Soon to be heroes of our parliament

It has been years since I typed a few words to express what I believe in or feel about something and fortunately the home I have always belonged to, the Tribune opened its door once again to me to start a journey I had always enjoyed every minute of…writing.

So to start, I had to choose a topic I had been deeply thinking about and nothing could come across my mind more than what will happen in Bahrain, exactly 12 months from now. The countdown has finally begun to bid farewell to 40 people we chose to represent us in the elected chamber.

November 2018 is when we once again as voters are tested with who we would head to the polling stations and vote for.

I have always believed that it’s not the candidates that are evaluated during the four years they serve but who we vote for reflects on our ideologies and our will to make a difference in our country.

The calculations have always been simple when it came to who would win.

The upper hand and the seats to be occupied had always been maneuvered by the political societies, mainly religious ones that control the public.

But would this once again be an issue and people would once again become victims of emotional manipulation is what we look forward to see in precisely 12 months when the results are announced.

I had never been against any ideologies to be represented in our parliament but I am one of many hundreds of thousands of people who need action to be taken and do not only listen to meaningless words that candidates promise people with and once they occupy those seats, their only aim becomes their retirement plans and what they could personally benefit from by being in the parliament for a whole term.

After all the financial obligations and pressures that the people have understandably taken, a parliament that has conscious and represents people well and serves the public agenda and interests is what we need during these hard times.

One can also guarantee that the next 12 months we would be seeing many of our respected members of parliament who had been quiet for three years would start creating chaos and using social media to play on people’s emotions by pretending to be heroes.

This does not mean that some candidates had been doing well and serving with great conscience but means that majority have failed.

But failure is not just to be blamed on who had occupied those seats but the hundreds of thousands of eligible Bahrainis who had voted for them.

In 12 months we will go through another test and hopefully we, as voters succeed in placing the right people in the right place.

When we evaluate the past three years we can say that many members of parliament had also barely spoken and the seat they had occupied had been a waste.

This parliament was the product of a democratization process that started 16 years ago and it is about time to stop referring to it as a new democracy and experimenting with a basic right that His Majesty granted the people of his country. This product of our democratization process should now be taken very seriously especially with what the whole region is witnessing and the repercussions of our choices that will affect future generations.

So soon we will see many heroes that had been asleep for three years but the real heroes remain to be the ones who will cast their votes in 12 months.