In 1990, three months before the invasion of Kuwait by former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein, President of North Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh surprised everyone by striking a deal with the South Yemeni President Ali Salim Al-Beidh, unifying both the states and announced a united Yemen.
Everybody felt happy because of the news. But people who knew the situation in Yemen at the time realized that the "unity" was in fact a power-sharing agreement between Saleh and Al-Beidh.
In Southern Yemen, Al-Beidh was engaged in a power struggle with his communist fellow travelers. After the murder of Abd Al- Fattah Ismail and Ali Antar and the flight of Ali Nasser Muhammad, he monopolized power.
I recall that at the time I wrote an article in Al Majallah about the unity. It was a noble idea, but the project was a sinister one.
Saleh declared himself president, and Al-Beidh became the vice-president. After annexing the south, Saleh wanted to get rid of Al-Beidh in the ruling coalition. A sudden wave of assassinations was launched against prominent leftist leaders from the south. Saleh claimed the assassinations were perpetrated by Islamic forces.
Because of his dictatorship, Saleh was dubbed “little Saddam" by the Yemeni people.
He embroiled them in the crisis of the occupation of Kuwait when he stood behind Saddam. As a result, relations were severed between Yemen and Saudi Arabia and the rest of GCC countries.
Saleh and Al-Beidh both killed the noble idea of unity, and made it into a hated regime. Under the unity, Yemenis in the north and the south became poorer and more marginalized. Saleh and his cronies robbed what limited income the country had, including oil, which experts say would be depleted in four years!
No wonder, then, that the idea of separation is very popular in the south, and in Aden, Hadramout, Muallah and Mansurah.
This lengthy introduction is not a justification for separation. The exact opposite is true. My purpose is to defend the unity. The bad things that happened were the result of the rule of Saleh and Al-Beidh, not because Yemenis were grouped under one political umbrella.
A unified, greater Yemen is in everybody’s interest. The 24 million Yemenis could benefit through a just political structure that combines resources and prevents the conflicts, which will very likely arise after separation.
The people of south Yemen will do better to remember that it was the people of the north who brought down Saleh, and it was the people of the north too who advanced the idea of good governance.
Unfortunately, southern leaders are engaged in a cheap auction, promising separation.
These leaders failed to tell their people the fact that the creation of South Yemen as an independent state will lead to serious problems, like the conflicts among the southern tribes and the struggle for power among the leaders.
Al-Beidh is now in Beirut. He entered into an alliance with Iran. Such an alliance would involve the Yemeni people in a conflict with important countries, like Saudi Arabia and the US. Other leaders are striking alliances with Al-Qaeda, and the rest of leaders do not have any true development agenda that could save the south.
Keep in mind, too, that separation will not find any support from the international community, and it will not find economic or political support.
It’s not much to ask the southern leaders to advance some ideas that express autonomous southern demands while at the same time keep the unity and stability of Yemen. There are many such ideas, and they can achieve the two objectives of a full administrative autonomy for the south and the unity of Yemen.
Yemenis and dangers of country’s separation
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