After more than ten months of nationwide protests, tribal and military infighting, and the deaths of hundreds of youth demonstrators, Yemen’s president Ali Abdullah Saleh has affixed his signature to the controversial Gulf Cooperation Council Initiative, an incredibly deficient plan to transfer power and bring an end to the nearly yearlong uprising.
Three weeks have passed since its signing, but Yemen’s independent youth protesters have not yet left their camps to return home. In spite of the violence and the alleged solution to the political crisis, independent protesters across Yemen have refused to depart their tent cities. In Sanaa, Taiz, Aden, and Hodeida, protesters refuse to accept Saleh’s immunity from prosecution and demand that his family members be removed from positions of power.
When nationwide protest first began in February, these independent protesters were joined by Yemen’s infamous political opposition bloc, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), in protest camps across the country. A fractious coalition of Cold War–era socialists, Islamists, and Arab nationalists, the JMP have often taken their disagreements with the ruling GPC party to the streets. Unlike Assad’s Syria or Mubarak’s Egypt, Saleh managed to rule Yemen with adept political maneuvering instead of an iron fist. While opposition parties are allowed to operate within the government, the best they have been able to do in the past is gum up the works for the Saleh’s government while impotently pushing their own political agendas. It seems that the JMP saw a grassroots uprising as a means to finally make real political gains—and they have been wildly successful.
As the uprising took shape, some Yemenis began decrying the JMP and claiming that political parties had hijacked their revolution. Pushed to the edge of the protest camp, many of the independent youth felt as though they must fight two fights—one against Saleh, the other against the JMP. The goals of the youth protesters, who want a whole new government system and Saleh to be charged with crimes, do not match the goals of the long-standing political opposition, which consists of lawmakers and other politicians that most of the country has long viewed as ineffectual and corrupt.
In this curious and ongoing endgame to Yemen’s political crisis, the JMP have adeptly lodged themselves deeper in power than ever before. During the more than ten months of protests, the JMP managed to control demonstrations so that all marches took place within a security cordon set up by rebel soldiers, minimizing potential violence should protesters leave their designated campsite. In doing so, they prolonged the stalemate in Sanaa, freeing the Saleh regime from the pressure exerted by the images of dead unarmed protesters published in the international press.
The JMP was the only opposition group that supported the GCC initiative and as a result, they have come out on top as the situation in Yemen unfolds. While Saleh makes presidential decrees and the loyalist military violently cracks down on protesters, members of the JMP have begun to rise to power. Mohammed Basindwa, JMP chairman, become Yemen’s new prime minister shortly after the signing of the agreement. Only days after Basindwa’s accession, cabinet appointments began, and more JMP members were placed in ministerial positions.
While old-guard politicians solidify their newfound positions of power, clashes continue to erupt in Yemen’s rural tribal areas as well as in the nation’s second largest city, Taiz. Members of the diplomatic community in Yemen, especially the US State Department, urged Saleh for months to agree to the GCC initiative, believing that signing the power transfer agreement would bring nationwide protests to an end. However, as has been evident in the past two weeks, the situation on the ground remains unchanged. With President Saleh’s relatives in the military as his proxies and the long-standing JMP in positions of power, Yemen’s aging political class remains where it has always been: at the top.
Three weeks have passed since its signing, but Yemen’s independent youth protesters have not yet left their camps to return home. In spite of the violence and the alleged solution to the political crisis, independent protesters across Yemen have refused to depart their tent cities. In Sanaa, Taiz, Aden, and Hodeida, protesters refuse to accept Saleh’s immunity from prosecution and demand that his family members be removed from positions of power.
When nationwide protest first began in February, these independent protesters were joined by Yemen’s infamous political opposition bloc, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), in protest camps across the country. A fractious coalition of Cold War–era socialists, Islamists, and Arab nationalists, the JMP have often taken their disagreements with the ruling GPC party to the streets. Unlike Assad’s Syria or Mubarak’s Egypt, Saleh managed to rule Yemen with adept political maneuvering instead of an iron fist. While opposition parties are allowed to operate within the government, the best they have been able to do in the past is gum up the works for the Saleh’s government while impotently pushing their own political agendas. It seems that the JMP saw a grassroots uprising as a means to finally make real political gains—and they have been wildly successful.
As the uprising took shape, some Yemenis began decrying the JMP and claiming that political parties had hijacked their revolution. Pushed to the edge of the protest camp, many of the independent youth felt as though they must fight two fights—one against Saleh, the other against the JMP. The goals of the youth protesters, who want a whole new government system and Saleh to be charged with crimes, do not match the goals of the long-standing political opposition, which consists of lawmakers and other politicians that most of the country has long viewed as ineffectual and corrupt.
In this curious and ongoing endgame to Yemen’s political crisis, the JMP have adeptly lodged themselves deeper in power than ever before. During the more than ten months of protests, the JMP managed to control demonstrations so that all marches took place within a security cordon set up by rebel soldiers, minimizing potential violence should protesters leave their designated campsite. In doing so, they prolonged the stalemate in Sanaa, freeing the Saleh regime from the pressure exerted by the images of dead unarmed protesters published in the international press.
The JMP was the only opposition group that supported the GCC initiative and as a result, they have come out on top as the situation in Yemen unfolds. While Saleh makes presidential decrees and the loyalist military violently cracks down on protesters, members of the JMP have begun to rise to power. Mohammed Basindwa, JMP chairman, become Yemen’s new prime minister shortly after the signing of the agreement. Only days after Basindwa’s accession, cabinet appointments began, and more JMP members were placed in ministerial positions.
While old-guard politicians solidify their newfound positions of power, clashes continue to erupt in Yemen’s rural tribal areas as well as in the nation’s second largest city, Taiz. Members of the diplomatic community in Yemen, especially the US State Department, urged Saleh for months to agree to the GCC initiative, believing that signing the power transfer agreement would bring nationwide protests to an end. However, as has been evident in the past two weeks, the situation on the ground remains unchanged. With President Saleh’s relatives in the military as his proxies and the long-standing JMP in positions of power, Yemen’s aging political class remains where it has always been: at the top.
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