Yemenis determined on elections as the only way for power transfer

By Nasser Arrabyee,31/01/2012

The early presidential elections on February 21st, will be almost the last major step for Yemenis to move to the new  Yemen.

 A new President will be elected, and a new  reign will start. 

Every one is looking forward to that historic date despite concerns and worries of possible violence to thwart such an internationally,regionally, and nationally supported step to end the one-year political crisis. 

Al Qaeda among the groups that refuse the elections and try to keep the chaos as a guarantee for them to continue. But crackdown is at its highest level.

For instance, the top leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP), Nasser Al Wahayshi  survived US drones and missiles  attacks that killed at least 10 Al Qaeda operatives south of Yemen, according to  local residents Tuesday.

The Hauk missiles , which came from American ships in the Arabian Sea, shelled the school of Martyr Awadh Abd Al Nabi in Amkhaidara, an area between  Lawdar and Modya, ib the southern province of Abyan where a group of Al Qaeda operatives were hiding.
 
The drone attacks destroyed two cars with fighters on board, close to the same area of Amkhaidar

Although the elections will be  nominal because only one consensus candidate will be running, but the majority of Yemenis see the step as the only possible way to  transfer the power peacefully. 

They say it's a great and unprecedented lesson to be learnt by the coming generations.

 If it's bad,it is avoiding Yemen the worst, which is the war over who will rule and why?

All political parties, without exception, are calling every one to go to the polls and elect the  consensus candidate , current vice president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi,who was  partly authorized  by President Ali Abdullah Saleh to run the country until elections are held according to an internationally and regionally supported  deal which was sponsored mainly by Saudi Arabia and the  Gulf Nations except for Qatar that withdrew in the middle. 

The US, EU, Russia,China and the Gulf Cooperation council urged all parties and groups to make the elections on time a success, as an extremely important step in the power transfer deal. 

On January,22, 2012, and before flying to United States for a short and private visit for more treatment, President Ali Abdullah Saleh called his party and all his supporters to go and vote for Mr Hadi on February 21 elections. 

President Saleh also insisted on attending the installation ceremony of Mr Hadi as an important protocol  that has never ever been  done over the history of Yemen and maybe  the history of the  region as a whole.

  Saleh will return from US to make this protocol a good tradition for the coming generations  to follow, and then he will remain as a head for his party as he confirmed in a  speech before  heading to US late last Month.

President Saleh cleared airs with his own tribe leaders to guarantee  their protection when he  becomes a normal man after February 21.

This step, however, did not remove the tensions in Saleh's tribe, Sanhan, between  those loyal to  Saleh and those loyal to the defected general Ali Muhsen.

Officers  and soldiers from the air  defense  are demanding the ouster of their commander, Mohammed Saleh, half brother of President Saleh. Those who demand the ouster of the commander Saleh are believed to be supported by the defected general Ali Muhsen. 

Earlier this week at night, three explosions could be heard inside the Muhsen's  defected division, which is close to the protests square in the capital Sanaa.

 The three explosions, which harmed no one, were interpreted  by many Yemenis, as a warning message for Muhsen to stop making problems in the army units.

All tribal leaders from Sanhan tribe,  both loyal and opposed to Saleh, held a meeting on January 22, 2012. 

The purpose of the meeting was to clear the airs  and make a comprehensive reconciliation between Saleh and his opponents in the same tribe, especially those  with the defected general Ali Muhsen , Saleh's cousin and  who was one of the most important pillars in Saleh's rule over the last 33 years. 
 
Although general Ali Muhsen did not attend the meeting, but he was included in that historic tribal reconciliation through the tribal leaders loyal to him like general Saleh Al Dhani, and the tribal leader Abdul Elah Al Qadi.

While President  Saleh was attending the meeting as one of the tribal leaders of Sanhan tribe, the meeting was chaired by the general Ahmed  Ismail Abu Huriah, one of the most respected tribal leaders in Sanhan. The Vice Presodent Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, attended the meeting as a national sponsor.

 The tribal leader, Abdul Qader Helal, was attending the meeting as one of the tribal leaders of Sanhan. 

Helal and Abu Huriah are seen as neutral leaders who  were and still have connections with Saleh and Muhsen during the year crisis.

" With the help of Allah Almighty, all brothers from Sanhan tribe, including the opponents, met and pardoned each other completely and let bygones be bygones," said a document signed by the tribal leaders at the end of the meeting.

Later on the same day, and only hours  before his trip to United States Saleh said to Media" I would go to United States for treatments and get back to Sanaa as a head of the People's General Congress and to install Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi as  President after February 21."

"The national anthem  will be played and all senior officials  in the Palace will be attending, then Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi will take the Presidency, and Ali Abdullah Saleh will take his bag and say to all good bye, and will then  go to his house, and this is the protocol   that is done everywhere in the world," President Saleh said.

