POMED Notes: “The Price of Freedom and Democracy: Defiant Bahrainis an
 

02-12-11 03:46 PM

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02 Dec 2011
On Thursday, the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted an event entitled “The Price of Freedom and Democracy: Defiant Bahrainis and the Arab Spring.” The event honored Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, with the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award. The panel featured Mr. Rajab, Wafa Ali, a Bahraini journalist and public policy scholar at the Wilson Center, Carl Gershman, the president of the National Endowment for Democracy, and Tom Malinowski, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch. Jane Harman, the president of the Wilson Center, gave opening remarks, and Christian Ostermann, the Wilson Center’s European Studies director, moderated the event.

After brief remarks from Harman congratulating Rajab for his efforts, Rajab addressed the audience. He praised the efforts of Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First to draw attention to Bahrain’s ongoing calls for democratic reform, noting that Bahrain’s revolution was “not a revolution of elites, but of youth.” Rajab called the BICI report “not perfect, but good,” and criticized the report for not holding royal family members accountable for the human rights violations. He supports the BICI recommendations, calling them a “starting point for reform,” but said the recommendations will not solve Bahrain’s political crisis. Additionally, he was also highly critical of the many Western nations’ silence when Bahrainis called for help, and he asserted that Al Jazeera’s Arabic station did not give legitimate coverage to the events in Bahrain. “How long will families rule whole countries?” he asked. “We don’t want to kill our killers,” Rajab added, implying that he and his allies seek reconciliation rather than revenge.

Wafa Ali continued the discussion, stating there is a “crisis of trust” between the al-Khalifa regime and the public. Additionally, Bahrain’s allowing the GCC to intervene in the uprising was a signal to the West that a constitutional monarchy was not an option, she contended. Bahrain is currently in a state of confusion, Ali said, and different views of the country’s future have made compromise difficult between opposing sides. She stressed that Bahrain is in need of reconciliation in order to address the fears of all sides involved.

Next, Gershman gave his remarks and asserted that a “culture of impunity” has spread throughout Bahrain’s security forces. He labeled the Bahraini king “courageous” for ordering the BICI report, but expressed concern that the government had determined the composition of the committee responsible for instituting the BICI’s recommendations. “Bahrain is paralyzed,” Gershman suggested, adding that neither side had taken any meaningful action recently and Iran stands to benefit from the lack of dialogue. Finally, he asserted that monarchies like Bahrain’s must learn to adjust and accommodate their populations, and that Bahrain can serve as a model for peaceful transition.

Finally, Malinowski addressed the audience, giving several suggestions for U.S. policymakers to consider. He asserted that the Arab Spring forced the U.S. government to stop valuing “places over people,” and that the U.S. government must work to accommodate the interests of both sides. Additionally, Malinowski urged the government to stake tangible incentives for true reform in order to encourage quicker change. The Obama Administration must also ask for the BICI recommendations to be instituted to avoid a deepening crisis, he said, but the U.S. must make human rights a priority.

During a question and answer session, Rajab insisted that the Sunni-Shi’a divide in Bahrain was a fabricated issue, though Ali strongly disagreed. Gershawn also asserted that the opposition will only fully participate in reconciliation processes when they are certain that the procedures are legitimate and serious, which Gershawn suggested might be accomplished by releasing political prisoners.

pomed.org



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