Democracy is a lot of trouble! To spare his fellow citizens and in his great wisdom, the Emir of Qatar, Tamim ben Hamad Al-Thani, therefore proposed on Tuesday to eliminate the election of 30 of the 45 members of the Shura, a Consultative Council yet without much power. The first and very limited sign of democratic openness, this election was held in 2021, a year before the Football World Cup which had shone the spotlight around the world on the extremely wealthy gas-monarchy of the Gulf.
Even without issues, the election was marked, it is true, by tensions within Qatari society (only 330,000 nationals for 2.8 million inhabitants), where family and/or tribal ties remain essential. Obsessed with the preservation of the Qatari people, a minority in its own country but also by the appetite of its powerful, populous and not very friendly Saudi neighbor, Qatar had restricted voting to citizens’ descendants since 1930.
An excluded tribe
Naturalized later, the powerful Al-Murrah tribe, some of whose young people are also affected by political Islam, experienced their exclusion as a humiliation. In his speech on Tuesday, Emir Tamim claims to have learned lessons
of the experience
.
He suggests returning to the appointment of members of the Shura, to preserve tribal balances. With credit to the franchise: The Shura is not a representative parliament in a democratic system, and its status and authority will not be affected whether its members are elected or appointed.
But it will not be written that Qatar is a vulgar dictatorship and Tamim its enlightened despot. To do things right, the suppression of the election will soon be submitted… to a referendum.
France
World
