In his keynote address at the opening of the IISS security conference the 8th Manama Dialogue which opened on Friday and outlined the way forward for the Kingdom of Bahrain.
He said that the government of the Kingdom of Bahrain has taken significant steps, but more work needs to be done, specifically reform and capacity building in the judiciary.
Following is the speech of HRH Prince Salman
I believe fundamentally that only through the genuine application of a just, fair and inclusive legal system will people feel that their own rights and their own futures are protected. We must do more to improve the training and capacity of our own judges. We must do more to change laws which still can lead to, in my opinion, judgments which go against the protections guaranteed in our constitution. We must do more to stop the selective enforcement of law. This is key. This is what will build trust across the whole of the society here in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Also, the responsibility does not lie solely with those who are in a position of authority. Political figures who disagree with either the constitutional structure or the performance of the government must condemn violence. Silence is not an option. I call on all of the senior leadership of those who disagree, including the Ayatollahs, to condemn the violence on the streets unequivocally, and more, to prohibit it,’ he said.
‘I think I would like to start by outlining some regional challenges and interests that are shared by many governments around the world. Nuclear non proliferation, which is probably in the forefront of many of your minds as well as the rise of extremists, compounded by the potential entrance of – God forbid – chemical and biological weapons from nation states which seem, to be failing, at the present time. The resultant threat from terrorism from that God awful eventuality is something that we must all be genuinely concerned about. Third, oil security, something that is rarely talked about these days but is still critical to the recovery of many economies around the world, especially in the United States, and maybe more so in Europe. Number four: the promotion of democracy and rule of law. This has been a longstanding goal of many governments, especially in the West, and I do not see it changing any time soon. For the United States in particular, it is managing its relationship with the state of Israel and the stalled peace process which is important to us all.
Those are five real heavyweight security concerns that I am sure many of you consider. I would like to draw the attention of the audience to the fact that all of those serious challenges were present before the so called ‘Arab Spring’. These are not new. But in fact, managing them through this turbulent time has got a lot harder as the instability in the region has grown.
Consider this. Never before have such a surge in democratic rights and threats to freedom been so apparent at the same time. The outcomes of the tremendous change that we are seeing across the region have yet to be determined to be benign or, if I may say so, malign. We must always keep a vigilant eye on where we are headed.
The response from the international community has been mixed. There are some governments in the West that are criticised for doing too much and, at the same time, doing too little, which smacks to me of a need to refocus the efforts of those particular governments to be more effective, more targeted and more in line with a coherent international public policy. The governments in the East, however, are seeking new ways to engage with our region – the Arab region, the Islamic region – and are deploying their growing influence to take advantage of the rapidly shifting global order. This is a reality and it must be recognised. Add to that the power of the information age, either through the many satellite TV channels, which, in my opinion, were the real game changer on the information landscape, or the modern phenomenon of social networks, and you have the added challenge that the reach and speed by which events can rise is compounded by a factor that is unseen in human history. It is a tall order indeed and I am sure these subjects will be discussed over this weekend, as they need to be.
We must realise, ladies and gentlemen, that we are dealing with a new Middle East; make no mistake. Anyone who does not recognise that is fooling or deluding themselves. It is, however, my thesis that it is the tried and true tools of statecraft that will let us emerge from this tumultuous time with the least human harm done.
Let me explain that from a personal experience. You are aware we had our own experience with the so called ‘Arab Spring’ last year. It delayed the Manama Dialogue and caused a lot of harm to the society of my beloved Kingdom. In our case, it divided the nation. While relative calm has returned to the Kingdom, there are many wounds to be healed on all sides. I would like to take, though, the opportunity to thank those who got us to this point of relative calm.
First and foremost, the member states of the GCC. Thank you. In particular, notice must be given to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, without whose actions and words we would have been in a far different place. They did not put their young men in the face of danger or their money into developmental projects to subjugate the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain. They did so to deter any external aggressor from taking advantage of what was then a very, very difficult, unpredictable and uncertain time. To the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to the United Arab Emirates, we will never forget your stand during our difficult time.
