The Houthi's radical changes... speech bubbles and wholesale contradictions between words and practice
English - Thursday 28 September 2023 الساعة 09:47 am
Sanaa, NewsYemen, exclusive:
For a week, citizens in areas controlled by the Houthi militia have been anticipating what the group's leader preached about "radical changes" that he said he would make for the benefit of the people. On the day his group celebrated the Prophet's birthday (Wednesday), his speech sounded like repetitive speech bubbles that increased popular anger against him and his group and confirmed to the people their disdain .
In his speech on the Prophet’s Birthday this year, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi announced the restructuring of the government affiliated with his group so that it would be a “government of competencies,” indicating that the measures to change this government would include reducing what he called inflation in its structure, in addition to “correcting the situation of the judiciary” and opening There is scope to accommodate Sharia scholars and open a path to quickly complete issues.
At the level of the political settlement, he said that he advises the Arab coalition (Saudi Arabia and the UAE) to respond to the peace efforts undertaken by the Sultanate of Oman. Without mentioning any other details about the progress of negotiations between his group and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Instead, he talked about his group’s adherence to the condition of sharing oil and gas revenues to pay employees’ salaries. He also touched on reconstruction and stopping what he calls “aggression, siege, and occupation,” hinting at the weapons his group possesses to resume the war if these demands are not implemented.
Al-Houthi, who begins his public speeches with loose content and infuses them with verses from the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s hadiths that he interprets according to the interests of his group and faction, did not bring in his speech on the occasion of the Prophet’s birthday this year anything new that keeps pace with the aspirations of citizens, and he delivered a number of speeches over the past few weeks in an attempt to mobilize people from He decided to attend the Mawlid event held in Al-Sabeen Square in Sanaa.
While he repeatedly talked about pre-Islamic times, tyranny, the Jewish and Zionist lobby, dark forces, human dignity... and other matters that he used to address in his speeches, he also continued to use the Islamic religion and the Qur’an to convince people that his group was committed to it on the level of religiosity, governance, and dealing with others, including those he named."Infidels."
Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi said that the Qur’an protects society from individual and factional tyranny and prevents tyranny and degradation of human dignity. These are the things that his group practices against the Yemenis in the areas under its control, and evidence of this has become abundant and known to Yemenis and non-Yemenis. He also said that he reiterates his group’s adherence to the principle of national partnership, and this is another contradiction between what he says and what he and his group practice in the reality in which they hold the decision-making position in all official institutions in which appointment was based on Hashemite lineage and the degree of responsiveness of the appointed persons to the dictates of the group’s supervisors and first-line leaders of relatives.
In the context of his talk about the “radical change” that he preached last week and that people waited for, expecting him to talk about major breakthroughs in their difficult lives under the rule of his Imami group, he said that this change must depend on “sincere affiliation to the faith identity,” claiming that the Yemeni people have suffered in The past of the lack of civilizational project. This indicates that the Imami militia is continuing its policy of obliterating the landmarks and traces of Yemeni civilization that is deeply rooted in history, but it is proceeding slowly for fear of popular tension exploding in its face at any moment.
Al-Houthi did not address the popular tension expressed by citizens’ anger following the tearing down of the republican flag by his group’s military and preventing people from celebrating the September 26 Revolution Day in Sanaa on the eve of Revolution Day, but he delivered a speech on Tuesday evening in which he said that his group is not against the republic, hinting that he He wants a detailed republic tailored to his sectarian project in power and the loyalty of the Yemenis to him and his group, which he got by chanting from his audience listening to his speech on the day of the Prophet’s birthday: “We have put you in trouble, we have put you in trouble.”
Despite this chant, which Abdul-Malik al-Houthi may rely on to claim to represent the Yemenis, the public commotion that Sanaa, the city of Ibb, and some major cities witnessed in celebration of the 61st anniversary of the September 26 Revolution indicates that popular tension against the Houthi militia is growing the more it continues to detract from National constants and popular gains represent an untouchable legacy for Yemenis.
On Tuesday evening, the streets of Sanaa witnessed mass activities to celebrate the September 26 Revolution, and the revelers raised the republican flag in response to the militia’s suppression of citizens’ celebrations the night before, confiscating national flags and tearing some of them down, which activists and observers of the situation in Houthi-controlled areas considered an indication of the simmering popular anger. In the hearts of citizens towards arrogance, mismanagement, disregard for the popular will, disgrace to dignity, starvation and blackmail practiced by this Imami militia.
