أصداء مصرية

لماذا تتغاضي دولة عن مزاعم تورط مواطنيها في مخططات طائفية بدولة أخري؟

أميرة الطحاوي

( نشر في القدس العربي، 23 نوفمبر 2006)


رغم مرور نحو شهرين علي نشر محتوي تقـــرير الخبــــير الاستراتيجي د. صلاح البندر ـ سوداني بريطاني الجنسية الذي يقول بوجود (مخطط يرعاه مسؤولون بحرينيون ذوو نفوذ للتأثير علي مجريات العملية السياسية لتهميش تمثيل المواطنين من أصحاب المذهب الشيعي بالبحرين)فإن الحكومة المصرية لم تحرك ساكنا في ورود أسماء ثمانية مصريين إدعي التقرير أنها كانت تقوم ولعامين سابقين بالعمل الإعلامي في المخطط الذي كشفه التقرير، ودلل الباحث علي معلوماته بوثائق منها إيصالات مكافآت وتحويلات مالية ونحوه، ومع اقتراب موعد الاستحقاق الانتخابي بالبحرين فقد تقدم بعض القانونيين والناشطين السياسيين بطلب للأمم المتحدة ساعين لفتح تحقيق دولي في فحوي هذا التقرير، في حين لم تقم أي جهة حكومية مصرية بتحقيق يذكر.

يهمنا حقا في دلالات هذا الأمر أن تاريخ مشاركة مواطني بلدان بعينها بالمنطقة العربية في مخططات من هذا النوع في دول أخري ليس بالقليل لكن مصرياً لم يكن ذلك السلوك منتشراً بنفس الدرجة، يكثر الحديث عن الهجرة المصرية المؤقتة للعمل بالخليج في نهاية السبعينات، وجري علميا البحث في التغيرات التي طرأت علي هؤلاء خاصة من ناحية قناعاتهم الفكرية والدينية وحتي تأثير السفر علي نواح مجتمعية لأسرهم ومحيطهم، لكن من الهام أيضا وفي ضؤ هذا الحادثة أن نبحث في معني أن يتورط مصريون في عملية خطيرة كتلك (علي عكس ما عرف عن غالب المصريين بالخارج من ميلهم عامةً لإيثار السلامة في الغربة) وأن يشتركوا في مخططات لها طابع طائفي، وأن يكون الواردة أسماؤهم جامعيون (بمعني أنه يصعب القول أنه: اتضحك عليهم) ويشغلون مناصب جيدة (مما يقلل من احتمالات التذرع بالحاجة الشديدة للمال، وارد أن يكون هناك إغراءات لكن ليس مجرد استغلال لشدة العوز).

الأسماء الثمانية للمصريين بالتقرير منهم باحث بمجلس الشوري المصري (أحد مجلسي البرلمان) وآخر مدير مكتب مؤسسة صحفية قومية (هي الأكبر مصرياً) بالعاصمة البحرينية المنامة، والبعض الآخر يعمل بوظائف ذات صلة بالنشر والإعلام هناك (وبصحيفة بحرينية ووزارة الإعلام والجهاز المركزي للمعلومات وفي مركز للرأي العام).

ما يدهش أكتر أن هناك مثلا أكثر من 100 بحريني اعترضوا علي منع النشر ببلادهم في قضية تقرير البندر، وفي مصر لا يوجد قرار مماثل بحظر النشر في هذه القضية؛ ومع ذلك لم يقم أحد بإثارة مسألة المصريين الواردة أسماؤهم بالتقرير، علي الأقل يكان يُفترض أن المؤسسات المصرية التي ينتسب لها هؤلاء تزيل اللبس حول استمرار علاقتهم الوظيفية بها أثناء عملهم بالخارج بالأخص في العامين المشار لهما في التقرير أنهما شهدا ما أطلق عليه مؤامرة طائفية، أو تقوم بتحقيق مع منتسبيها ولو من باب حفظ ماء الوجه، مجلس الشوري عليه مثلاً أن يستشعر الحرج لوجود باحث ينتسب له ورد اسمه بالتقرير كمشارك في عمل سياسي به تدخل مباشر في شئون دولة أخري، علي أقل التقديرات يجب سؤالهم عن المبالغ التي رصدت باسمهم أووضعت في حساباتهم حسب التقرير، ربماالضرائب من حقها أيضا ذلك، وربما الجهازالمسمي بالمدعي الاشتراكي لأن مصدر هذه الأموال المعلن حسب الوصولات التي نشرها التقرير هو وزير دولة لشئون مجـــلس الوزراء بدولة أجنبية.

