30/11/2011
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
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As though Formula One has not got enough potential problems, with the indecision over the US Grand Prix at Austin, the 2012 World Championship calendar has been published and it includes the Bahrain GP on 22nd April. I have no idea why the FIA has done this because there will not be a race in Bahrain in 2012.
It was only five months ago that we had the bizarre instance of an FIA delegation reporting that all was well in that happy land, and that the race would be held towards the end of the this season. It did not matter that the plans of other organisers would be thrown into disarray.
The FIA said that it believed the Bahraini authorities when they gave assurances that everything would be fine five months from thence. The reinstatement and then cancellation of the race made motor racing look both silly and to have no moral compass whatsoever.
Believing Bahrain is like making life decisions on the strength of a fortune cookie.
Now the FIA accepts Bahraini assurances that things will be fine just five months from now, next April. It's deja vu all over again.
The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report, prepared by six internationally respected lawyers, was published on 23rd November. Opposition leaders had predicted that it would be a whitewash, instead it states that the Bahraini authorities had used torture and excessive force during its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters earlier this year. It highlights a culture of non-accountability among the security forces and the practice of arresting people in the middle of the night and subjecting them to mental and/or physical duress. The report found that five people had died under torture.
During the Abu Dhabi GP weekend, Sir Jackie Stewart told the BBC that he had read the report and that it was very positive. It is believed that Stewart has an ambassadorial role, hence his seeing the report ten days before it became public.
It saddens me that my memory of a great driver is being tarnished by embarrassing statements. Earlier in the year he trotted out the ridiculous theory that a Grand Prix would unite the country while the opposition had declared that it would prompt a Day of Rage.
With Stewart you can never be sure whether his principle motivation is money or brown nosing royalty.
On Tuesday, 22nd November, the king issued a partial and conditional apology for excessive force earlier this year.
Some have welcomed Bahrain's admission but, unfortunately, it is a Public Relations exercise. Nothing has changed.
You will search in vain for coverage of Bahrain in most of the Western press. The news channel Al Jazeera has called it the revolution that the world has forgotten. Some papers in the West are hostile to Al Jazeera, even though it has won the admiration and respect of most serious journalists, as opposed to reporters. A documentary made by Al Jazeera on Bahrain recently won the Foreign Press Association Documentary of the Year in London. It can be viewed here.
To keep up to speed I have been accessing the news portal: www.newsnow.co.uk and using its search engine. Newsnow gathers stories from everywhere and here are some from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, ABNA, 20th November, a week after Stewart was full of praise for Bahrain:. "Bahrain's security forces attacked a funeral procession in a Shiite village on the outskirts of the Bahraini capital Manama injuring dozens of people... Al-Wefaq, the largest Shiite opposition group said, 'dozens were wounded when security forces on Saturday 'brutally' attacked a funeral procession for a 16-year-old boy killed a day earlier after being struck by a police car.'"
Ali Yousif Baddah, the boy whose funeral it was had been crushed between a police vehicle and a wall. One side says it was an accident, one side says it was deliberate. What is undeniable is that the protests continue. The dead youth is one of five teenagers, and a six year-old, to have been killed by law enforcement agencies since September. Bahrain has said sorry for events that took place in February, but the abuses are ongoing.
At least 188 juveniles have been arrested since September and there is photographic evidence of beatings and torture in custody. In October, Mustafa Abduljalil Al-Moqdad, 16, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a military court.
He was accused of being party to kidnapping a policeman and kidnap is a serious offence. He was, however, tried by a military court. This, surely, indicates a breakdown of civil order. How come the FIA is sanctioning a Grand Prix in a country where the civil authorities have lost control?
Let us not forget the medical professionals who have received prison sentences of up to 20 years for treating people injured, even maimed and dying, by the security forces.
On the day that the report was published, security forces used tear gas on mourners/demonstrators at another funeral at the town of A'ali.
According to a source in Bahrain, exclusive to Pitpass, a current tactic by demonstrators is to set fire to roads prior to the morning commute. Go to YouTube, tap in Bahrain riots and you can see plenty of footage of this.
