Political Parties Series: #2

Starting with the issue on January 25th, 1999, the Yemen Times continues to run profile of the political parties of Yemen.
We print the information as received from the parties.
The aim is to inform the public - local and international.

Al Haq party was established in 1990, led by a group of scholars who pledged to endeavor for the sake of supporting right and crystallizing Islamic doctrines on all levels whether political, cultural, social or economical.
Ever since its creation, the party paid great attention to Islamic legislation and understanding of modern issues such as democracy, political pluralism, elections and women's political rights. It also shared effectively in political life via the doctrine of team work and consultations and was among the important parties that called for unity and supported it.

The party voiced its stands in face of different issues and crises that erupted in the past period. For example, its stance regarding Yemen's re-unification was loud and clear through the famous Moslem scholars' statement. The party further approved the constitution at a time when numerous national forces were hesitant over that question along with the re-unification. The party's leadership called on the people to take part in voting for the constitution. It remained a distinctive voice within the opposition calling for reform and criticizing mistakes in addition to supporting any positive signs in the state. The party leadership exerted its utmost efforts to solve differences that coincided with the transitory period and worked for bridging gaps between the two different parties which had an effective role until the summer 1994 war.

Al Haq party resorts to Islamic legislation toward many controversial questions. It managed to precede other Islamic trends in finding Islamic justifications for democracy, political pluralism, freedom of expression and other modern issues that are still controversial among other Islamic groups.
Amidst honorable competition, the party managed to win two seats in the 1993 general elections. It was one of the founders of the national opposition bloc which reflected opinion of the Yemeni opposition parties joining it and which later became the higher coordination council for the opposition parties. Al Haq party is one of the active members of that council, through which it held several political meetings with other parties in the opposition and in power.

The party also took part in the 1997 parliamentary elections, presenting an integrated political program that handles various problems faced by the country despite mistakes by the ruling authorities by then.
The party is still pursuing its enlightenment march under its scholarly leadership and exerts efforts in building the individual.

Al Haq Party's Basic Doctrines
The party's political program reflects the party goals declared since its establishment and was keen on 'shoura' and scholarly advice. It further represented freedom and justice values and was open to heritage and human experiments to benefit from them.
A great goal of Al Haq Party is handling the responsibility of building the modern state based on political pluralism, peaceful circulation of power, shoura, justice and freedom through civilian institutions.

The program seeks to lay down the strong and correct basis for such a goal and will struggle for its achievement with all available means.
The party works for stabilizing the republican regime and the constitution in addition to build the modern Yemeni state in accordance with the shoura principle in Islam and doctrines of the Yemeni revolution. Toward that end, the party stressed on political pluralism as the appropriate method for the peaceful circulation of power. The party further affirms the importance of separating the three powers of the state namely the legislative, executive and judicial ones. It further calls for the people's participation in power through the direct election of governors, mayors and senior officials and expanding jurisdictions of the administrative rule. It also calls for questioning political executives on their financial resources and for revising the electoral law to achieve a more positive one, a law that really reflects the nation's will.
The party presents a comprehensive view of education, services, health, Awqaf (endowments) and women's role in the society in addition to tabling solutions to several social and cultural problems confronting the citizens and a number of state bodies.

Economic Doctrines
Al Haq calls for building a strong national economy that benefits from oil revenues in the agricultural sector and encourages industrial depending on available raw materials in addition to prohibiting monopoly and banks' interest rates. It advocates market competition, removal of financial and administrative corruption and an end to unnecessary extravagance.
The party's economic policy is based on the concept that comprehensive development can be only achieved through justice, in the absence of which no security would be guaranteed and consequently development and economic welfare would not be attained. In an Islamic society committed to Allah's demands, economic practices are committed to ethics and market competition becomes free, active and honorable. Yemen's economic problems are not the result of poor resources and potentials only but the consequence of absence of comprehensive development plans, mismanagement and the control of corrupt financial and administrative elements on all state bodies.

