GPC CONVENTION: POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE, SIGNIFYING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SANAA 003534

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2013
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL DOMESTIC POLITICS
SUBJECT: GPC CONVENTION: POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE, SIGNIFYING
NOTHING?


Classified By: CDA NABEEL KHOURY FOR REASONS 1.4 (b) and (d)

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summary:
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1. (C) To fluttering banners, flying doves, sound effects
reminiscent of Space Odyssey 2000 (with added neighing horses
to symbolize the GPC mascot),President Saleh marched into
the Aden football stadium on December 15 to officially launch
the proceedings of the ruling party's seventh annual
congress. The ceremony included some twenty foreign
political party delegations, most of whom were given the
floor, along with opposition and pseudo opposition speakers.
Between Saleh's opening remarks and the words of speakers
representing such parties as the Syrian Ba'ath as well as the
Chinese and Cuban communists, the chorus refrain quickly
developed a link between Palestinian, Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese
and even Sudanese causes - all said to be suffering from
American/Zionist conspiracies. A lone liberal (Kuwaiti) voice
reminded the 5000 strong GPC audience that their real enemy
was within and that its name was corruption. Decisions, in
the end, lagged far behind the pomp and circumstance. Dr.
Iryani retires (but retains a token position),PM Bajammal
takes his seat as Secretary General of the party (but, so
far, retains the PM job) and Saleh accepts reelection as
overall president of the GPC. Any cabinet changes or reform
election platforms will have to wait, perhaps until the dust
settles and all the President's horses return to their corral
by the end of the week. End summary.

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Background:
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2. (C) The ruling General People's Congress (GPC) opened
proceedings of the party's seventh annual convention,
December 15, in the southern port city of Aden. The choice of
Aden was reportedly a deliberate gesture to the importance of
the south, and therefore of the union, after repeated signals
this year of a growing resentment among southerners due to a
feeling of being relegated to second class citizenship in a
lop-sided union that has favored the north for jobs, economic
benefits and political influence. The convention was also
held against a background of growing disenchantment among
donor countries and international organizations with Yemen's
poor performance and dropping international rankings in the
critical areas of political and economic indicators. The ROYG
has received particularly poor marks in fighting corruption
and protecting freedom of speech. Days before the convention,
the Joint Meeting of Parties (JMP),an opposition party
coalition, preempted Saleh by announcing their joint platform
for the upcoming elections in the summer of 2006. The
convention, therefore, took on added importance as an
opportunity for Saleh to accept the nomination of the GPC for
a third term as President, but behind his own platform for
bold new reforms and perhaps with the announcement of a new
cabinet to help him put the corrupt past behind. (Comment:
Upon his return from Washington, Saleh told us that we would
soon see some serious new initiatives and decisions, as well
as a new cabinet. Some of Saleh's ministers also led us to
believe that the GPC convention might be the occasion for the
announcement of new reforms. End comment).

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Saleh's speech, a non-event:
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3. (C) Saleh's speech, declaring the opening of the
convention, was a mere ten-minute affair. He declared that
Yemen was in the fight against terrorism and corruption and
intent on overcoming poverty. He said that he held his hand
out to the opposition and their right to contest all
elections against his party. On international issues, Saleh
said that he deplored the conditions under which Palestinians
and Iraqis were living and called on the international
community to pressure Israel to stop oppressing the
Palestinians and to affect a quick ending to the occupation
of Iraq. (comment: This, after he had told us repeatedly,
including during a recent visit by General Abizaid, that he
was not calling for the withdrawal of American troops from
Iraq but merely for regrouping them in bases outside the main
cities. End comment)!


4. (C) Saleh's only other contribution, during the four hour
event, was to jump up and take notes as a representative of
the Arab Political Parties Union (reportedly a former Abu
Nidhal colleague) suggested that the ROYG should rename a
Adani street after Ahmed Shoqeiri (Arafats predecessor as
head of the PLO and author of the infamous
throw-the-Jews-in-the-sea statement). Shoqeiri, according to
the speaker, stopped in Aden once during the early sixties
and praised the city and the Yemeni people as genuine heroes
of the Arab world. the only other words said by Saleh at the
end of the convention were to thank the foreign delegates and
express support for the suggestions made, in particular the
one on naming a Adeni street after Shuqairi, and perhaps one
after Arafat as well!!

