During the past four years Bahrain – alongside the rest of the world – has witnessed the challenges of facing the Coronavirus pandemic, along with a range of other major changes.
The 2018-2022 parliamentary term has concluded, and the Kingdom will be witnessing another round of parliamentary and municipal elections towards the end of the year. Here’s a look at what some Bahrainis think about the achievements of the 2018-2022 parliament.
While many citizens were critical of the performance of MPs, others recognised that representatives were likely doing the best they could in challenging circumstances. Several voices lamented the underrepresentation of progressive and professional representatives, or figures with expertise required for working on legislation.
“New faces represented the same mindsets”
“Bahrain needs more progressive and forward-thinking people in the upcoming elections – More moderates and liberals. Unfortunately, this segment of society does not seem to be highly interested in running for elections, and candidates haven’t been very successful when they tried” Maryam, 32.
“There is always this naïve expectation from the public that MPs should be drafting laws to shower them with additional benefits and financial handouts. In the context of a pandemic, with Bahrain already under a mountain of debt, this was never going to happen. MPs should be elected based on realistic expectations of what they can actually do.” Khalid, 36.
“The majority of the faces in the parliament were new but the ideologies never changed. The new faces represented the same mindsets, and this is why the parliament keeps on failing.” Ahmed, 34.
“Citizens had high expectations of what the parliament’s role is. They, for example, expect MPs to process their government housing requests and other government services. They expect MPs to cross lines in order to serve them and that’s unacceptable and when MPs don’t meet these expectations, they say that the parliament has failed them” Sarah, 28.
“Candidates should meet certain criteria“
“The parliament did a relatively good job given the powers provided to MPs. We should be pragmatic and understand that legislations are a process and stop blaming MPs for everything. The government and the Shura council are equally responsible for the failure of many legislations. They are responsible for increasing taxes, so let’s not just blame the MPs for that” Abdullah, 40.
“I bet that most MPs when they entered parliament for the first time didn’t even know how legislation works and what their role was prior to entering the elections. The state needs to ensure that candidates meet certain criteria beyond the current requirements” Zainab, 32.
“We have had some MPs who were quite active and outspoken, and they did an excellent job in brining people’s concerns to the table. I think this parliament did a good job, considering that the country was witnessing a pandemic” Salman, 36.
“Bahrain can certainly do better”
“This was possibly the worst parliament since the start of parliamentary life in Bahrain in 2002. Some of the parliamentary sessions felt like a youth debate with a teacher (parliament speaker) trying to silence them and everything being out of control. It was an embarrassment. Bahrain can certainly do better” Fatima, 34.
“Most of the MPs were unqualified to represent the nation but they are not to be blamed as people are the ones who voted for them. There should be more awareness in the society on political participation, we still vote along sectarian and tribal lines” Hassan, 42.
“Not as bad as many people view it”
“The performance of the parliament was not as bad as many people view it. Citizens often have high expectations from parliamentarians, and they believe that MPs should be tasked with magically raising incomes and standards of living but this is not the case. The parliament has limited powers” Abdulrahman, 35.
“Some of the young MPs did an excellent job and I’m certain they will win the elections if they run again in 2022. Many others didn’t do much and they seemed to be silent on most controversial subjects, but that’s how things are with every parliament, we cannot expect all MPs do an excellent job” Hamad, 27.
“One of the downsides of this parliament was that none of the 40 MPs were actually qualified to lead the parliament. The parliament speaker had no parliamentary or even political experience and seemed lost most of the time. Bahrain has so many intellectuals, academics, businessmen and other professionals who can run for the elections and do much better than these MPs” Manal, 41.
“These MPs are ridiculous”
“Most and not all MPs are a disappointment. Even now that the parliamentary term is over, I see them coming up with insensible statements such as condemning the US embassy’s celebration of pride month, while not understanding that this is a foreign embassy that has the right to its celebration in line with its own government’s guidelines as it is not imposing anything on our country. These MPs are ridiculous” Ali, 32.
“We just complain about the performance of the parliament, but we need to do more as individuals and civil society or else we will keep facing the same problems over and over. This was not a terrible parliament; however, they could have done more for the people” Amal, 29.
“Many of the issues discussed were superficial. Some MPs wasted time leaving on prayer breaks and never returning to the session. It is simply unbelievable how disrespectful this is to citizens” Mahmood, 28.
“Looking at the performance of the parliament, I’m simply glad that we have the Shura council to balance things and our future does not lie in the hands of these MPs. The Shura council is to a certain level more representative and inclusive of different ideologies, sects and backgrounds” Muneera, 42.