Bahrain’s main opposition party Al Wefaq has failed to accept the invitation extended by the Chairman the National Dialogue Parliament Speaker Khalifa Al Dhahrani. There was no official statement issued by Al Wefaq despite the expiry of the deadline for accepting the invitation for the National Dialogue set to start on July 2nd, 2011.
The opposition reluctance to particiapte in this national debate is seen, by many, as a major blow to the efforts aimed at bridging the gap between the Government and opposition to achieve a greater stability and the normalcy in the Kingdom.
The details of the opposition are yet to come to the surface however the sources maintained that conviction of 21 defendants on Wednesday last was among the major reasons cited by the opposition for not taking part in the National Dialogue.
Yesterday Parliament Speaker and Chairman of the Bahrain National Dialogue Khalifa Al Dhahrani announced that Sunday evening (June 26th, 2011) would be the last day for receiving the views and names of the participants in the upcoming National Dialogue.
The process of receiving views and proposed topics started a week ago and was extended to Sunday in order to provide participants with more time for discussing and presenting their views for discussion within the National Dialogue process.
Al Dhahrani added that the Dialogue’s chairmanship has received views and proposed topics by the various societies, organisations and prominent figures during the recent days.
The chairmanship started including the topics as per the work mechanisms and within the themes set for the National Dialogue. The topics received by the Dialogue’s management included a number of issues such as social demands, political and rights related recommendations.
Other issues such as the privileges of the Parliament (Council of Representatives), formation of the government, electoral constituencies, naturalisation, combating administrative and financial corruption, state properties and solving sectarian tensions were also be part of the topics presented.
“The suggested topics also include salary increments, raising the standards of living, retirement schemes and salaries of the private sector, human rights and women empowerment issues, support for youth, increasing investments, future economic planning, activating the role of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, tailoring educational curricula to meet the needs of the labour market, supporting the work of professional societies and unions and issuing legislations related to media and journalism,” he said.
The deadline to receive views and proposed topics by the participants will be this evening (Sunday, June 26th, 2011) as per the time period set.
It is worth noting that on June 1st 2011, His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa appointed Parliament’s Speaker Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Dhahrani to chair the National Dialogue.
The Chairman of the National Dialogue has issued around 300 invitations for societies and individuals to participate in the dialogue which will start on July 1st, 2011. The dialogue aims at bringing together the various segments of the Bahraini society to present people’s views and demands for further reform in the country without any preconditions and with the consensus of all participants.
The Dialogue is expected to revolve around four main topics that include political, economic, social and legislative issues.