President Saleh also promoted his vice president Hadi to the rank of Marshal, the highest rank in the Yemeni armed forces, as a sign of respect and appreciation of the national role Hadi has been doing and will be doing as the new President of Yemen.

" From here I would declare the promotion of my deputy Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to the rank of Marshal, in respect and appreciation of his national efforts and positions," President Saleh said.

On Saturday January 21, 2012, the members of the Parliament of both the opposition and ruling party unanimously voted for an immunity law that will stop any  future prosecutions or  taking revenge between President Saleh and his  now opponents  but who  were his partners one day during his 33-year rule.

" The immunity law includes Ali Abdullah Saleh and those who worked with him during the 33 years from civil, military and security agencies, " said President Saleh.


Two Yemeni  leading women  activists under fire of  extremist Islamists  as " not good Muslims" , atheists, apostates 


Yemen Islamists changed their minds about the activists who mainly  led the  one-year protests for change and establishing the modern and civil State, the  dream of a lot Yemenis.

Influential Islamists,now, campaign against these activists as kafers,(infidels), agents, and  traitors, which are words that might endanger the lives of these activists in a conservative and un-knowledgeably religious country like Yemen.

At the top of the list of these activists    being targeted day and night nowadays  by extremists come Tawakul Karman, the Nobel prize winner for 2011, and Bushra Al Maktari, another woman activist and one of leaders of  the anti-regime protests in the  southern central city of Taiz.

The inciting  campaigns are being launched in the squares, mosques, schools, houses and the  social media like facebook, twitter and you tube.

The best and  most lenient  of these campaigns talk about putting these activists on trial for charges of trying to convert  to another religion or blasphemy. 

And the worst and harshest campaigns talk about killing these activists as enemies of Allah without being tried.  

Killing without trial seems to be  the easiest way for the brain-washed young people who  believe they would get married  to beautiful wives in paradise  if they  get  killed while killing kafers, enemies of Allah.

Sheikh Ali Abdul Majid Al Zandani, one of the sons of  Sheikh Abdul Majid Al Zandani, who is wanted by US and UN for terror charges, said January,23, 2012, that Tawakul Karman had converted to a new religion, other than Islam, which is very dangerous accusation.

" today I have not any doubt that she is calling for overturning the Islam and replacing it with a new religion," said Al Zandani, the son in a statement published in local media.

Earlier in the week,  Ms Karman said in a televised interview that "Islam is a source of inspiration not a source of legislation".

Commenting on this Al Zandani, the son, said " I was extremely shocked to hear her saying this."

"She is making the Muslem equals to the kafer," he wondered.

Al Zandani, the father,who is influential and spiritual leader in the Islamist party,Islah,  last March went to the square of protests at the gate of Sanaa university and delivered  a rhetoric speech in which he told the protesters that they had  discovered the thing that he did not discover in his life to establish the Islamic Caliphate. 

And he said that  the protesters deserve an invention patent for that discovery of protesting to overthrow the regime.

For Ms Bushra Al Maktari, the campaign against her is happening more in Taiz where she is based.

The Member of Parliament of the Islamist party, Islah, Abdullah Ahmed Ali, leads the campaign against Ms Al Maktari and other activists like the sarcastic writer Fekri Kasem.

The MP Ali, who is also a mosque speaker in Taiz, led on January 23,  tens of extremists outside his mosque, Al Noor, with some of them carrying banners condemning the activists as atheists and infidels.

" Yemen of wisdom and faith will never be a country for atheism" one of the banners read.

"Our country will be a cemetery for blasphemists"   another banner read.

The Islamist leader, Abdullah Ahmed Ali was using a loudspeaker and shouting to the people to come  and join the protests saying Allah is here Allah is here.

"Be with the scholars and do  not be with the agents" he was telling people through his loudspeaker.

 The Salafi demonstrators were demanding that Bushra and Fekri and others be put on trial for charges of blasphemy.

Earlier Bushra Al Maktari wrote a lengthy article titled " first year of revolution" in which she strongly criticized the Islamists for stealing the revolution and conspiring with the traditional forces, tribesmen and military, against the project of establishing the civil and modern state.

In the article, she was talking about Allah, the God, as the helper of the protesters and where there is no help to the protesters, she says Allah is not there.

For example, in her poetic article she said Allah was not present in Khedar, referring to a place outside  the capital Sanaa where Bushra and hundreds of demonstrators spent one night during their walking March from Taiz to Sanaa last December.

No one helped them at all in the villages of Khedar  as she said, they could not even get in the mosque for sleeping. So, she said Allah was not in Khedar , the phrase that extremist Islamists considered as blasphemy.
 
The political analyst Najeeb Ghallab defended Bushra Al Maktari as a freedom fighter and more believing in Allah than those  who accused her of blasphemy.

"Bushra was believing in Allah much more than those, when she wrote that article," said Ghallab.