Middle East Focus: Bahrain: a Small Oligarchy against the Web…………

Arabia Deserta

Bahrain: a Small Oligarchy against the Web…………

Walking on water

“Abduleman's arrest was part of a wider government crackdown on Bahrain's political opposition in recent weeks in which more than 200 people have reportedly been detained, a gag order has been imposed on the press and a prominent human rights group has been taken over by the government. Although Abduleman is not directly involved in politics himself, he was targeted because of the key role that his website plays in serving as a space where opposition activists can air their point of view. Bahrain was my home for the first 26 years of my life, and I was among the first generation of bloggers in the country. In 2006 I was interrogated by the National Security Agency for activities seemingly connected to my blog, after which I was put on a blacklist and banned from entering Bahrain again. I have had a chance to see Bahrain through some of its ups and downs, but friends in the country tell me the political situation today is worse than it has been since the end of the last uprising in the 1990s. The extreme lengths to which it has gone in its latest crackdown (lawyers of several detainees say their clients have been tortured in custody) suggests that the government is now looking to break the back of, and not just supress, any meaningful political opposition once and for all. The government knows that it will not be able to achieve this without clamping down on Internet activism. The Internet has been a thorn in the side of the Al Khalifa ruling regime since the time it was introduced to Bahrain in the mid-nineties………” Foreign Policy

Arab leaders, and Iranian leaders, have realized too late the potency of the Internet. They can’t exactly “ban” it: that would be impossible to do, sort of like trying to ban sin (ask the Saudis and Iranians and the many phony American pastors about that). They are trying to find ways to “fine tune” it, to control it tightly without the outside world realizing it openly. Sort of like water-boarding: it is better than chopping fingers and gouging eyes and cutting penises because it leaves no lasting scars (talking physical scars). As for ‘persuasion through interrogation” I hear they are importing many from friendly countries, especially from brotherly countries. One particularly humorless brotherly country comes to mind. Just rumors circulating in the media. Allegedly.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com