Bahrain's Goes The Way Of Totalitarianism

Bahrain used to model itself as a relatively benign island in a sea of despotism. Situated between two horrifically oppressive regime - Saudi Arabia and Iran - the Bahraini monarchy has allowed for an increasing space for critical debate and commentary and even a parliament, albeit somewhat nurtured, with quasi-free elections. Bahrain's regime is by no imagination a liberal democracy, but it has stronger liberal institutions than any Gulf state bar Kuwait. Until recently.

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Inspired by the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, the people of Bahrain - most of them, anyway - took to the streets to demand democratic reform and and end to the discrimination against the majority Shi'a population. Bahrain's monarch is Sunni but 70% of the people are Shi'a and long complain of discrimination against them in housing and employment and a conspicuous preference of the Sunni minority. This is why the uprising was likely doomed from the beginning: it faced a divided nation. Unlike the unanimous solidarity crossing all lines in Tunis and Cairo, the Sunni minority saw their privileged as being tied to the fate of the reigning Khalifa family. Thus mostly never rallied with the Shi'a demonstrators or wittingly or unwittingly the protest took on a sectarian frame even though the demonstrators championed secular and liberal slogans and cheered under the banner of "No Sunni, No Shi'a" and "United Bahrain". But that sectarian cleft was astutely exploited by the regime which began to portray the demonstrators as militant Shi'as and an Iranian fifth-column. The demonstrators did not help themselves, it should be noted, by inviting quixotically inviting hard line clerics (some of whom are unabashedly sectarian) on their stage. The regime's neighbors also did not want a democratic uprising too close to home. Especially Saudi Arabia which worried that its own Shi'a would take heart and revolt as well. So the corrupt, polygamous oil sheikhs decided to unite their armies to invade Bahrain and brutally put down a civilian uprising (though they would never offer their arms to aid the Palestinians). But much more has happened in Bahrain. The regime has clearly won for the moment. The democratic revolution has been defeated, but the regime (or its Gulf allies) are not content and have deigned to not only take Bahrain back to the era of quasi-liberalism but to do away with it entirely and impose a fierce authoritarian on the people:

"It seems like the Bahraini government has finally succeeded in their crackdown. Yesterday they closed down Al Wasat Newspaper - the country's only opposition newspaper and then reopened it with a new editor that is pro-government. Here is a Christian Science Monitor article on it: Everyone in Bahrain is silent now. No one is talking. Human rights activists, journalists and bloggers who under their real named have completely dissapeared. Many have been jailed whilst others are in hiding. Mohammad Al Masqati, a human rights activist who is in his mid 20s, has been in jail for the past 5 days. He was first threatened by a member of the royal family on twitter and then he got arrested. His family has apparently only spoken to him once so far. Businessmen and CEOs are also being interogated and threatened for not firing striking workers and cutting their wages. Most are no longer in control of their companies and now mass firings have begun. Most are not willing to take any stance because they are too scared. Very few people are tweeting or posting on facebook. Even those who are not using their real names are scared. Shia families living in mixed neighborhoods are moving out because they are being threatened either by letters sent to their houses telling them to leave or in checkpoints. People speak in code on the phone and constantly declare their loyalty to the government just in case. I feel that Bahrain has turned into a Syria or Iraq (during Saddams era). Even Bahrainis abroad are too scared to speak. We are definitately back in the 90s but it is worse because the army is more brutal and there is disguisting sectarianism and blatant discrimination against shia. So I would say Bahrain is a mixture of Syria and Palestine. The media is completely silent and the Obama administration has completely stopped commenting on Bahrain. I feel that the next 10 years or so will be a horrible period for Bahrain. While other Arab countries are moving forward, we are going backwards."

The people of Bahrain should not be demoralized. No injustice can last forever. The days when the tyrant is overthrown will finally come.