As every well respected parliament in the world, Bahrain's parliament was bound to have a scuffle in it. Yesterday was the day, when MPs decided they had enough (english) of civilized talking, and it's better to start swearing and using fists. Unfortunately, we didn't reach the great levels of the Indian and Russian parliaments, and no one ended up hitting each other.

Never mind that nothing has been done about the illegal naturalization issue, or that the three ministers responsible for the Social Securities and Pension Funds scandal have gotten off with nothing(and with a scandolously huge margin), that is not important. I didn't expect much from a parliament that is a lame duck anyway. The big story is we've decided boxing, and not debate, will solve the issue.

who's your daddy? 

Why did it occur? Apparently the first vice-president of the parliament, Abdul Hadi Al Marhoon, was carrying two banners that said, "No to Naturalization" and "Naturalization is pure evil", and he kept putting them up for the cameras every once in a while. The President, Al Thahrani, decided to reprimand his deputy, and told him that the streets is the place for placards and demonstrations, and not a parlimanent. The MP Abdul Nabi Salman, however, cut into a speach by Ghanim Al Boainain to support Marhoon's viewpoint. Al Boainain started shouting back Shut up! Abdul Nabi Salman started to respond, but then another MP, Sami Al Buhairi, who is a naturalized citizen himself, started yelling even louder for him to shut up. Mr. Salman replied back by accusing him of being the by-product of Naturalization. All hell then broke loose. After a while, when they decided the show was over and they were going to make headlines tomorrow, they calmed down and shook hands and kised each other.

*Clap Clap*. So this is what our esteemed parliament has been reduced to grab attention? Raising banners, having fistfights, and throwing insults? I guess the spotlight was taken away from them the last few days, what with all the events surrounding the demonstration and the sacking of the interior minister last friday, so its a good way to come back into the spotlight. They did need as well to hide their miserable failings in the naturalization and pensions funds with a big attention-grabber event.

Does anyone need anymore evidence that our parliament is ineffective? They criticize the opposition that petitions and demonstrations are not the way forward, and what do they do? They hold up banners and conduct one man demonstrations! Apparently in the scuffle even some of the MPs themselves were shouting "Why do we leave the oppurtunity for the government to mislead the public?" and "Why does the (parliament's) president always side with the government?"

Way to go! Next time do please have a fist fight though! I'd enjoy that! At least you'd be useful in one way: intellectually-bankrupt entertainment!

¶ 10:49 AM