'Always better to talk to each other than to fight'

OUR small delegation, composed of four MPs from the UK, Italy, Belgium and Poland, is now ending its visit. We arrived here in order to get acquainted with the situation in Bahrain.
 
We are also representing the Council of Europe, the oldest European political institution, established in 1949 and based in Strasbourg, and which is concentrating on upholding the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

We were able to have a lot of meetings and partake in useful conversations with the representatives of both government and opposition, different sections of Bahrain’s community including European and Asian expatriates, media, NGOs and youth organisations.

Among others, we talked to HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, several ministers (Minister of Justice, Minister of Interior, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Human Rights and Social Development), the Attorney General, Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and Adel Durazi, Secretary General of the Bahrain Human Rights Society.

Last, but not least, we visited the Bahrain Medical Society to talk about the grave incidents that occurred in the country’s largest hospital, Salmaniya Medical Complex, and which echoed worldwide, in addition to a few cultural institutions.

Our main goal was to better understand the situation in Bahrain – the reasons for the protests, the course of events, the measures taken to solve the conflict and to see the ongoing National Dialogue, initiated on July 1.

We also wanted to share our European experience in this field; of course, without imposing anything.

The international context has been for us, meaningful too because Bahrain, with its strategic position in the region, used to be perceived as the country of stability in the Middle East and entire Arab world - which now, since the independence of South Sudan, is made up of 23 states.

In the foreseeable future, we would like to achieve a cooperation between the Council of Europe and Bahrain, particularly in the parliamentary area but also in the field of human rights. On this front, it was crucial for us to hear from the PM that the respect of human rights is a key pillar in the government’s policies.

The Council of Europe (COE) is often wrongly mixed up with the European Union and our Parliament Assembly (PACE) with the European Parliament. The latter is the structure of integration between 27 countries (Poland started chairing this since July 1 and for half a year), partly similar to the GCC, although the level of integration is significantly higher.

The COE on the other hand, is much larger, encompassing 47 states including Turkey, Russia and Ukraine and focuses on values. In Strasbourg we also have the European Court of Human Rights, whose verdicts are obligatory for all European citizens.

The PACE is composed of 318 MPs, full members and 318 alternate members, who are at the same time, national parliamentarians. They are from 47 countries, but we also have observers from the US, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Israel and Palestine. Recently, the new statutes of Partnership for Democracy were established and Morocco entered our Parliamentary Assembly in June as such a partner.

The next country in line will be Tunisia after the elections on October 23 and subsequently, Palestine.

Why don’t we think in this context about Bahrain, which has a multi-party system, developed democracy (including women’s rights), parliament and free media?

Who, for instance, in Europe knows that uniquely amongst the Arab world, your current Ambassador to the US is both a woman and a Jew.

I remember particularly vividly the meeting with young people who are planning to start publishing a magazine entirely devoted to human rights. For this, they will find valuable partners in the Council of Europe.

My main message is very simple given the historic Polish experience too. It’s always better to talk to each other than fight.

Therefore, the conflict in Bahrain should be resolved in a peaceful manner and hopefully in a roundtable scenario.
Of course, no one is perfect and it’s up to you to dwell on necessary and possible further reforms, perhaps including constitutional ones as has recently taken place in Morocco.

More than 20 years ago in Poland, we had, roundtable talks between the authorities and the opposition which took place over a period of several months and we reached the final agreement. Needless to say, apart from the internal positive impact, it resulted in very positive changes of a global character – the unification of Germany and the end of the Soviet Union.

The second important lesson is that one cannot have democracy when it’s being determined by a religious framework. And, I’m saying this as a citizen of Poland, a very Catholic country which produced Pope John Paul II who headed the Vatican for 27 years.

Bahrain seems to be following the path of a secular country and multi-sectarianism as well as multi-culturalism is a fact of everyday life. This should be maintained. For this reason, I was very sad when radicals announced Bahrain to be an Islamic Republic on March 9.

As a scholar, many years ago, I spent one academic year at Harvard University working with Prof Samuel Huntingdon who later published his famous book entitled The Clash of Civilisations.

We don’t need either such a clash or a clash within a particular civilisation. By the way, knowing the majority of Arab countries very well, I’d like to put the following question to you – which one of the Arab states could be perceived as more democratic than Bahrain?

I hope that the so-called ‘Arab winter or spring’ is not going to be transformed into an Islamic or Shia spring. Of course, it’s very positive that the international Independent Commission, ordered by the King and headed by the renowned UN expert, Mr Bassiouni, is to start its work to objectively investigate all the details including the allegations of torture and kidnapping of citizens from the February-March events onwards.

I think the recommendations of this work should then be implemented. It will be up to the authorities to think, for instance, about a general amnesty.

Being in the Polish parliament for 20 years since the first democratic elections in 1991 were held, I consider myself as a leftist politician, more concretely a social democrat. My party, the Democratic Left Alliance, belongs to both the Party of European Socialists and Socialist International.
 
The welfare state concept developed in particular by the Swedish Noble Prize in Economy winner, Gunnar Myrdal, is an idea which I espouse. It aims to combine economic efficacy and social justice.

In practice, it has worked in the best way in relatively small and rich countries like Scandinavia and also to some extent, in Germany too.

The global financial and economic crisis which developed from 2008 significantly undermined that European model. On the other hand, its Arab version, seen mainly in some small GCC countries seems quite interesting.

I find Bahrain as a state with a solid economy, capitalising on its liberties and attracting almost six million visitors a year.

If I properly understand the recent uprisings, they were predominantly political and not economic in nature.
As far as I know, Bahrain has a healthy fiscal record and a per capita income of $18,000. The literacy rate approaches 90 per cent and the population life expectancy is also high, exceeding 75 years.

The authorities significantly subsidise basic foods and petrol, provide unemployment benefits, housing and offer free healthcare and education. There are no taxes.

It is up to both the government and population to think about further opportunities, not only in political representation, but also in such areas like housing, education and unemployment.