The party considers the establishment of a strong Yemeni economy is of utmost importance and necessitates the following:
1-Removing corruption and its influential centers as a basic and primary goal.
2-Studying the economic situation by specialists to lay down the correct foundation of a national economy in addition to drawing developmental plans and programs in the economic, agricultural and industrial fields.
3-Spreading spirit of team work and cooperative endeavor along with urging the society into non-consumer economy.
4-Controlling the state's general resources and curbing expenditure.
5-Canceling absent articles from the general budget and determining expenditures of the presidency.
6-Banning monopoly and providing the opportunity for honorable competition. Prohibiting commercial activity on all state officials whether directly or indirectly along with employees of direct links to commerce, industry or agriculture.
7-Combating smuggling, confiscating smuggled articles and benefiting from their prices in fighting smuggling.
8-Organization administrations properly and correctly to cope with the modern time.
9-Encouraging investments in the industrial sector that depends on local raw materials in addition to domestic handicrafts.
10-Paying more importance to agriculture through reviving cooperative work and providing necessary potentials for its success. Encouraging investments in that sector in addition to providing modern irrigation methods and building dams. Organizing the marketing of agricultural products, terminating importing of agricultural products and supplying training and guidance programs.
11-Checking and organizing underground water uses.
12-Backing more oil, gas and minerals exploration and making use of their revenues in developmental programs.
13-Limiting humiliating foreign loans.
14-Protecting private property.
15-Protecting public property and controlling state property for the sake of public interest.
16-Establishing non-interest banks, making use of suitable experiences in that sphere in the Islamic World.
17-Limiting foreign expenditure and decreasing number of employees in the diplomatic missions.
18-Lowering state spending and extravagant privileges to its various authorities.
19-Relieving illusionary numbers in the armed forces, security and state bodies and benefiting from the army in agriculture, construction and industry.
20-Facilitating investments and work in fields of agriculture, fishing, industry, handicrafts and facilitating necessary loans.
21-Creating an attorney for public funds.
22-Erecting tourism projects in historic and beautiful areas.
23-Just distribution of wealth in accordance with Islamic Sharia.
24-Advocating a common Islamic economic market.

 

As the trial of the 5 Britons accused of terrorism continues to strain Yemeni-British relations, another rift has grown between the UK government and the Muslim community in Britain. The Muslims of Britain accuse the Blair government of not doing enough to intervene with the Yemeni government on behalf of the 5 Britons .
To pacify the community, the Rt. Honorable Derek Fatchett, MP, British Minister of State with responsibility for the Middle East, wrote the following article, which is jointly published by Q-News, a British Muslim magazine published twice monthly in London, and the Yemen Times.

Proud of British Muslims:
Recent events in Yemen have sent a shock wave through parts of the Muslim communities in Britain. Some have even raised doubts about whether the Foreign Office represents all British nationals abroad equally. There is a legitimate concern that British press and public equate every British Muslim with the extremists who advocate terrorism in the name of Islam. And underneath, there is one fundamental question that goes to the heart of the identity and confidence of every Muslim community in Britain - can a Muslim really be British as well?
I believe passionately that the answer to the last question is yes. There is no contradiction between being a true Muslim and hundred per cent British.

This basic belief is at the heart of multicultural Britain. It means that we value all our citizens regardless of ethnic background, colour or religion. It means that we welcome everything that Britain's Muslim communities have to offer, rather than expecting them to assimilate themselves into oblivion before we will accept their Britishness. It means that we value the diversity of Britons.
People - a small number on both sides of the cultural divide - have said that a Muslim can never be fully British, as their loyalty must be to Islam. The truth is that everyone has many loyalties - religious, national, and political. Being loyal to Islam does not preclude being loyal to Britain. More than that, in the increasingly inter-connected world in which we now live, the British Muslim communities are a priceless asset. They give us a unique link to the Islamic world. They understand Islam, and maintain their links with other Muslim communities, countries and governments.

Rather than isolate the Muslim communities and make them feel like strangers in a foreign land, it is all the more important that the British Government convinces them that they are an integral part of the modern Britain, that their concerns are as important as anyone else's, and that they have a valued place in the government and the life of the nation. That is why I have made it my business to bring the leaders of Britain's Muslim communities into the Foreign Office to discuss events of issues of mutual concern. That is why the Foreign Office is reaching out to young British Muslims to encourage them to consider the Diplomatic Service as a career. I look forward to the day when we send our first Muslim Ambassador overseas.
That is why I and the rest of the Foreign Office were so upset by the accusation that the Foreign Office was giving second class treatment to the five British nationals arrested in Yemen.

