Jan 16th, 2014
The Crown Prince has once again shown that he is the figure who can play a defining role in reuniting Bahrain.
His meeting with leading personalities from the opposition was an important move to re-engage with the various factions, after a period when the National Dialogue and hopes of a political solution seemed to be falling apart.
There appears to have been a lot of discussion about confidence-building measures on both sides. We hope that this does not remain just talk and that there will now be brave steps taken, with the aim of producing a more suitable political atmosphere for negotiations.
Many Bahrainis are pessimistic about Dialogue and see little hope of success in the current climate. However, the fact remains that a negotiated solution is the only exit from this crisis. The past three years have proved that neither side is in a position to eradicate the other, nor to forcibly silence the other’s demands and grievances.
Therefore, the statements about including higher level personnel in future rounds of Dialogue are important. The Dialogue sittings during 2013 made little progress; so it will be a step forward if influential figures are included with the political weight to break the deadlock.
The intervention of the Crown Prince could also be interpreted as a response to the opposition demand to include a senior representative of the Royal Family in the process. His meeting with opposition representatives – the first such official meeting between the Royal Family and the opposition in nearly three years – is therefore a significant move in both symbolic and practical terms. This shows the readiness of the most senior figures in the Kingdom to intervene in order to move the National Dialogue forward and address the key obstacles.
Opposition groupings like Al-Wefaq Islamic Society are now faced with a strategic choice. They can respond positively to this outreach by the Crown Prince and work constructively with the Bahraini authorities in order to find a way back to the Dialogue table. Or they can sit back and allow the current stalemate to continue, while seeing whether they can extract further concessions from the Government.
Their handling of the Dialogue issue this time last year was highly unconstructive: They came to the table with a long list of demands and refused to agree on an agenda until all their demands had been met; while escalating tensions on the streets in order to strengthen their hand.
As a result, the Dialogue went round in circles, with Al-Wefaq boycotting every few weeks until the boycotts became more frequent and finally became permanent.
If a new round of Dialogue were to continue in the same manner, it’s almost better that it never get started at all, because it just destroys any public belief in the political process and breeds cynicism and pessimism.
But just for the moment let’s be optimists; the Crown Prince’s meeting was an unexpected and positive development which may break the deadlock and inject renewed energy into the process.
Meanwhile, let’s hope that the more sensible figures in Al-Wefaq have learned something from the past year and have realized that by trying to exploit the talks and paralyze the country they have achieved nothing.
The confused and directionless position that the country has been in during recent months is bad for the nation and bad for our economy, so we hope to see progress over the coming weeks.
However, we should also consider that the 2013 rounds of Dialogue failed in part because of a lack of public engagement and a lack of pressure on figures on all sides to move things forward.
It is not enough for us to sit back and hope for wisdom and courage from the key figures; Bahrainis must actively get behind the Dialogue process and make it clear that we expect nothing less than this display of wisdom and courage from all sides in getting Bahrain out of the mess we’re in and putting us on the road to a prosperous and unified future.