Mr. Al Dhahab is a Yemeni practicing law in Canada with vast experience in civil activism, international law, the intricacies of Yemen’s political affairs and the social and tribal dynamics in Yemen.

Al Dhahab explained in a recent paper, The Missing Step, “What Yemen needs is an amnesty that will pardon all offenders across the board, whether political crime or corruption or tribal offenses. It requires selecting a cut-off date where selected crimes that occurred prior are nullified and crimes that happen after are prosecuted. “

Amnesty is a mechanism endorsed by the UN in exceptional circumstances. It was implemented in Algeria in 2006 and Iraq in February 2008. The concept of amnesty also has a strong basis in Islamic law, a prerequisite in the conservative country. (Read on …)

Good! 4.5 billion YR is about 220 million dollars US. Another area of enormous expense with disproportionately small return is the foreign embassies, which are used as a mechanism for getting outspoken politicians out of the country. For example the actual winner of the al Jawf governor’s election and the first member of Parliament to resign in protest of corrupt practices were both shipped abroad in diplomatic positions. In 2005, Yemen made repeated announcements that it would be closing unnecessary foreign embassies and reducing staff at others in an effort to cut costs. In the end, after months of hullabaloo, one Yemeni embassy was closed, Oct.11, 2005, Romania.

Academic scholarships abroad are important for Yemen’s future but are largely an entitlement to the sons and daughters of influential persons, bypassing much more qualified applicants. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands are on the military payroll but perform no military service, including some al Qaeda. Military commissions are often awarded by tribal sheiks as patronage and the sweeping exclusion of applicants by region (especially the south) during recruitment has triggered riots. The state also has trouble collecting what is due, whether taxes or the millions are owed in electricity bills by high profile persons. There’s really a lot that can be done to rationalize the Yemeni governmental budget, but it remains to be seen if its Romania all over again.

SANA’A, Dec. 3,2010 – SABA: President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered last Thursday to reduce the proportion of fuel spending given to senior officials estimated at YR 4.5 billion annually. The order comes within the austerity plans, economic and financial reforms and plans to reduce the public budget deficit.

Other measures Saleh has urged included rationalizing the public spending, limiting funds given for medical treatments outside the country, parties, hospitality, advertisement and other unnecessary activities.

The decision could save the budget about YR 10 billion a year.