29 Jan – 5 Feb 2015
Once again, there has only been one story worth giving serious attention to in Parliament this week: At the beginning of the week, the parliamentary Action Plan Committee, finished its discussion of the 2015-2018 Government Action Plan and submitted its recommendation to the rest of the Chamber of Deputies (the elected house of Parliament) in support of approving the plan. On Tuesday 3 February, 37 out of 40 deputies voted in support of the Action Plan.
Here we shall look in more detail at the results of the protracted negotiations prior to approval of this plan, the views of the voting MPs, and what this means for Bahrain.
For further information, see the Citizens for Bahrain analysis “A victory for democracy”.
A “new constitutional code of practice”
Head of the Action Plan Committee, Ali al-Aradi, praised the levels of cooperation between the Cabinet and MPs throughout the process. He said that these levels of coordination between the executive and legislative branches had established a “new constitutional code of practice that creates a framework for engagement and consultation with the Government”.
The Government side was similarly fulsome in its praise, with Follow-Up Minister Mohammed al-Mutawwa saying that the vote marked a “historic day” and demonstrated that both sides were working in harmony for the benefit of citizens.
Parliamentary sources have told the media that ministries have been asked to cut their projected spending for the upcoming Budget by 30%. The Budget is to be submitted to Parliament in March for approval. In such constrained financial circumstances we will need all parties to work together more closely than ever before to identify priorities for spending and cut wastage. So we hope that the positive precedent set by the Action Plan will continue.
How did deputies vote and why?
Only three MPs abstained from voting in favour of the Action Plan, all three are firmly in the Sunni loyalist camp – Mohammed al-Ammadi (Minbar), Dhiyab al-Noaimi and Muhsin al-Bakri. During their parliamentary interventions, they stated that the reasons for not voting in favour were based on the “lack of detail” of the Plan, and the lack of “ambition”.
Al-Ammadi said: “The Plan does not include clear initiatives or use statistics to define the current situation. It lacks any realistic proposals that can be measured. We don’t know our current situation vis-à-vis the situation we’re aiming for”.
Many of the MPs who voted in favour also regretted the lack of written detail, but expressed appreciation at the level of cooperation from ministers in further clarifying the proposals in the numerous meetings which took place, while stating their hope that further detail would emerge in due course and the plans would come to fruition.
MP Ali al-Atish said: “During the period of discussion of the Plan, the Government submitted statistics, figures and promises to clarify details of the proposals and the mechanisms for implementation… the statistics submitted by the Government to the Committee should be considered to be an integral part of the Plan”.
Many MPs had felt strongly about the need for further guarantees about wage increases and improved standards of living. But in the context of depressed oil revenues, it was clear that expectations had to be lowered. The Shia cleric, MP Majid al-Majid went as far as saying: “I apologize to our honorable nation that we didn’t get anywhere with the Government, apart from securing a periodic review [of wages]”.
Amendments to the Action Plan
Broadly speaking there were two kinds of complaints about the first draft of the action plan produced by the Cabinet:
Firstly, MPs complained that it lacked details, timelines and budgets. Ministers responded that much of the detail would only be finalized after agreement of the 2015-16 Budget. However, they spent hours meeting with MPs discussing the various policy proposals one-by-one to allay concerns of MPs.
Secondly, many MPs complained that specific demands had not been included in the Action Plan, or that the proposals were not ambitious enough. This gave rise to dozens of specific written proposals and observations submitted by MPs to the Cabinet. Many of these were agreed in full, some were amended, and in a few cases Ministers responded that the budget would not allow for the demands of deputies to be agreed in full.
Below are some of the key demands of MPs that were included in the revised Action Plan:
- Building 25,000 new housing units over the four-year period, not 20,000 as originally proposed.
- Separating the husband and wife’s wages in the criteria for housing allocation, with retroactive effect.
- Revising current laws on employment insurance, cancelling current 1% payments from wage packets.
- Revising the law on retirement, allowing women to take voluntary early retirement.
- Periodic review of public sector wages, with a view to making increases when government funds allow.
- Prioritizing the rebuilding of homes in danger of collapsing.
- Guaranteeing continued payments to low-income families to counter the effects of inflation.
- Increasing allowances to the disabled and increasing welfare payments as well as widening the scope of those eligible.
- Improving standards of living for pensioners.
Government Action Plan time line
6 January 2015: The Prime Minister made history when for the first time he submitted the 2015-2018 Government Action Plan directly to parliamentarians, reflecting the increased power of Bahrain’s elected deputies to approve or reject the Government’s policies.
7-12 January: The Parliamentary Committee began debating the Action Plan, but it became clear that many MPs were unhappy at the lack of detail regarding policy proposals; making it unclear whether the current draft of the plan would be approved by MPs.
13 January: Seven Cabinet ministers met the Parliamentary Committee for debating the Action Plan, headed by deputy head of Parliament Ali al-Aradi. Following the meeting, ministers asked MPs to formally submit in writing their visions for revising the plan.
18 January: The Prime Minister received a list of “final observations” concerning the Action Plan from head of Parliament, Ahmed al-Mulla.
19 January: Cabinet ministers held a second meeting with the Parliamentary Committee for debating the Action Plan. Ministers gave further details of the Action Plan proposals, and agreed to many of the suggestions submitted by MPs.
20 January: Parliament voted for a 12 day extension for studying the Action Plan before it is put to a vote.
21 January: Further queries were submitted by MPs to the Cabinet concerning housing, health and infrastructure and financial estimates.
22 January: The Government provided further responses the queries submitted by Parliament.
26 January: The Information Minister holds a press conference clarifying the Government’s responses to MP’s queries and proposals.
27 January: Parliament has once again agreed a four day extension to the work of the Committee for debating the Action Plan. This gives the Committee until Saturday 31 Januaryto complete its work.
28 January: A final meeting between the Committee and Ministers to discuss the latest round of proposals for the Action Plan.
1-3 February: Action Plan Committee finalizes its work on the Plan and submits its recommendation to Parliament to approve the Action Plan. The Committee met 18 times to discuss the Action Plan.
3 February: 37 out of 40 MPs vote in favour of the Action Plan. Ministries are instructed to go to work implementing the Plan.