The National Dialogue is only a few days away.  I’m very excited, hopeful and optimistic.  And personally, I like that 300 people from different sectors of society have been invited to attend.  Of course, the dialogue will be the “easy” part.  The really difficult part will be the implementation afterwards.

I have no doubt about His Majesty’s and the government’s sincerity about implementing the reforms that are suggested during the dialogue.  But I have to say that the government has to work really hard (and I mean really hard) to make sure the same mistakes of Reforms 1.0 are not repeated.

Anyway, I plan to contribute to the dialogue process through my blog.  I’ll do what little I can to help heal the wounds in our society. So today is part one.

But first thing’s first…

So Who Should Reform?

The most obvious answer is the government, who of course carries the biggest expectation of change and reform.  But in my humble opinion it doesn’t stop with them.  I think, more or less, everyone needs to reform themselves.  We went through a painful crisis that not only ripped our social fabric apart, but also polarised a large part of the population.  And we all have to work on ourselves to make sure hate and sectarianism is reduced and eventually eradicated.

And let’s not forget the opposition groups, led by Al-Wefaq.  I think they need to have a good look in the mirror and make sure they reform themselves as well.  The government admitted to making mistakes during the crisis, but as far as I can tell, the opposition is still sitting on some sort of righteous, moral high horse.  They don’t seem to have the ability to self-criticise, which does not help the country.

Having said that, they represent a significant portion of the population, and their leaders still command a lot of respect from many of our fellow citizens.  It is therefore important to show them respect.  At the end of the day, none of us are perfect.  I’m willing to let go and focus on the future rather than the past, I hope you are too.

I hope that the personal attacks some of the right-wing media is directing to Sheikh Ali Salman and Ayatollah Isa Qasim stops.  It’s undemocratic, unprofessional and most importantly, it does not help Bahrain.  It just re-ignites people’s fears and anger.  This is not the mood the media should be setting in a country that is about to embark on a comprehensive national dialogue.

The Two Areas That Need The Most Reform:

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I think the two most important areas that need attention in Bahrain are corruption and education.  I think part of the cause of the February 14th uprising was that there was too much corruption in the land.  I hope we see a serious effort in eradicating it this time around.

Also, from what I can see, we have an education system that is at least 40 years out of date.  It was out of date when I was in government school 20 years ago.  We need to look at the school child as this country’s most important asset.  And should spend more on him than we do in any other sector.  Children should be taught how to think critically, and should have realistic and practical preparation for working life, which currently our school system does not do.

Anyway, these are my two cents for now.  I’ll have more to say in the coming weeks.  But first, I’ll be going on holiday with the family, and I doubt I’ll be blogging, maybe just a tweet or two…

Talk to you soon.