Ex-Bahraini MP: Bahrain’s Harsh Verdicts Appalling Compliance with Western Masters

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TEHRAN (FNA)- Former Bahraini MP Jalal Fairooz says the Manama government wants to show to “its masters” that it acts in their interest by following their deceptive policies.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with FNA, Mr. Fairooz made comments on the execution of two Bahraini political activists delivered in July, saying, “The regime wants to send a strong message to the people in Bahrain that in case there are some problems in the Persian Gulf countries and if they take to the streets, they will be smashed. The regime uses such harsh verdicts to threaten the Bahrainis to death… They just want to take the control of the situation, at any costs.”

Jalal Fairooz is a former member of Bahrain’s parliament. He was a member of the main opposition party al-Wefaq. He is a Bahrain rights activist based in London, after he was stripped of Bahraini nationality by a court verdict for his opposition to the government.

Below is the full text of the interview.

Q: Why does the regime issue the harsh verdict of execution against political activists?

A: The regime wants to send a message to the West and misrepresent it the way that it is facing some people who are called terrorists by the Western definitions. The regime claims that it is being targeted by some people who are using force. Also, the regime wants to show to its masters, like Trump, that it is in-line with them to smash any people who might be in any sense pro Iran. Furthermore, the regime wants to send a strong message to the people in Bahrain that in case there are some problems in the Persian Gulf countries and if they take to the streets, they will be smashed. The regime uses such harsh verdicts to threaten the Bahrainis to death.

Q: Then why do people continue their protests when they are faced with such heavy handed reactions by the regime?

A: Right after the execution, people poured into the streets, and there were scuffles between people and the regime’s forces. The anti-riot forces killed another person, Mohammad Meghdad, and injured so many others. Still people are demonstrating and there are some clashes as the regime uses excessive force against the people. They just want to take the control of the situation at any costs.

Q: Does the nation demand anything which cannot be addressed by the government?

A: The initial condition is a legitimate dialog on a clear agenda between the government and opposition. People are concerned that certain points should be included in the agenda, and they should be discussed in a very serious way, without being overlooked by international accredited bodies. The demands of the Bahrainis have been drafted by the main opposition group, al-Wefaq, along with other major political parties with the vast majority of the representation of people. The main demands include full democracy restored, free and fair elections for a democratic parliament and a legislative branch, an elected government, independent judiciary branch (unlike the present judiciary branch which is totally administrated by the regime), freedom for all (not to prosecute people who are critics of the government) and security for everybody in the country with no political activists in jail. One of the major demand is to stop stealing from people’s wealth, which has gone now much worse than any kind of corruption. There is overwhelming control of the Royal family on Bahrainis’ wealth. This has to be stopped, and all the stolen lands and properties must be returned to the people.

Farcical Polls Will Not Avert the Inevitable in Bahrain

By: Kayhan Int’l 

Forget the claims of voter percentage turnout at the farcical polls held in the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain for the so-called parliamentary and municipal polls, which the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime is trying to tout as an example of democracy in a bid to hoodwink the world.

Legitimacy was conspicuously absent during the recent regime-orchestrated campaign in which the two main parties representing the overwhelming majority of the Bahraini people were absent – al-Wefaq led by the illegally jailed religious leader Sheikh Ali Salman, and the secular Waad. 

This means both figures of voter turnout – the 67 percentage claim of the regime and the 30 percent cited by the opposition, are irrelevant – since democracy does not come through the barrel of a gun by an increasingly isolated clique of rulers that survives because of clinging to the straw called Saudi Arabia, which in turn precariously exists under the auspices of the US.

With hundreds, if not thousands, languishing in jail; with a greater number driven into exile; and with many unlawfully deprived of citizenship despite being descendants of the original inhabitants well predating the late 18th century seizure of Bahrain by the Aal-e Khalifa pirates of the Khor Abdullah waterway (between Kuwait and the Iraqi port of Umm al-Qasr), not just the recent elections but the entirety of the administration of the island state lacks legitimacy.

Repression, imprisonment, torture, and killing of the sons of the soil, or attempts to change the demography by settling foreigners and granting them Bahraini passports including the right to vote, will not ensure the survival of the regime.

And neither will the protection provided by the US 5th Fleet, which yesterday suddenly lost its overall commander, Scott A. Stearney – heaven knows whether he died a natural death, or committed suicide out of frustration, or was stealthily murdered by the Pentagon for difference of opinion, or was revolutionary executed – prolong much the rule of the minority regime.

In 2011 when the first sparks of the peaceful protests lit the skies of Bahrain at the now criminally demolished Pearl Square in Manama for reforms and dismissal of the elements blocking the just demands of the people, the rulers had the chance for defusing the crisis in its embryonic stage through dialogue with the lawfully elected representatives of the masses in the lower house of the bicameral parliament.

Arrogance, ignorance, and intransigence, on the part of Aal-e Khalifa, coupled with instigation for use of brute force against the unarmed people by the Aal-e Saud clan, which greatly feared mass demonstrations of the same kind spreading to mainland Arabia, made the minority rulers in Manama miss the golden opportunity for peaceful solution.

The elected parliament was not only unconstitutionally dissolved but even Islamic sentiments were desecrated by attacks on religious gatherings, trampling of sacred symbols, and burning of copies of the holy Qur’an, in addition to forbidding of the weekly Friday Prayers.

These are unpardonable crimes for which the unapologetic perpetrators are answerable to the Muslim Ummah in this world and will surely be held accountable in the Divine Court on the Day of Resurrection.
Now with stances hardened on both sides – the regime and the repressed masses – farcical elections for the rubber stamp houses of parliament are not the solution and cannot avert the inevitable.

The disgruntled people of Bahrain are well aware of the situation in the region. They will neither lose hope in God’s justice nor be cowed down through repression. Their eyes are open to the situation in the region – how the dictator Ali Zainal-Abedin had to flee Tunis; how the seemingly powerful Hosni Mubarak, (who used to orchestrate similar farcical elections to ensure 100 percent vote for himself), had to yield to the Egyptian people’s demand; how Saddam’s genocide of the Shi’a Arabs and the ethnic Kurds could not guarantee survival of the repressive Ba’th minority dictatorship in Iraq; and how the Yemeni people are resisting the full force of Saudi Arabia’s US-backed brutal bombing.

The future belongs to the people and not to the tyrannical powers, including the Great Satan, the US. This means lesser devils are living on borrowed time, and sooner than later, the Bahraini people will become masters of their own destiny.