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Death by speeches:
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5. (C) By far, the bulk of the time at the opening was
consumed by foreign delegations - though in the end, not all
were invited to speak. The chain of speakers ranged from
those with a message, like the Egyptian and Syrian delegates,
to those who were just happy to be there, like the Cuban and
Chinese delegates. The representative for the opposition JMP
was invited to speak first, which was described by GPC
loyalists as a grand gesture by the President towards his
opponents. The speech was long but dignified and detailed
economic and political defects in Yemen that needed to be
corrected. In a critique of the government's piecemeal
approach to reform, the speaker said, "It does not make sense
to adopt some reforms and reject others. The country needs a
comprehensive plan on all fronts and a commitment at the
highest levels to all reforms, otherwise the country will
miss the chance for averting the crisis and moving down the
path of true development." To balance the magnanimity of that
gesture, the next speaker represented a GPC clone, going by
the misnomer of "The Opposition Council." Far from opposing,
that speech was adulatory of Saleh and a scathing attack on
the JMP and their program, described as pandering to the
unpatriotic opposition outside Yemen.


6. (C) Third on the list of speakers, and the first of the
foreign delegates to speak, the delegate from the Syrian
Ba'ath Party stole the show with a bombastic speech on the
role of Damascus throughout history as the "bastion of
nationalism and resistance" and vowed that no amount of
American or Zionist pressure would get the Syrian people to
change their principled stance on regional and international
issues. The speaker went into great detail on how resolution
1663 was an ominous precedent of foreign intervention in the
Levant and that, despite Syria's efforts to comply, the
attacks against it continued. The speaker also attacked
"certain Lebanese factions" for allowing themselves to be
used against Syria. "The Arab nation needs to stand hand in
hand with Syria," said the speaker, "to defeat these foreign
plots against our nation." The speaker put the "plots against
Syria and Lebanon" full square in the same bloc with plots
against the Palestinians, Iraqis and Sudanese!


7. (U) The Egyptian delegate, seemingly more reasoned than
his Syrian colleague, did not mention any American Zionist
plots, but left no doubt in his praise for Yemen, that it was
Yemen's independent approach to democratic reform that he
admired. "Egypt," said the speaker, "will never allow
outsiders to dictate our path for us. Democracy cannot be
exported. Just like in Yemen, it will be our own internal
dialogue that will guide our democratic path."

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Liberal Voices?
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8. (U) At the end of a chain of speakers, denouncing outside
interference in the affairs of the Iraqi, Palestinian,
Syrians, Lebanese and Sudanese, a Kuwaiti writer/journalist
took the stage and made the only short, to the point and
honest statement of the evening. Ahmed al-Rab'ie, one of the
few liberal and vocal voices in the Arab world, reminded the
audience that party loyalty is not the goal, but the means to
serve the nation. "When a party becomes a tribe and deals
with other parties as tribal enemies, nothing is left for the
service of the country," said al-Rab'ie. "I warn you also, my
friends," continued a-Rab'ie, "that it is when we as Arabs
forget to face the enemy within that we lose the war, the
peace and the struggle for development. The enemy I'm talking
about is corruption."


9. (U) The evening wouldn't have been complete without
poetry. In the long-standing Arab tradition of "al-Madeeh"
(poetry of praise),the GPC brought out a Yemeni poet who
extolled the virtues of the great leader (Saleh, of course)
loudly and rhythmically. The poet however did have some
advice and a warning to the President. He recommended
fairness in treating the Yemeni people, equality for women
and warned that if Saleh didn't rescind his decision not to
run for a third term, "the Yemeni people would rise and fill
the universe with their cries of anger!!" As for corruption,
the poet added, "deal with it by all means, but if you want
to wipe it out completely, perhaps you will have to wait
until you completely replace the Yemeni people with another."
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Comment:
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10. (C) The whole tone of the convention was a
disappointment. Where we expected substance, we saw only
ceremony; where we hoped for even-handedness, we saw tokenism
and taking away with one hand what the other had just given.
Saleh, instead of inspiring a new sense of pragmatism and
demonstrating a real will to reform, chose to take the easy
way out with hackneyed clichs. His insisting on PM Bajammal
as Secretary General of the GPC, despite resistance from his
own party loyalists, did not bode well for a departure from
the past, something the donor community had been hoping for.
His pandering to Arab nationalist sentiment on foreign policy
issues and providing a platform to the Syrian Ba'ath delegate
(when he had been touting to us for weeks his support for our
message with Bashar al-Assad) struck us as the height of
insincerity. End comment.
Khoury