Emir Shaikh Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa announces the establishment of
the new Kingdom of Bahrain, declaring himself king and approving a new
elected Parliament. He sets an Oct. 24 date for Bahrainis to elect one
branch of a new bicameral legislature. A second body will be appointed
by the king. The new King Hamad says the reforms are "fulfilling
the promise" he made when he took over after his father's
death in 1999. He pledges to pursue democracy as a way to heal divisions
between the country's ruling Sunni Muslims and the Shiites who form
a slight majority of its population. He says: "We are keen to
resume democratic life as soon as possible for the glory of Bahrain, its
prosperity and development". (The country plays a strategic
military and social role in the life of the Gulf. The British-educated,
anglophile, Khalifa has kept close ties with the West. The country had a
national assembly briefly in the 1970s, after becoming independent of
British colonial rule. But the assembly was dissolved in 1975 after
Khalifa's father decided that opposition parties and
"radical" groups had gained too much influence. Over the next
quarter century, the sense of disenfranchisement grew among Shiites, and
there was concern among the country's leaders that the emirate might fall under the influence of Shiite-dominated Iran. As part of his
reforms, Hamad offered a wide-ranging truce, releasing those who had
been imprisoned and encouraging those in exile to return and participate
in a referendum in 2001 that led to the creation of a new Bahraini
Constitution. The new changes makes Bahrain the only nation in the
Persian Gulf where men and women can vote and compete for seats in
parliament. Kuwait has a Parliament, but women are not allowed to serve
in it or vote. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman have no elected national
lawmaking bodies, though the ruling families of those states rely on
appointed advisory groups. Qatar has established elected local councils,
and the emir has promised more changes).
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