Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Why should the period between March 6, 1999 and March 6, 2019 be described as two decades of darkness?

It is because the ruler made us, Bahrainis, enter, on February 14, 2002, an era of kings and monarchies, while most of the world were putting those dark ages behind them. We thought "the era of kings" was just a phrase he put together just to boast, yet we were deceived, as he had meant an absolute monarchy, when we assumed he was hinting at a constitutional one.

They were two decades in darkness because we lost our ability to break free of limitations, while the King thrived and his palaces grew bigger. He stripped us of our will to act and our ability to participate in drafting a contractual constitution and govern public life. He gave us a constitution of his own, formed a parliament based on his will not ours, and collected all the powers placing them in his grip. We no longer exist and there is no voice for us. He draped a dark and thick curtain over us and so the whole scene became his and the lights were all on him.

They were two decades in darkness because civil life has come to an end. There is no longer a civil society that has a voice and keeps an eye on the authorities as well as the political scene. There are no longer any political activists, human rights defenders, opposing, moderate or free press and active political societies. Everything is monitored, even social media outlets are under the surveillance of a cyber army belonging to the king. People are prosecuted over tweets, convicted over the hidden meanings of their words, and are required to keep track of the comments on their posts.

They were two decades in darkness because we have deeply drowned in the sectarian conflicts fuelled by the King's royal court, the religious fanaticism nurtured by the king's agencies, curricula and loyal political parties. It is because the King drags people to the Public Prosecution over historical views, so the Attorney General's mission has become defending historical differences of ideological and political nature, rather than defending the principles and freedoms of modern civil society and civil peace.

They were two decades in darkness because this era has brought out the worst in us; our instinctual dark primal affiliations, dividing us into the honorable and the traitors. It brought out the tongues of hatred, for which the doors of newspapers, platforms and social media were opened. We began to be categorized on the basis of our faith, ethnicity and tribal history. We became prisoners of the past, searching for what proves our origin, and anticipate based on what we could prove the opportunities and gains we can achieve. We do not have a project that would help us open to the future, or stir the desires for competition within us in order to initiate a movement that would pull us out of the swamp of darkness in which we have drowned.

They were two decades in darkness because on every occasion throughout these two decades the King always reminds us that we are under the mercy of the sword of conquest, the sword of his ancestor Ahmed Al-Fateh (the Conqueror). He thinks we were living in darkness, until his ancestor's conquest. There is no one in the enlightened world who addresses his people by reminding them of the power that humiliated them, and fights every existence that indicates their identity and origin before the conquest of his ancestors. And so they would not forget, the king set up a military museum showcasing the heritage of that conquest.

Like that, we began to scream in the darkness, the darkness of prisons with fear inside us. We fear the lights, resist but behind the shadows, speak out but in silence, awaiting a world event that would take us out of the darkness of torment, a ‘hero' that would save us.

Arabic Version