Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): There will be no moral trial held for Khamis Al-Romaihi, a member of the Shura Council who resigned by force. Nonetheless, this incident sheds light on the corruption of the Royal Court's appointment criteria and strikes the credibility and efficiency of appointments issued in the name of the king of Bahrain from time to time.

Under Article 32 of Bahrain's 2002 Constitution, the King has the right to appoint the Prime Minister and the right to remove him from office by a royal order, and appoint ministers and remove them from their positions by royal decree. The king also has the right to appoint members of the Shura Council and relieve them of their duties by royal order. He also presides over the Supreme Judicial Council and appoints judges through royal orders. Besides these constitutional provisions, any position above the "director" position, starting with undersecretaries and secretaries, in addition to the heads of so-called independent bodies are all appointed by royal order. The King appoints the president and trustees of the National Institute for Human Rights as well as  many other positions not included in the Constitution.

It's been a long while since the criteria for appointment in positions has been discussed. Al-Romaihi's incident came to prove that these appointments were a sign of the incompetence of choice and narrow mindedness of the decision-maker and his near circle, and their unwillingness to cooperate with any competent person who doubts his blind leadership. Al-Romaihi's incident reveals the crime of preference of loyalists over qualified individuals.

Therefore, ministers and senior officials benefit from a lack of standards for competence and equal opportunities, with most of them following the same approach in ministries and institutions, by appointing their followers, members of their families and even second and third relatives, which has ingrained nepotism in the structure of the job system in some ministries.

The Shura Council, which Al-Romaihi left a few days ago and Sabah Al-Dosari entered, is one of the biggest examples of appointments by royal orders but on the basis of corrupt criteria. Being appointed in the Council, which has been and continues to be a permanent impediment to the desired democracy in Bahrain, has become the aspiration of every power climber and loyalist, and this issue is not the only issue in this council.

It is obvious that one of the reasons for the state's failure is that appointments are based on the degree of loyalty to the ruler and not the degree of competence, so the state not only fights competencies, but also fights every kind of accountability for any of its followers. Bahrain has a system based on the idea of rejecting justice and rejecting the principle of equal opportunity, thus it is not surprising that Bahrainis discover every day that the decline the country has reached is not the bottom, as there will be more. 

Arabic Version