The following is a transcript of an interview with Bahrain opposition leader Saeed al- Shahabi from London.
PressTV: What are the main reasons behind these demonstrations, as many are trying to make this appear to be a sectarian protest? How do you see it?
Al- Shahabi: Of course there are several reasons for the uprising. First of all the feeling of despair among the youth that after decades of what was supposed to be a development in several cases as material, human, and cultural developments, the country stagnated with no forward.
The young generation feels that they are betrayed. The oil wealth of the country has not been distributed evenly and equally among people and the political elite has not been able to adapt to modern standards of living especially in terms of democratic rights, human social and political rights. Although Bahrain may have signed conventions on political, social, political and social rights, but in reality they have failed to transform the society into a more productive and more interactive societies by the leading elites ignoring the participation of the people in public life.
So we have both economic and political factors in addition to the cultural factor that is not really helping the development of the youth. Bahrain's uprising shows very clearly the decades of ignorance by the regime which has led to the outburst of anger among the young generation. You wouldn't expect in an oil rich country that such crowds would come out and dare to open their chest to the tanks and bullets. I think there is a big lesson to be learnt from. The upheaval is still there and it is unlikely to stop without major political changes in the country.
PressTV: On Friday, the UN voted on a resolution to condemn the Israeli expansion of settlement activity. The US was the only country of the Security Council to veto the resolution. Some analysts say that this was just another example of the reasons that people in the Middle East and Northern Africa are tired of US policies and their puppets and has led to the frustration of people in the region. How do you see this?
Al- Shahabi: I believe that there is an interconnection between various factors and of course the Palestinian case is one of them. One of the basic problems is that the young generation feels the absence of purposefulness as if they have no purpose. They have been transformed and have become almost nothing. They are transformed into nothingness.
When you feel that you have become useless in life, and the government imposes on you whatever it wants, then you would feel marginalized. You are on the margin of the world. You do not have the right to vote or you do not have the right to ask your government to stop dealing with Israel or boycott Israeli products and stop the naturalization and normalization of relations with the occupiers of Palestine. When you see that your rulers become tools in the hands of oppressors and they themselves also become oppressors, so you become oppressed.
The revolt shows how much the young people are frustrated. They are treated as nothing. They are treated as commodities to be used, the ruler has the right to offer you a job or not. There are several political prisoners in Bahrain who were dismissed from their jobs after they were arrested for political reasons. Several of them had their own accommodation, their houses that they had been given by the ministry of housing but their homes were confiscated as a punishment. So you really feel inside to be nothing and feel it's better to die rather than living under such oppressive rule.
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