We have been following news from Yemen for several days, trying to know details about the downfall of the capital Sana’a and whether the details were true.
Our Yemeni friends and colleagues could not help us understand the situation. They are like us: They do not have enough information about what is happening in their country.
For them, the clouds created by the presence of many sources and contradictions among the sources blurred their vision. Then there were reports by some news agencies about the Houthis’ entry into Sana’a. However, none of the news agencies talked about the massacres Houthis militants committed in some districts of the capital. None talked about the homes destroyed, burned down or looted either. These homes were owned by clerics, dignitaries and activists.
Then there was a feeling inside us that the whole world, including the correspondents of these news agencies, was conspiring against Sana’a.
The first photo that came out of Yemen was of President AbdRabbu Mansour Hadi. Tension was clearly visible on his face. He raced against the Houthis on his way to the table that carried the agreement. I asked myself: Who had drafted this agreement and when? How did all these people read it? Is not it strange that an agreement is drafted and signed in a matter of few hours? What a Herculean task!
An Arab capital deeply-rooted in the history of the Arabs and one that contributed to making this history has fallen. But nobody seemed to care? Nobody complained about it — a complete silence from leaders and very calm reactions from news agencies.
The arms carried by Yemenis wherever they went had all of a sudden fallen silent. What happened? What is happening?
The fact we must accept is that Houthis are the rulers of Yemen at present. All papers signed at the presidential palace were part of a theatrical show championed by Hadi during whose reign the capital had fallen into the hands of a group of sectarian militants. The president did not even try to resist it.
I was in Sana’a in 2006 when former president Ali Abdullah Saleh wanted to play the role of a democracy-believer. He opened the door for contested presidential elections. His rival in the election was the most honest man at the time — Engineer Faisal bin Shamlan who had represented a group of political parties, and adopted the slogan “A president for Yemen, not a Yemen for the president”.
I decided to visit Shamlan at his home. I was received by a man who led me into a very modest reception area. I sat down to wait for the house owner who soon arrived, a smile glinting over his face. The smile bespoke no tension. Shamlan was not known for his frequent appearance in the media.
The meeting was brief, but I tried to know the extent to which he believed in the democratic process. I also wanted to know whether he believed that there was a genuine democratic transformation.
The answers were not very clear as far as I can remember. He tried to give me diplomatic answers. He leaned towards me and came so close to me, a position not customary in interviews between politicians and journalists.
The impression I got was that Shamlan had a clear objective. Away from pretensions, he was fighting a battle but did not have the necessary weapon. He did not have anything to fight. His clothing, propaganda and home could not be compared with those of the then-incumbent president. I did not know what he was thinking about. But I believed that he was fighting a lost battle by all measures.
Shamlan, known for his honesty and integrity, lost the election. I kept following news about him from a distance. He disappeared after the election. I was told that he had a disease that made it necessary for him to stay at home all the time. I forgot the him until I heard about his death in early 2010 at his home in Aden.
I got out of his home in 2006 and headed to Yemeni Reform Union in Sana’a. A man led me to a room where union leaders had assembled. They received me warmly. Asked whether any of them had the desire to talk about the election, I said I knew that president Saleh had kept all the media away from it.
“But I am here if any of you wants to speak,” I said.
Nobody uttered a word. Smiles disappeared and I felt marked tension filling the atmosphere. I had to excuse myself and leave.
On that night, a colleague asked me to accompany him on a visit to a Yemeni chieftain backing Saleh to spend the rest of the night with him. I agreed because my flight was early in the morning. I believed that spending the night at the chieftain’s home would make the night shorter.
I entered the house and shook hands with the chieftain.
“I saw you at the union premises earlier today,” the chieftain said.
I said to myself — now I know why nobody wanted to talk to me at the union. The chieftain was so close to Saleh. He spent the night talking about the “wonderful” manners of the president and his kind heart and the need for him to stay in the highest office until the end of time.
I came back to Doha and wrote an article in which I described Yemen as a beautiful carpet that must be turned over so that an onlooker can get to its reality.
There are signs of a civil war in Yemen at present. The members of the union should get rid of their caution and confront the Houthis. The Houthis have come to rule. They came to change the making of Yemen, its culture, policies and role.
To do this, the Houthis have to kill a lot of people and shed a lot of blood. Their mentality is not political, it is sectarian out of the mould of that of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah movement.
Even with this, the Houthis do not have Nasrallah’s flexibility, calculations and experience. They are stupid and blinded by power. Their fast victories brought the work of their brains to a standstill.
We will meet few people like Shamlan who was ready to fight a losing battle with the few resources he had. We will also meet many people who can ride on the crest of the waves of the time like the chieftain. Such people can see in the Houthis a new Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Many people have fallen silent vis-a-vis developments taking place in Yemen. Many others conspired against the country. However, these developments would not fall silent. Soon, everybody will smell the sweat of the Houthis.