Bahrain has fine multi-lane roads leading into Manama, the capital. A group of guys, all in black and wearing ski masks, block the road with vehicles and signal motorists to stop. They place tyres across the road in both directions, pour in petrol and ignite. One well organised team on camera does it in well under two minutes.
They can drive away and be long gone by the time the police arrive, they being hampered by the traffic jams. Nobody is prevented from getting to work, but the commute is severely disrupted.
One clip shows a demonstration in a shopping mall. The riot police arrive and I doubt whether London or New York could muster so many policemen in so short a time. Manama has a population of just 155,000 and the size of the police presence says a lot.
Come April and we may see the FIA trying to hold the Bahrain GP. Formula One is the very essence of decadent capitalism and conspicuous display and so it is a prime target.
What makes the Bahrain GP a special target is that the circuit and the rights to the race are owned by the Crown Prince.
Opposition leaders in Bahrain have promised a Day of Rage should the Grand Prix go ahead. 'Day of Rage' was the term used to describe the initial peaceful protests in Bahrain. More to the point is how disrupting the race could serve a wider political agenda.
The king has embraced the BICI report as a basis for reform. He and the crown prince have been edging towards more liberal ideals and Bahrain is the first country in the region to begin to do something about the conditions that migrant workers toil under to produce the impressive skyline.
To understand Bahrain you have to regard it like a mediaeval kingdom where the king rules by the will of powerful barons and dukes. Some members of the extended royal family are hard-line and they are not inclined towards a softening of their own status and power. They are the heads of most government ministries and those are the real instruments of day to day power.
Though an absolute monarch, in theory, the king feels that he cannot simply issue royal decrees, but is to appoint a panel to look at reform. No matter what he says in public (Bahrain retains an expensive London public relations company) he still has hard-liners in the royal family to consider.
My information is that the Crown Prince is very much on the sidelines and, in any case, the eldest son of a king does not automatically ascend to the throne. Were that the case, Hamlet would be without a plot.
Bahraini authorities claim to have uncovered a terrorist cell with plans to target people and institutions, which may or may not mean the main international event in the kingdom, the Grand Prix. One cell has been discovered, which begs the question that there may be others. Terrorists have learned to organise themselves in cells.
The blame for much of the unrest has been laid at the door of Iran, which is overwhelmingly Shia. The BICI report found no evidence for this, but it is a constantly repeated accusation. Iran is believed to be developing nuclear weapons. When Bahrain discovered a terrorist cell, it blamed Iran.
It is the fear of Iran which caused Saudi Arabia and other Sunnis to occupy Bahrain. To save face, the king said they were invited. Saudi troops, guests, then set about destroying Shia mosques. Some guests. Wee Jackie has nothing to say about any of that, but he says that the BICI report is 'positive'. It positively accuses the regime of torture, but I do not think that is what the tartan brownnoser means.
Just because the mass media in the West has largely stopped covering Bahrain, it does not mean that the problem has gone away.
Give people a real grievance and they will respond. Even if the ruling family acts on the BICI report, it will take a long time to repair the damage. Everything will not be all smiles by 22nd April, 2012. The families of the tortured, maimed and murdered are not suddenly going to forget.
The regime can do nothing before next April which can possibly heal the wounds. The majority of the population has had a raw deal and religious divide usually means tribal divide, which is equally as potent.
Bernie has said that the GP will go ahead unless 'something terrible' happens. He seems impervious to the fact that terrible things are happening every day.
The fact is that Bahrain 2012 will not take place because most of the population do not want it to happen. The race is symbolic of the power of a ruling elite and of course it will be targeted.
A few tyres and cans of petrol could prevent the drivers and their teams from getting to the circuit. That could make Formula One and the Bahraini authorities look very foolish. It would draw the attention of the world's news media without injuring anyone.
What determined terrorists could do given a populated stadium does not bear thinking about.
Mike Lawrence
mike.lawrence@pitpass.com
To check out previous features from Mike, click here