Decoding Bahraini ‘opposition groups’

On Dec. 16, Bahrain celebrated its 40th National Day and the 13th anniversary of the accession to power of King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa. Since then, the country has made big strides in its democratic reforms.
Since the so-called “Arab spring” came to the doorsteps of this country, it has gained international media attention solely due to the protests that started in early 2011. Buoyed by what has happened in Tunisia and Egypt, ordinary citizens took to the streets to demand socioeconomic reforms.
The government’s slow response to their demands, coupled with the hijacking of the protest by opportunistic groups with a political agenda, complicated the situation further.
However, Bahrain is not new to protests. In the early 1980s and mid 1990s Bahrain experienced large-scale protests and terrorist attacks carried out by groups backed by Iran and Hezbollah. The government contained the situation and some citizens involved in the conspiracy were detained, while others were allowed to leave the country.
Since King Hamad assumed power, the government has focused its attention on resolving the situation politically and thus many political societies were allowed to be formed. This gave birth to new political groupings including the Islamist Al-Wefaq, the largest opposition group. Before the protests of February 2011, Al-Wefaq fielded 18 members of Parliament (MPs), who all later resigned after complaining about the government’s handling of the situation thus failing to seek political settlement through the parliamentary process. Many ex-MPs later joined the street protesters.
Despite the fact that the government has embarked on many encouraging steps aimed at political settlement, the opposition refrained from appreciating those steps and failed to join hands.
Some of the steps include the formation of an independent body, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) tasked with investigating human rights abuses during the unrest from both sides, and the government’s decision to abide by the recommendations of the BICI, which included the reorganization of the security forces, providing a forum for national dialogue, reinstating dismissed workers who had been sacked as a result of the unrest, establishing a compensation fund for victims which has to date paid out thousands of Bahrain dinars. The opposition parties still remained unmoved.
Trying to choke the economy by staging illegal rallies in financial districts, targeting expats including intimidating, torturing and brutally killing them, throwing Molotov cocktails at security personnel, planting homemade bombs, tire burning and blocking roads, ransacking ATM’s, firebombing schools, etc, doesn’t qualify them to be an opposition group worthy of recognition.
These acts of vandalism and thuggery further obfuscate the political crisis, but the government continues to call the opposition parties to sit in dialogue to find a peaceful political settlement, but this was ultimately rejected.
During the Manama Dialogue, a security conference that took place in Manama last week, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa reiterated his call to the opposition parties to come to the negotiating table.
This is the second time, since March 13, 2011, that the crown prince has called for the opposition to come to dialogue, reminding them that it is the only way forward to a permanent and peaceful political settlement that will see the country gain political liberty and economic prosperity.
Missing this opportunity would be a big mistake and a loss of political credibility, which the opposition groups need to ponder upon.