On Bahrain Independence Anniv.: Recalling Some of the Ruling Family's Deviation
2019-08-15 - 5:53 p
Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): It is the 14th of August, this occasion marking Bahrain's independence does not pass, unless it brings with it the morally and politically deviant statement that the King of Bahrain launched from inside the British home in 2013, when he cited his father's dissatisfaction with Britain's decision to withdraw from Bahrain in 1971: "Why? Who asked you to leave?" Is there anything more abnormal than this? That is to tell your colonizer who is about to give you your independence and freedom: Why leave? Who asked you to go? Has anyone other than the King of Bahrain done it?!
It is not unusual for the ruling family in Bahrain to ignore the date of Bahrain's true independence, not deeming it a national occasion worth celebrating and replacing it with the current king's father's accession to the throne on December 16, deeming it a national holiday. This is not strange since it sees that the withdrawal of the colonizer goes against its desire. Has anyone done such a thing before?!
"National forces, in all their generations and formations, regarded the British protection agreements as colonialism and a violation of the right of the people to self-determination, and the fighters of the national movement in Bahrain deemed the declaration of independence a victory to be built upon" said Abdul Hadi Khalaf, a professor of political sociology at the University of Lund in Sweden. On the other hand, "Bahrain's ruling family considered protection agreements as friendship treaties between independent and sovereign countries. Like the rest of the Persian Gulf sheikhdoms under British protection, it saw the withdrawal as a departure from more than a century and a half of commitments. That is why Bahrain joined the rulers of those sheikhdoms in their attempts to persuade Britain to reverse its decision, and even offered them to bear the costs of its camps and soldiers in the region." Have you seen a government of a colonized country strive to persuade its colonizer to reverse its decision to withdraw? How unusual is this? This may reveal a fragment of Bahrain's suffering since its fate is governed by such a humiliating, submissive and weak ruler.