The situation in Yemen is increasingly tense. Sirens from policecars can be heard every in the streets. Security officers and vehicles are stationed at the end of every main street

By Nadia A. Al-Sakkaf, Publisher and Editor in Chief, Yemen Times

Every now and then, you hear random shouts in the streets by protesters, sometimes by children either demanding the ousting of the president.

In the area where the main and heated anti-president demonstrations are, there are bullet shells in the streets from a recent incident where security forces fired into the sky, but which nevertheless causing the death of one of the protestors and injuring others.

You can see some of the protestors are wearing masks and some rub their eyes in agony after being exposed to tear gas and smoke. Hospital crews and first aid teams rush around making sure that the hundreds of protestors who were exposed to the gas or bullets are being taken care of, especially after one of the main hospitals near the area of the protests declined to accept more casualties.

No concept of dialogue

At the same time, there are endless meetings behind closed doors where government officials, diplomats and opposition leaders are meeting, separately. They are all talking to themselves, emphasising their own positions and trying to think of new ways to prove to the public that they are the righteous ones.

But the concept of dialogue is missing.The issue of credibility is in question. And serious steps towards rescuing Yemen from an approaching chaos are nowhere to be seen.

As all this is happening, many Yemenis still go about their daily routines that are hardly disturbed. Unless you are part of the protests, the country is very much safe. But the merchants have realised that this is a golden opportunity to hike prices using the international excuse of increased fuel and food prices and local instability.

What next?

With university education disrupted, young people are fully engaged in politics one way or the other. But there is no clear programme or ideology that they could adopt. There is no institutional thinking as to their role in the future Yemen after this phase.

They are being creative in their chants and jokes that they are creating against the president and his family, who could not care less. For many of the young people protesting, this is the real battle, the one which ends by removing Saleh from his 32 years on the throne. What next? They are too excited to think about that.

Social unrest is growing, prices are increasing and state control is becoming tighter and more aggressive. Yemen will never be the same.

With tribal influence and armed Yemenis buying bullets to ensure they have enough to protect their homes and families, there is an eminent risk of actually having a civil war, much more than Libya. It only takes one spark and hell will break loose.

All this only because the main players in Yemen’s political game are still stuck in their old ways of thinking and not willing to think smartly for the sake of country and its people.

This article was reproduced courtesy of Yemen Times.