I was a guest of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Adliya this morning. I was called yesterday and asked – very politely – to present myself at the CID’s Anti-Economic Crimes Unit “for a chat and some tea” which I accepted with alacrity and with not a little trepidation. The fear; however, was unfounded.
. . .
Well, a public figure has taken umbrage with what I have written against him, and rather than contacting me to complain, or even entered a public comment refuting what I have written, he went through the legal route and lodged a case against me with the police, which is fully his right of course; however, that is not going to change the subjectivity of calling someone “stupid” or any other adjective used to describe someone or change the fact of his performance in the previous Shura council nor the fact that he has had business cases levied against him at some point of his life.
I am rather disappointed with this situation of course and I am unsure what The Right Honourable Minister His Excellency Mr. Mansour bin Hassan bin Rajab, Esquire, is going to gain from this. This action to me is nothing more than trying to shut his critics up by force of law – if any of these cases actually go to court in the first place – waste the courts’ time and efforts as they do have much more important cases going through them that take years, or at best terrorise his critics into submitting to never criticising him again! Well, this ain’t gonna work with me! I criticise to better this country as a concerned citizen, and shall continue to do so regardless of these frivolous cases.
Good luck to him.
Dear Issandr and others,
Sorry for raising a different question here, I won’t be talking about the Bahraini blogger. I’d just be happy to read your comments about this:
http://www.affarinternazionali.it/Documenti/rapporto%20rocard.pdf
…A draft report on political reforms in the Arab world by the former French PM and current Member of the European Parliament Michel Rocard, to be soon proposed for voting.
The interesting thing is that there is a whole reflection on the Arab identity and its compatibility with democracy, etc (and even references to Samir Kassir). I personally don’t really like this – well-meant – blabla on culture and identity when it comes to democracy and political reform, since I’m not convinced at all by the cultural explanation of Arab dictatorships. Then that’s what we get (excerpt):
“dans l’ordre politique, autant les conditions visant les droits de l’homme et les libertés, notamment celle d’expression, sont irrécusables, autant celles
visant les mécanismes de sélection du pouvoir touchent à des cultures et à des légitimités
différentes des nôtres et peuvent se révéler contre-performantes”
Does it mean anything? Are there really different kinds of democracy? And if yes, is this really the question?
I’ve met Mahmoud. He’s a sweet guy. Aktar min lazim.
How else to read this? “[the public figure] went through the legal route and lodged a case against me with the police, which is fully his right of course;”
Mahmoud, habib al-2albi, it’s his right to sue you in a civil court. But the state has no right to bring criminal charges against you on his behalf, particularly if he’s a public figure.
I want to like Michel Rocard, a moderate and intellectually interesting moderate socialist politician — if only because he was a victim of Mitterandisme. But this paper, like most EU exercises, is pure intellectual masturbation.