Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Protests in Iraq and Lebanon renewed the increasing Arab community's anger over the situation, which started in 2011. The desire for reform and change among desperate Arab youths does not seem to come to an end despite the counter revolutions.

Before Iraq and Lebanon, people of Algeria and Sudan were seeking to make a change and they managed to accomplish half of the mission through ousting half of the two old regimes, however, they still have a lot to achieve.

In Egypt, the emergence of Mohammad Ali led to mobilizing the Egyptian situation and presenting new evidence that victory of counter revolutions is but a temporary issue. It is a new wave of rejection and a continuation of what happened in 2011. Is Bahrain distant from all of this?

Bahrain was one of the first countries to respond to the Tunisian and Egyptian people's movements in 2011. Only a few weeks after the movements there, the desperate and restless Bahraini youths found their ways to the Pearl Roundabout (Lualua) to settle down for a month before the events ended tragically as we know. Judge Cherif Bassiouni's report was one of the important historical documentation of these events that we have now and will remain with us for a long time.

There is a revolutionary Arab wave rising now. It is affecting two social groups with a reasonable amount of popular representation, which is not available in Bahrain. But this has not prevented large popular sectors from moving in search for a better representation and solutions to their problems.

Before that, Bahrain seemed to be a quiet area, but it's a false silence. The events of 2011 left a torn and injured country whose people are either in prisons or exiled. Meanwhile, its elites and civil forces are chained down and humiliated. Only hypocrites have a word in this country. This is how Bahrain is considered a calm country, because there is an unprecedented security grip that holds people's breaths. Bahrain has been transformed into a totalitarian country that punishes the Shiite majority for speaking up about the killer of their imam, the grandson of the Prophet (Yazid ibn Moawiya).

Bahrain (1.5 million people) has economic conditions and corruption issues similar to those of Iraq (38 million) and Lebanon (6 million).

Iraq's public debt is $65 billion and that of Lebanon is $85 billion, according to the latest financial data for 2019. In Bahrain, the latest National Audit Office report for 2019 revealed that the public debt continued to rise even amid the Gulf Financial Balance program to save Bahrain's financial situation. This shows that all the other positive reports that the government has been working on to broadcast this year were merely a lie.

The public debt amounted to BD13.9 billion (about US$37 billion), i.e. half of Iraq's public debt and one third of Lebanon's. As for corruption, we are told annually by the National Audit Office report about what the demonstrators in Iraq and Lebanon are talking about today. What does Bahrain have to brag about against these two countries? Nothing at all!

Yet it is difficult to predict that the country is heading to a revolution. As Young Bahrainis filled the streets in 2011, struggled and were martyred, Iraqi, Lebanese, Algerian and Sudanese youths were watching silently. None of the people in these countries were involved in the 2011 wave and were eight years late in their revolution. Bahrainis are now watching what is happening in these countries now just as their people have done before.

However, Bahrain's history tells us since the 1920s how there's a massive earthquake with the onset of every decade. The government still has the option to avoid an earthquake similar to that of 2011 by making concessions that would reconnect it to its people before it has to offer double in future.

Arabic Version