Bandargate
Sorry, I haven’t been blogging. Hopefully I’ll have something for next weekend. In the meanwhile, for those readers outside of Bahrain who are wondering what’s going on in the country, the New York Times writes about the latest scandal:
Report Cites Bid by Sunnis in Bahrain to Rig Elections
MANAMA, Bahrain, Sept. 29 — Just months before Bahrain is to hold parliamentary and municipal elections, a former government adviser has set off a political firestorm with a report describing what he says is a vast conspiracy to rig the elections, manipulate the country’s sectarian balance and ensure Sunni domination over the country’s majority Shiites.
The scandal, which is being called “Bandargate” after the author of the report, Salah al-Bandar, reaches to the core of this tiny island kingdom’s simmering tensions.
The report includes hundreds of pages of supporting material, apparently authentic, including canceled checks, hotel bills, accounting sheets and notes. The material suggests that at the very least, unusual business dealings were occurring between government officials, Mr. Bandar says, and that it may have amounted to an effort to set off ethnic conflict.
Read the full article here. Also, this report by the BCHR provides some more names and numbers if you’re interested.
Very disturbing stuff needless to say. More later.
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Update (Oct 2): Associated Press gets in on the fun with a news report also (via the Guardian)
October 2nd, 2006 at 4:22 pm
[...] All the excitement about political reform in in the Gulf — especially the small Gulf states — is pure propaganda, in my opinion. Now the UAE wants to stage elections, although of course they won’t change who’s actually ruling the place. Same thing for the recent “democratic flowering” in Kuwait. I just don’t see how there can be a democratic flowering in Kuwait while the al-Sabah are still around. Same goes for the Makhtoums and the al-Sauds. Meanwhile in Bahrain — probably the most democratic place in the Gulf because of its internal divisions — they are preparing to rig elections. Of course, in some of these places people (well, the minority of people living there that are actually citizens) might simply not care about democracy as the long as the rent money keeps flowing and the cheap foreign labor is docile and aplenty. If India or Sri Lanka were to annex Dubai, I think I’d fully support them. [...]
October 3rd, 2006 at 12:52 am
oo them dirty dawgs!
Hope things are well for you. We miss youuuuu!
October 5th, 2006 at 10:43 am
a cautionary word to all of you investors out here (and there!). Re-evaluate and assess your exit plans. The information is alarming to say the least…
October 6th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
Its gathering pace…
http://manama-republic.blogspot.com/
stay tuned.
October 14th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
[...] From the other side of the pond, Chanad Bahraini emerges with two posts linking news articles written about Bandargate in the International Press! It really would be nice to see whether the Bahrain high court can try and muzzle the New York Times, The Guardian and Qahwa Sada from writing about Bandargate! [...]
October 15th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
[...] Toby Jones has a good piece about Bahrain’s elections on Marc Lynch’s promising new project, Qahwa Sada. Worth the detour and an RSS subscription. For the lazy, here’s the punchline: There is little reason to believe that sectarian and political tensions will ameliorate any time soon. There is also little reason to believe that investigations into Bandargate will yield an honest accounting or lead to any systematic changes. What is certain is that frustration will continue to simmer, distrust will remain, and the Bahraini government will continue to exploit the country’s deep sectarian divides – hardly an island of tolerance, hope, and peace. (full story) [...]