Bahrain citizens set to make a fresh start as state of emergency ends

Offering unusually huge discounts on a wide range of clothes, electronics and furniture, the Marina Mall in downtown Manama was Tuesday full of customers eager to take advantage of the bargains. However, the eerie silence only a few blocs away made for a stark contrast with the bustling scene at the shopping mall. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Roundabout, earlier known as the Pearl Roundabout, is gone. It has been replaced by a new road junction that is not operational yet. The roundabout was the epicentre of the protests launched on February 14 to press for more political and constitutional reforms. A first attempt to clear the landmark intersection on February 17 resulted in casualties and the army moving in. However, after Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa made a television appearance in which he ordered the army units back to their barracks and called for a national dialogue, crowds returned to the roundabout, put up tents and a set up a large stage from where protest leaders escalated their anti-government stand. Radical demonstrators later chose to take the protests to the vicinity of the Bahrain Financial Harbour. Bahraini authorities called in units from the Peninsula Shield, the military arm of the GCC and declared a state of national safety denoting emergency laws for three months. On May 8, Bahrain said it would end the state of national safety on June 1, two weeks ahead of schedule, despite repeated pleas from lawmakers to extend it for at least three more months. The decision was welcomed as an indication of a clear amelioration of the situation in the country. After 78 days of emergency laws and with only hours before they were eventually lifted, Bahrainis Tuesday were eagerly waiting for their chance to start afresh. "We need to learn from the lessons of the past," Salah Al Jowder, a social activist, said. "Bahrain's higher interests should be above all considerations and our collective responsibility is to work together to heal the wounds and regain our national unity and cohesion. We need to start a new phase in our lives in which we build more robust relations and confront together sedition and extremism," he said. Ahmad Juma, the head of the political bureau of Al Mithaq, one of the 18 political societies officially registered in Bahrain, said that citizens needed to draw lessons from the past and build on closer relations between all segments of society. Lawmaker Abdul Halim Murad, from Al Asala, the expression of Salafism in Bahrain, said that the lifting of the emergency laws did not mean there were no dangers lurking. "Bahrain still has to confront big threats," he said. The crisis is not over yet and whoever thinks that the situation is now calm and that the sedition is over should review the situation carefully. There are those who are plotting day and night and we have to remain very vigilant," he said. Murad, a strong proponent of legal action against the demonstrators who were reportedly implicated in violent action, said that he was shocked by alleged calls for demonstrations after the lifting of the emergency laws. "We are fully ready to reinstate the popular committees that looked after the security and safety of our people when they were under threat," he said. Al Wefaq, the largest political society, said in a statement that with the lifting of the emergency laws, it would continue arguing for a political solution to the issue and would continue calling for a constitutional monarchy. "We are looking for a civil state, and not a religious state, as some people have been claiming," it said. However, the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry, reacting to Al Wefaq's statement, pledged a zero-tolerance policy towards political societies engaging in or calling for activities that would "threaten security and put people's freedoms and safety at risk". From / Gulf News