JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: Another promise from Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh saying he will step down soon but who will take his word? Not the Yemeni public which has been demanding his immediate exit for months, not the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) whose proposal for an honourable exit was once accepted by him only to back down at the next possible opportunity, not the UN Security Council who may soon ask Saleh to honour the GCC proposal and leave.
Saleh has been ruling Yemen for the last 30 years. The Yemeni economy is in tatters, the army is facing rebellion within its ranks, the Houthi tribes in the North are getting stronger, separatists in the south are voicing their demands, and the al-Qaeda are going to have a heyday in the absence of a representative central government. Among the regions dictators, Zain Abidin and Hosni Mubarak who left the presidency with limited bloodshed should serve as role models. Not Muammar Qaddafi and Bashir al Asad who are taking revenge against their own countrymen by plunging their respective countries in widespread bloodshed.
Its true that the lust for power blinds people, but perhaps they are not aware that the days of the dictators are numbered.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, October 12th, 2011.