Our rule is simple. Every British national is entitled to the protection of British Embassies abroad - whatever their religion or ethnic background. I made this clear to representatives of the Muslim communities when I met them earlier this week. Baroness Symons gave the families of the detained men the same message when she met them the week before, and so did Robin Cook when he met their MPs.

As soon as our Embassy in Sana'a heard that British nationals had been detained we demanded consular access to them. As soon as we had confirmation of their names we contacted the families in the UK. And after our Consul-General visited them we told the families any news. Our officials have spoken regularly with the both the five families and their lawyers.

It took time for the Yemeni authorities to give our Consul access to all five detainees. So we, the whole Government machine, went into action. Robin Cook spoke three times to the Yemeni Prime Minister about the case. We have insisted that the five British nationals receive their rights - a trial under due process of law; proper legal representation; full consular access. What we cannot do is demand that they be given special treatment or sent home because they are British. I fully understand the anguish of their families. For them the accusations against their sons and husbands can make no sense. But we cannot interfere in the judicial process of another country - for these British nationals, or for any others. A further difficulty is the perception in the mainstream British public and press of the Muslim communities in Britain. The newspapers have revealed in detail the websites and survival camps run by extremists. The extremists in the Muslim communities have been happy to play along, giving the press endless quotes about Jihad and the legitimacy of terrorism. For the vast majority of you, this extremism is repugnant. I know you watch with weary resignation as it strengthens the stereotypes and polarizes their communities from the rest of British society. We have to fight this. Winning the argument will not be easy. It is more sensational to report extremism than moderation. The biggest obstacle to truth is a lazy journalist. But if we are going to create a genuinely multicultural society in a socially integrated Britain, then we must start to knock down the stereotypes and falsehoods that have taken root. This will need a sustained effort - from the leaders of your communities, from the theologians, the teachers, the journalists and the writers. We must reach out to the people of Britain and tell the truth - about Islam and what it really stands for, about you and all you contribute to Britain. We must show them that the extremists are no more representative of Islam than the British National Party is representative of mainstream Christian opinion.

If I was to draw one lesson from everything that has happened recently, it is that we still have a long way to go before you feel properly valued. That we still have a lot of work to do before the British press and public get an accurate picture of Islam and of British Muslims. And that no task is more important than putting this right.

 

The Yemeni-British Friendship Society assigned its last periodic meeting to discuss the deterioration in the Yemeni-British relations. Held at the residence of Dr. Abdullah Abdul-Wali Nasher, the meeting was held on Friday, February 5th.
16 senior members of the YBFS, including two ministers, high-ranking government and political officials, university professors, medical doctors, businessmen, bankers, and others attended. From the British side, Ambassador Victor Henderson and DCM David Pearce were at the head of a large delegation of businessmen, government officials, and others.

The topic of discussion was totally focussed on the recent events and their fallout on the bilateral relations. The tone of the discussion was quite open, as the two sides tried to play a moderating influence on their respective camps.
Dr. Nasher, Chairman of the YBFS indicated that Yemen was learning how to handle issues within a democratic framework. "If we mishandle a situation, it is not due to bad intentions, but because we are new at this," explained Dr. Nasher.

Ambassador Henderson explained that as events unfolded, there was a problem of information flow. There were also procedural confusion. But by now the situation has stabilized.
"In fact, I think there are positive developments. A letter from (British) Prime Minister Tony Blair is on its way. I am given to understand that this letter has a positive content," he said.
Abdul-Wahab Thabet, a leading supporter and patron of the YBFS, stressed the need for flexibility on both sides. "We should together fight the terrorists and criminals, instead of fighting each other," he said referring to the British and Yemeni Governments.

What has been hurting Yemen is the barrage of media attacks. The British side explained that they cannot control the media. "But it would be worthwhile for the Yemeni authorities to assign a spokesperson to brief the local and international media on trial developments. It would also be useful for the Yemeni embassy in London to furnish information on a regular basis to the media and the general public," it was suggested.
Meanwhile, the fourth sitting of the court on the case of 5 Britons and 1 Frenchman was on Saturday, February 6th. The group is charged with possession of firearms with the intention of sabotage and destabilizing law and order. Media announcements by various extremist elements in the UK have alleged that the group was part of an international network of zealots.