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Manama: One week before the start of the new legislative term, political societies warned MPs, deeply divided by past bickering, not to allow sectarianism to creep back into their debates and to focus instead on vital issues.
"There are several important issues that need the immediate and undivided attention of the MPs and they should work together to address them for the sake of the nation," Mohammad Ali Mahfoodh, the head of Al Amal Society, said.
"There has been too much time and money wasted, and the MPs have failed to bring up the real issues, such as housing, education, corruption and reforms, that need to be addressed without delay," he said.
Al Amal was the only officially registered society not to take part in the 2006 parliamentary elections, in which the Islamists, from Al Wefaq, Al Asala and Al Menbar, won 30 of the 40 seats, amid consternation from liberals wary of the robust gains by religious figures with little political experience at a delicate moment for the region overwhelmed with sectarian-loaded rhetoric.
Below expectations
The first half of the four-year legislative term has substantiated their concerns and the lower house repeatedly witnessed bitter sectarian-driven altercations between MPs.
"The first two years were well below our expectations and ambitions; the MPs have not really achieved anything for the sake of the common people and wasted all opportunities to improve living standards," said Fuad Al Siyadi, deputy secretary-general of Waad, a leftist-leaning society with no representative in the lower house.
"The quizzing of the ministers and the deadlocks did not achieve anything and in fact exacerbated sectarianism and deepened divisions," he said.
Mahdi Al Showaikh, the head of the Democratic Menbar website, urged the MPs to work together, and not against one another, in order to tackle financial and administrative mismanagement.
"Every move made by the MPs in the first two years was stalled because of the sectarian divisions that permeated every aspect of lower house work," said Al Showaikh.
"Now, the MPs have to regain the confidence of the people, and that can be achieved only through working to ensure better living standards and to shun sectarianism."
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