Bahrainis fed up with Al Kahlifa regime: Activist

 Press TV has conducted an interview with Saeed Shehabi, a member of the Bahrain Freedom Movement in London, to discuss the continued imprisonment of leading opposition figures and political activists in Bahrain.

What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: We have these really important and popular opposition leaders being arrested. Don’t you think the regime should spend time talking to them since they wield such influence over Bahrainis instead of arresting them?

Shehabi: What is happening in Bahrain is unique in its shape and form and contents of course because the people of Bahrain have now become fed up with the regime and to me there seems to be little room for reconciliation. I do not believe that the Al Khalifa ruling tribe is in a position or has the desire to cohabit with the Bahrainis, a regime that seeks to change and alter the demographic balance of the country and to replace the natives with foreign expatriates, naturalized citizens, is a regime that does not want to live with the people it has ruled for the past 200 years.

On the same level the people themselves have now experienced great difficulty and a lot of problems under this regime and they have been calling for reform for the past 20, 30, 50 years but they are finding it almost impossible to reform it.

So in reality the room for reconciliation is very limited. The regime knows that, the people know this. The arrest of Ibrahim Sharif and his subsequent trial that started today is an indication to what extent the regime is ready to go in order to quell the aspiration of the people. Now Ibrahim Sharif, Sheikh Ali Salman, Sheikh Hasan Isa and of course the rest from al-Wefaq show that the Al Khalifa dynastical rule spares nobody, no one, even those who are considered moderates are now in jail and they are being punished for not supporting the absolute dictatorship of the hereditary regime.

So in essence what I see and anticipate is that the situation will become worse. The diversions between the people and the rulers will even become greater and that eventually the foreign support by the Saudis, the occupation of the country by the Saudis, the support by the British and others will crumble; will not be able to withstand the pressure of the people.

Yes, it is a bit slow but when you have more than 3,000 prisoners in a small country …, when you have the people’s feelings rising and causing the people to go day in and day out to the streets and protest, then you are in for a long period of confrontation and the result and the outcome of this conflict can only be the removal of the regime. This regime has to go. I think that is the verdict of the people and I am sure even the supporters of the regime are beginning to wonder whether it is worth supporting an unreformable system of government.

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