الأمر بالضرورة له بعد قانوني، لكن يهمني تماما أن تسود روح الشفافية، وهذا النص ليس هدفه الاستعداء ضد أحد(أكيد الأجهزة إياها إما عندها فكرة من البداية وإما أصبح عندها فكرة بعد نشر التقرير) فقط نتوقع أن يكون أبسط تصرف من الأجهزة المسئولة -الشرعية ألا تدع المجال للأجهزة الأمنية للتعامل المنفرد والسري في القضية، أن يناقش الأمر علناً لابراء الذمة أو المحاسبة، بدون موقف مسبق ضد أحد، هكذا تقتضي تقاليد دولة القانون والمؤسسات، قبل عامين وعندما نشرت جريدة المدي أسماء مصريين في قوائم النفط مقابل الولاء/ الغذاء زمن صدام حسين لم يحقق أحد، لكن علي الأقل تناولت الصحافة وقتهاالأمر: بعض الأسماء أنكرت أودافعت والبعض برر والبعض الآخر
آثر الصمت، هذه المرة الصمت وحده هو السائد مصرياً فيما يتعلق بتقرير البندر، فلماذا ياتري؟.


ہ كاتبة مصرية

int'l day of disproportional representation

Last night, there were fireworks and a laser show prepared by the High Election Commission. An enlightening demonstration of how the high authorities look at the elections of the day.

Down to earth, the stakes are high for 40 seats of the lower chamber of -tenants’- representatives. Unlike common folks, these will be entitled to ask questions, discuss sensible matters and put lease-respecting desires directly to top management. (To speak to the property owners as such, formalities must be cleared first with the upper chamber of 40 landlords’ representatives).

In lands with public land, this would fall under the realm of politics, but politics need public sphere. At 93% privately owned, likely a Guinness record, it is all a civic affair here, and not necessarily a civil one. But that doesn’t mean the lack of drama, reaching its apex episode today.

Unlike last time, AbdAli is more likely to vote, even though his brother Abdul Shaheed still won’t have any part in it. Their neighbors, Abdul Rahmans will be voting, and so are the janitors/guards Abdul Maleks.

AbdAli does not look as happy exercising his franchise as his near and far neighours. He has half the vote of Abdul Rahman and less than a tenth of Abdul Malek’s (probably a Guinness record disproportionally speaking). He is also doubly famished. He is being told that half a bread is better than no bread and no vote. And that’s different from what he is hearing from his brother, who keeps saying that no one signed the 2002 unilateral lease in the first place, only the co-owner-manager deal of 1973. That is academic to AbdAli right now. He is losing sleep since the leaked reports of a joint landlords-Abdel Maleks scheming to evict him. Strange faces are already moving in and being made to feel at home. He just hopes to see someone speaking for his hunger, pain and fears right now. He hopes.

But, with all due respect to AbdAli, the story of this election is not about him or his first time participation. It is all about how Abdul Rahman’s will vote. A swing voter, to whose side will he swing? Even AbdAli concedes that his good night sleep could very well be in Abdul Rahman voting hand. Evert tenant knows it, it's hell having landlord, janitor and neighbour, all on your wrong side.

AbdAli may not admit it, but in the breeze of the last few days, he too was caught with the bug of anticipation. He wished he would be a voter in the ridings of the likes of Muneera Fakhro, Ibrahim Sharif or Jumaa al-Jufairi. And he told friends it is duty to block the winning of the tribo-salafites, anywhere, regardless. The right to clean air comes before the right to justice or proportional representation, he reckons.

