Bahrain Taking High Road Toward Future

The Jamri family business was revolution, its goal to undermine a regime that relied on prisons, blacklists and the threat of exile to rule this Persian Gulf nation. For their efforts, Mohammed Jamri was imprisoned; his younger brother, Monsour, was exiled; and their father, Sheik Abdul-Ameer Jamri, served time in both prison and under house arrest.

Today the Jamri family members live relatively quiet lives as model citizens. But it was not the strong hand of oppression that silenced their revolutionary resolve. On the contrary, it was the government’s decision to effectively apologize to its citizens for decades of human rights abuses.

As nations throughout the Arab world use draconian tactics to control extremism, this sliver of a country, smaller than New York City, has decided to pioneer a different approach. Bahrain’s emir, Sheik Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa, who came to power in 1999, has defused tensions by taking steps to address the grievances of his people.

In moves that have largely silenced even the most vocal critics, the government released all political prisoners and welcomed home hundreds of exiles, abolished summary imprisonment, did away with state security courts and began to introduce principals of democracy into the management of the country.

A few years ago, Bahrain was caught in the grip of a violent uprising. Today it is preparing for municipal elections.

“To pardon all these people with no conditions, to allow all the exiles to come home with no conditions, it is very extraordinary,” said Mohammed Jamri, who was hauled off to prison just after his third child was born and was held for 10 years. “You must be optimistic, you must have faith in the emir.”

Bahrain’s experiment is not only of interest to its citizens. Though it is a relatively poor relation among the oil-rich Persian Gulf countries, Bahrain is the site of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet and so its stability is of strategic importance to the U.S.

At the same time, it is bringing modern ideas, such as allowing women to vote, to a region clinging to autocratic rule. That could make some of its neighbors, such as Saudi Arabia, nervous. At one time Saudi officials pressured Bahrain to suspend its parliament. But with the involvement of several Saudis in the Sept. 11 attacks, there is talk of the need for reform within the larger kingdom itself.

“Saudi Arabia can say nothing about us this time,” said Sabika Najjar, general secretary of the Bahrain Human Rights Society. “Saudi Arabia has to change itself. It has its own problems.”

Bahrain won its independence from Britain in 1971 and set out to build a constitutional monarchy. Sheik Isa ibn Salman Khalifa assumed the title of emir. A parliament was elected and a constitution approved. But social and political disturbances led to unrest, and the emir dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution in 1975.

Over the next two decades, the emir built what appeared to be a stable, contemporary society, winning his country entry into the World Trade Organization and using oil revenues to build modern cities. The country, which now has about 650,000 people, developed a multicultural feel as foreign workers were brought in for mostly service jobs. And socially, it appeared relaxed, even selling alcohol at restaurants and bars, a rarity in much of the Arab world. The emir also appointed a consultative council to give at least the appearance that he was not ruling by decree.

But the society was being held together by secret police and a 1974 security decree that allowed anyone to be arrested and held for up to three years without charge.

Salman Kamal Deen is a product of the old Bahrain, and his story is fairly typical. He was 5 when his father was exiled to Iraq for seeking political reform. Deen didn’t see his father again in Bahrain for 15 years.

As an adult, Deen went to work for the Ministry of Health and tried to unionize the staff, seeking better pay and hours. For his efforts, he was imprisoned for seven years. When he was finally released, he was blacklisted and denied work.

“They changed their way of fighting me from physical to economic,” he said. “I could not find anyplace to work. We all suffered a lot.”

Najjar, the human rights worker, was imprisoned for eight months in the early 1970s without the chance to appear before a judge. In the 1980s, authorities prevented her from traveling to Cairo for an Arab conference on women and took away her passport for several years. She was given no explanation.

“They demanded that you bow to them and obey them blindly,” she said. “But if you put a limit between them and your principals, they didn’t like you.”

The major fault line in Bahraini society is over religion. Within Islam, those of the Shiite sect are largely outnumbered by the more conservative Sunni Muslims. But in Bahrain, the majority of the population is Shiite while the ruling family is Sunni. In the past that dynamic, coupled with the political oppression and high unemployment in the Shiite community, led to tensions. Officials here also blamed Shiite-controlled Iran with inciting Bahrainis to revolt.

Though the Shiites initially called for creation of an Islamic republic, they eventually altered their goals to demand the reinstatement of parliament and the release of political prisoners. The government refused, and a chaotic uprising broke out. By 1996, bombs were exploding in downtown Manama, the capital, destroying banks, offices and a hotel. Thousands of Shiite citizens were imprisoned.

By 1998, the government had restored order with the aid of Saudi security agents and its own police force.

A year later the emir died.

Hamed, his son, assumed control. Though he started cautiously, first cozying up to the military, he changed directions. He released some political prisoners and pardoned Sheik Jamri.

“The ruling family did not exercise such courageous actions for the last 100 years,” said Abdul Rahman Naimi, a former Marxist guerrilla who returned to Bahrain recently after 33 years in exile. “It was not a revolution, but it’s a lot of changes.”

In March of this year, Bahrain held its first plebiscite in more than two decades. A proposed national charter was approved by 98.4% of the vote, with a turnout of 90%.

The charter creates a bicameral parliament. The upper house will be appointed by the emir and the lower house elected by the people. The charter also calls for creation of a national audit agency and local governments. Municipal elections are expected to be held in April and balloting for the parliament in 2003.

Yet for all the changes, Bahrain remains a kingdom. The exact power of the parliament is unclear, but one thing remains certain: The emir is expected to keep the final say. When and how he chooses to weigh in may determine the ultimate success of the new institutions.

At the same time, despite the increase in tolerance, the old guard is still in charge of the police and the government. Shiites are not allowed to serve in the police or armed forces. Instead the government employees foreigners, supplemented by Sunni citizens. Political parties are still not permitted, though political “societies” have been formed. And there is still at least one red line that cannot be crossed: directly criticizing the emir or his son, Crown Prince Sheik Salman ibn Hamed Khalifa.

Hafedh ash Shaikh Saleh, a well-known journalist, says he speaks for many fellow Sunnis when he expresses concern about the benefits being granted to Shiites. The sectarian content of his writings worries the leadership.

But what seemed to be the breaking point was an article by Shaikh in a Lebanese newspaper. It criticized the crown prince’s recent trip to the United States, during which the emir’s heir told President Bush that Bahrain supports the U.S. war on terrorism. After the article appeared, Shaikh was barred from publishing in Bahrain and prohibited from traveling abroad.

Shaikh’s situation is well-known, but has done little to dampen enthusiasm for the reforms. Society has changed so much in so little time, few expect everything to be perfect. Whether among Shiites or Sunnis, communists or nationalists, there is broad support for the emir’s approach.

“When you corner people and they have nowhere to escape, they tend to fight back in an extreme way,” said Majeed Alawi, co-founder in the 1970s of the Bahrain Freedom Movement, who returned from exile in May and is helping to implement the national charter. “We have a challenge for the Arab world, to prove that democracy, accountability and public participation add to stability and security, not the other way around.”