The Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) has voiced its full-fledged support for His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s wise leadership and the measures he will take to maintain security and stability, safeguard national achievements and unity and preserve the Kingdom’s social fabric, the government, led by His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier.
In a statement released on Monday, BCCI called upon all political groups and civil society organizations to reject calls to disrupt security and the citizens’ interests through illegal activities, stressing the need to adhere to wisdom and rationality and draw lessons from the past experiences that the country had gone through.
It stressed that attempts to reproduce the regretful scenario of 2011 are doomed to fail, asserting that the continuous spread of incitement calls through social media networks will have negative impacts on civic peace and national work, in general, and economic development in the kingdom, in particular.
It expressed confidence in the ability of security bodies to deal with any attempt to disrupt security or assault the citizens accordingly.
BCCI warned business owners and merchants not to respond to calls to close their shops or commercial institutions because they will be the only loses, calling upon them to inform the relevant sides whenever they are threatened, intimidated or blackmailed.
The statement also urged works not to respond to those calls which, it stressed, will cause harm to the commercial sector and the citizens alike, pointing out to the right of every establishment to take the necessary legal actions against those who respond to instigator calls.
BCCI called upon all the political groups to adopt responsible and rational stances and take into account the interests of all citizens, without exception, underlining that the painful experience witnessed by the kingdom over the past two years must not be repeated because the economic and social situations cannot withstand more crises and escalations.
The interests of the nation and the citizens can be guaranteed only in a stable economy, secure investment environment, sustainable development and the enforcement of the state of law and institutions, BCCI said, adding that the regretful events that gripped the nation in 2011 and attempts to reproduce them through cloning the experiences of some countries will undermine efforts to attract investments and boost economic development.
BCCI affirmed that crises do not help to address the problems appropriately, but will aggravate the situation and have negative repercussions on the kingdom’s social, development and economic march.
It emphasized that Bahrain is a constitutional monarchy with various institutions and channels through which demands can be made, without resorting to violence and terrorism, noting that the National Consensus Dialogue is one of the available mechanisms to express those demands.
It asserted that Bahrain will go ahead with its reform and nation-building process in order to consolidate the development and progress march it is currently witnessing, in line with the aspirations of the wise leadership and the Bahraini people for more cohesion, within the framework of the genuine Arab values, high morals, cooperation and love bonding the tightly-knit one-family Bahraini society.
BCCI pointed out that the Bahrain has long been –and still is, known for its national cohesion, unity and rejection of sectarianism and, therefore, it is required to stand united against those incitement calls and not respond to them in order to foster national unity, consolidate the nation-building process and preserve the hard-won milestone achievements attained over the past years.
It asserted that freedom of opinion is guaranteed for all provided that it is exercised according to the law and through the legitimate channels stipulated by the constitution.