06/03/2012
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
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I make no apology to return to the subject of Bahrain. Bernie is living a Fools' Paradise if he thinks that the race will be without incident. Leading members of the Bahraini opposition are talking in terms of Bernie siding with the torturers. That is not conciliatory talk.
Motor racing has had to deal with some pretty unsavoury governments in the past, but no race has become as politicised as Bahrain. The circuit and the rights to the Grand Prix are owned by the Crown Prince. Regardless of how progressive he is as an individual, and I believe him to be relatively progressive, he is a symbol of an oppressive regime.
Many of us will regard Amnesty International as an honest organisation. It has applied for visas to Bahrain for delegates, open and above board.
The Bahraini government, which spends (wastes) millions with PR companies, has offered weekday visas on account that it is at the weekend when most trouble occurs. This, note, is the official response. The Bahraini government will permit observers only at certain times.
Amnesty has rejected the offer of five-day visas.
I am not sure what counts in Bahrain as a 'weekend'. The day when most Muslims attend a mosque is Friday. A Grand Prix meeting takes place, Friday to Sunday. Cut it as you will, a Grand Prix includes part of anyone's definition of a weekend.
The Bahraini authorities use tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters. Amnesty International is free to visit on those days when this is not happening as much as it does at weekends, but it still happens every day.
The good news for people wishing to visit the Grand Prix is that there will be no restriction on their visas. An international agency which is widely admired and is apolitical is restricted, but there is no constraint on people spending money. It is good to know that they have their priorities right.
Anyone thinking of going might consider the following. On 27th February, 2012, the following story was posted by the AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA.co). The translation has odd punctuation, spelling and syntax, but the message is clear, 'Senior Bahrain opposition leader Saeed Shehabi Twitted that the EU has failed to stand up to its obligations towards its tortured citizens.
'He also criticized those who are ready to please torturers by holding F1 in Bahrain. Their racing cars will be fueled with martyr's blood.'
'If F1 is held in Bahrain, the organisers will witness the most sour experience of their life as Bahrainis will ensure total F1 failure.'
Dr. Saeed Shehabi is a civil engineer, apolitical activist, commentator and journalist living in exile in London. He is a columnist for the Al-Quds (Arabic) newspaper and is often interviewed by the BBC World Service and Al-Jazeera. He hosts a weekly programme on Alalam TV which is based in Iran but which has an Arabic channel.
He is the leader of the banned pro-democracy Bahrain Freedom Movement and was a co-founder of the Al Wefaq National Islamic Society which is the largest political party in Bahrain, both in terms of membership and in votes cast. The party is firmly Islamic, yet Dr. Shehabi is the Director of Abrar House, an Islamic community centre in London which promotes interfaith projects.
All in all, he is a man of stature and influence.
He is, however, accused by the Bahraini authorities of being number two in a terrorist network, which does not quite chime with the interfaith work that he does. His house in London was targeted by arsonists in 2010.
In 1996, he was tried by a Bahraini court, in absentia, and sentenced to 15 years. Further charges are under way.
If Dr. Shehabi really is a terrorist, and I do not know that he is not, then his words have a chilling edge which nobody should ignore.
My guess is that so prominent a journalist has excellent sources of information and is not making a threat, but a prediction. A problem for Western readers is that Arabic writing does tend to be flowery.
In the wake of unrest and murder, Bahrain has made promises to reform, but hardly any promise has been kept, as Amnesty International pointed out on 13th February. A junior Bahraini army officer has been held to account but most of the others charged have been very junior people from the immigrant population.
My memory in motor racing is pretty good, but I cannot recall anyone issuing such a statement. Forget the imperfect translation, he wrote: 'If F1 is held in Bahrain, the organisers will witness the most sour experience of their life as Bahrainis will ensure total F1 failure.'
The frightening thing is that it is easy to imagine how simple it would be to wreck the race with the co-operation of local people.
In 1958, Fangio was abducted from his hotel in Havana prior to the Cuban GP, which was a non-Championship sports car race. The great man was not ill-treated and, indeed, spoke on behalf of his abductors, but it was a massive advertisement for Fidel Castro's movement.
The Cuban GP was a bit of window dressing and counted for nothing. If a leading driver were abducted and held for the duration of the Bahrain Grand Prix, it would throw both World Championships into disarray. Points scored in Bahrain would have to be declared null and void.
Nobody would need to be harmed, you don't need a bomb in the stadium.
There is something else, which is that hotels in Bahrain are mainly staffed by the poor and dispossessed and they will have valuable information.
During the year of unrest, Bahraini businesses have lost an estimated USD 800,000 million and there are fewer than a million Bahrainis. A once-thriving souk specialising in gold jewellery has collapsed. Search the Internet, you can get a five-star holiday in Bahrain at a discount price.
The oil has been mostly drained from Bahrain, it exists on investments made from oil money. It is little wonder that the government wants to put on a brave face. Everyone who visits votes for the government since tourism is now a major source of revenue.
A few weeks ago, George O'Grady, CEO of golf's European Tour, opined that a golf tournament could be 'a force for good' in Bahrain. Leaving aside the insanity of golf greens in the desert, he did not explain how golf could be a force for good for a population which has no more idea about golf than it has about motor racing.
Golf as a force for good. Discuss.
The Bahrain golf event may return to the European Tour in 2013 if the Bahrain GP runs successfully. The final decision will be with the series' sponsor, Volvo. I wonder whether Bernie has consulted many F1 sponsors.
On the day (6th March) that Bernie was interviewed on Sky saying that all the teams want to race at Bahrain and he thought that the race would be good for the country, a 78-year old woman died from inhaling tear gas in a village just outside of the capital. The day before, a six-week old baby died from inhaling tear gas.
An old woman and a baby killed by their own government and Bernie thinks that running a Grand Prix will help matters, in what part of Cloud Cuckoo Land does he live?
According to that government, things get worse at weekends.
Mike Lawrence
mike.lawrence@pitpass.com
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