Yemen and the Federal System
23 February 2014
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
It does not matter whether a regime is republican,
royal, centralized, federal, socialist or capitalist.
What's more important is a government's ability to
achieve justice and enjoy the approval of citizens.
North Yemen was an inanimate regime until 1962. It
became a republic following the revolution of the
first president of the Yemen Arab Republic, Abdullah
Al-Sallal. South Yemen was a British protectorate
until 1967 when the People's Democratic Republic of
Yemen was established and a Marxist–Leninist regime
was adopted. The Yemenis suffered a long history of
struggles between the two sister republics. After the
Soviet Union collapsed, North Yemen seized the chance
and unified with the South.
The unification's period of jubilation did not last
long, however, with a bloody struggle among the
different partners erupting, ending with the Southern
leadership's defeat. Because of this history it will
not be easy for Yemenis to overcome the legacy of
tribal, regional and personal disputes unless they
acknowledge this legacy and embrace the concept of the
modern state drawn up by the United Nations with the
help of its Special Adviser on Yemen, Jamal Benomar.
Yemen's new plan is to become a federal state of six
regions with Sana'a as the administratively
independent capital. Yemeni affairs experts must have
agreed this proposed outcome after studying several
complicated options.
If the mediators had listened to all demands, the
Yemenis would not have agreed to the number of regions
they proposed. During Britain's final years of
governance over the South, Yemenis agreed to establish
the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South made up
of 24 chiefdoms—but only four of them agreed and even
they refused to include Aden. So even if Yemen were
divided into 100 regions, everyone would still be
dissatisfied. A practical model that can be developed
or amended according to a constitution that allows
future review of the regional borders and
jurisdictions is therefore vital.
Establishing a real state with civil and modern
institutions will save this highly populated country
with little resources from the blight of its
administrative backwardness. Recent fighting is not a
coincidence as it aims to sabotage the plan for
historical transition and the establishment of a
modern Yemeni state.
One of the groups responsible for this fighting are
members of the former regime, who wish to undermine
the current interim regime and thwart the entire new
plan in order to restore the power that was taken away
from them. It is important to remember that this group
is risking the granted amnesty and immunity given it
for the more than 17 billion US dollars it stole and
hid in secret Western accounts.
The patience of Yemenis will eventually come to an
end, with the major powers also now totally convinced
that the problem lies in the former leadership so
ready to act against them. We hope these vandals will
think clearly before they continue to support and
incite those who reject transition and to fund tribal
infighting.
The Yemeni people deserve to have a chance to build
their state and co-exist together peacefully, whatever
the country's components.
The Yemenis have proven to be more civilized than
others. Their revolution was peaceful as was their
transition of power. They were above vengeance, and so
the Yemeni revolution remains the best of the Arab
revolutions to date, despite domestic and foreign
attempts to thwart it.
We think the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) duty
towards Yemen will grow—it sponsored the Yemeni
people's demands for change and was an impartial
mediator. It also participated in sponsoring the
transition politically and economically over the past
two years.
We look forward to the GCC's support of the plan to
develop and rehabilitate Yemen and link it to the
Gulf's economy. The country's stability guarantees the
Gulf's stability—and it is worth noting that Yemen
will eventually become a member of the GCC.
Al Rashed is the general
manager of Al -Arabiya television. He is also the
former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the
leading Arabic weekly magazine, Al Majalla. He is also
a senior Columnist in the daily newspapers of Al
Madina and Al Bilad. He is a US post-graduate degree
in mass communications. He has been a guest on many TV
current affairs programs. He is currently based in
Dubai.
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