I would personally like to thank many in the West who were very kind to me and what I have tried to achieve by promoting dialogue between all of the disparate groups here in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Your support to me has been invaluable over the difficult past 18 months. However, I would in particular like to thank the diplomats, the leadership and the government of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth of the UK. You have stood head and shoulders above others. You have engaged all stakeholders. You have kept the door open to all sides in what was a very difficult and sometimes unclear situation. Your engagement and your help in police reform and judicial reform, and your direct engagement with the leadership of the Kingdom of Bahrain and with members of the opposition has saved lives, and for that I will be personally eternally grateful.
I would like to thank those in the East who received us with open arms: the governments of Singapore, Korea and Japan. You deserve our thanks and our respect. Thank you very much.
Moving on from state actors, I would like to thank the members of the BICI, the international commission which did the investigation into the abuses and the reality of what took place last year. It was an unprecedented move by a government to invite eminent human rights lawyers and investigators to the Kingdom to document exactly what had happened. It is through that good work that we have a realistic picture of what occurred last year, and it fundamentally – I cannot stress this enough – changed the political landscape of the Kingdom. It allowed for a calming of the events which were taking place; it created a unified discourse or document, which outlined what had indeed taken place; and it prevented many people from exaggerating events or spinning events – let me put it that way – in a manner beneficial to their particular point of view. So I would like to thank them.
I would like to thank internally our Ministry of Interior, which has been extremely forward looking in pursuing reform agendas, whether it is training police or changing their tactics on the ground, and under very difficult circumstances. With over 1,700 police officers wounded, some who have lost their lives, they have continued to maintain the discipline required to help facilitate an environment which brings people together.
Unleashing people power means that we must respect the opinions of people. There is a silent majority here in the Kingdom of Bahrain who feel their voices are unheard. They are the ones who go to sleep at night with no security on their gates. They are the ones who live in mixed communities, representing different sects, ethnicities and political beliefs. They are the ones who have to live, day to day, with the spectre of a sectarian conflict erupting that may damage themselves or their own interests, their future or their children at any time. That cannot be allowed to happen. Responsible leadership is called for. That is because the majority of the people of Bahrain want a solution that puts the events of last year firmly in the past, and I believe that dialogue is the only way forward.
Geopolitically, demographically and historically, the differing political views represented in disparate political groups here in Bahrain must be reconciled. They will only be reconciled by sitting together and agreeing a framework where the limit of what is acceptable is the limit of what is unacceptable to the other, with the ultimate goal being to reach an agreement.
We have our work cut out for us, but the international community must play its part. Wishing for peace never works, but peace making does. I call on our friends in the West to engage like the United Kingdom has done – engage all stakeholders, train all groups, work with us to make our environment and our capacity greater and stronger. Stop exclusively scrutinising government actions alone. There is a moral responsibility on all sides to work to bring the Bahrani body politic together. We must heal these wounds. We must stop the violence. We must reduce the fear and we must stop the bigotry. I call on you unequivocally to condemn violence if ever it occurs. We will continue to do our part, but you will help us all if you do yours.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am not a prince of Sunni Bahrain; I am not a prince of Shia Bahrain. I am a prince of the Kingdom of Bahrain and all mean a great deal to me personally. I soon hope to see a meeting between all sides – and I call for a meeting between all sides – as I believe that only through face to face contact will any real progress be made. It does not even have to be on a very serious subject, but meetings must start to take place to prevent us sliding into an abyss that will only threaten all of our national interests as we, here in the Kingdom of Bahrain, although small, are large in what we symbolise, what we represent and what we have achieved. His Majesty the King of Bahrain was a pioneer of the reform process here in the Middle East. We started well before 11 September and we continue to commit ourselves to move forward in the future.
All I can say is history has taught us that the path to progress is not always linear. There are setbacks; there are challenges. But if we hold human dignity, human security and justice above all else, then we will prevail. If we fall into the dangerous area of sectarianism, false, misplaced nationalism and isolationism, then history also teaches us that failure is not far behind. I urge you to wish us well in our endeavour and I wish you well in sorting out, maybe for you, some of the more relevant problems that you have come here to seek to address.