He even told a friend in the HQ of a tenant rights society to wake him up if and when Muneera and Ibrahim made it. That would be worthy of fireworks any time of the night.

death in salhiya

In the country -and flourishing era- of Hamad Bin Issa, Khalifah Bin Salman and Ahemed Bin Ateyatallah, a mother of 3 children refused to curse the dark and lighted a candle. The candle claimed a curtain. The curtain claimed the house. The house claimed the 3 huddled children. No one claimed responsibility.

In the country of Al-Wasat, Al-Waqt, and other no time nor nerve to read newspapers, the news of 3 poor Bahraini children meeting a horrible death in an eviction-threatened, electricity-cut house does not seem jolting enough for editors to break their monotonous coverages.

In the country of Jewelery Arabia, the story of poverty and hunger in the land of 167 billions in combined financial sector assets came and went, instantly amortized. You had to read it in a resurrected blog to grab hold of it.

In the country of mass demonstrations against scantly clad marathoners and less than fully veiled personal family laws, and of holy lectures to the heart and soul -but never to stomach- of the believers, there is hardly a reaction to the misery of scantly fed children.

In the country of the high road of national unity, the high talk of brotherhood and no difference between a Sunni and a Shia, the fact that the three were to a poor Shia Hoora-hailed father made no difference or reference. There is after all an appropriate condolence service for the three children at Ma'atm Bin Rajab.

conqueror's justice

At around noon of Nov. 16, a post on Bahrain-on-line first brings the first part of a position paper written by one opposition figure. Less than 24 hours later, the news are out that Dr. Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahlawi and a friend, Hussain Al-Habshi, were arrested on the charge of spreading seditious material, the very same position paper " Do not bear false witness", by the London-based Dr. Saeed Al-Shehabi.

So swift the wheels of our ruling family justice turn in this constitutionally owned kingdom of theirs. When it suits their justice purposes that is. It has been more than 48 days since a ruling family judge slapped a gag order on Al-Bandar Report, and yet not a single legal proceeding was undertaken against the really and criminally seditious.

But this is an island where vertical steel bars were meant for the best and most conscientious of citizens. The likes of Dr Mohammed Saeed, a slim, down to earth dentist. So soft spoken in fact that a visitor who showed up at his clinic one afternoon few years ago, failed to recognize the freshly released detainee in him. Though it was clear that this was a man of a soul matching his white robe.

This is a country with a steep dignity tax. And Dr. Mohammed Saeed and Hussain al-Habshi, are the very latest payers of it. Willingly and courageously so.

trick or treat, homestyle

This was a hell of a Halloween party. The masks were unique, the costumes impeccable, the theme and atmosphere absolutely fantastic. And it lasted for six years.

For six consecutive years, the children of God on this island kept knocking and asking: trick or treat? But they didn’t figure out what they are actually receiving.

Were jails empty of political detainees a trick or a treat?

Were homes unbroken into in the middle of the night trick or treat?

Was the most favourite mask, the Charter, trick or treat?

Was the top performing costume, the Reforming Democrat, trick or treat?

Did talk of sure but gradual reform, mean changing things for the better, or a re-form, old ways taking another shape?

When it was said that the most beautiful of days are yet ahead of us, who were the “us” therein? The Riffa-based lot only or the dwellers of towns and villages as well?

When it was declared that things would never go back to bad old days, did this mean there will no longer be deaths under torture, or that the island's air, taste and smell would be irreversibly changed beyond any possible recognition?

To be fair, the thrower of the party himself thought it was practically over when promises given (at the heat of the party) became promises licked a year later. But due to popular and partying folk’s demand, he yielded. It was bad decorum and costume to upset everyone's mood by a cold shower. And the party went on.

Until it came crashing the way it did. And by whom? A man of a unique costume, mask, and misbaha himself. That was no doubt a cause of regal consternation. The party should have ended, but not in this crash-landing way. The masks are supposed to be removed when everybody went home, not in the middle of the party.

. . . . . .

If you watched this last Eid service, you’d reckon a silver lining to the affair,a bit of answer there. Less burdened by mask and costume, the familiar power-projecting smiles are back. Chins are up. There was even an air of serenity and peace, perhaps for being true to self. They seemed walking a lot lighter this way. Hell. What’s wrong with the grandfathers' ways anyway?