This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

191458Z Dec 05

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SANAA 003534 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2013 
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL DOMESTIC POLITICS
SUBJECT: GPC CONVENTION: POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE, SIGNIFYING 
NOTHING? 
 
 
Classified By: CDA NABEEL KHOURY FOR REASONS 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
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 summary: 
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¶1. (C) To fluttering banners, flying doves, sound effects 
reminiscent of Space Odyssey 2000 (with added neighing horses 
to symbolize the GPC mascot), President Saleh marched into 
the Aden football stadium on December 15 to officially launch 
the proceedings of the ruling party's seventh annual 
congress.  The ceremony included some twenty foreign 
political party delegations, most of whom were given the 
floor, along with opposition and pseudo opposition speakers. 
Between Saleh's opening remarks and the words of speakers 
representing such parties as the Syrian Ba'ath as well as the 
Chinese and Cuban communists, the chorus refrain quickly 
developed a link between Palestinian, Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese 
and even Sudanese causes - all said to be suffering from 
American/Zionist conspiracies. A lone liberal (Kuwaiti) voice 
reminded the 5000 strong GPC audience that their real enemy 
was within and that its name was corruption. Decisions, in 
the end, lagged far behind the pomp and circumstance. Dr. 
Iryani retires (but retains a token position), PM Bajammal 
takes his seat as Secretary General of the party (but, so 
far, retains the PM job) and Saleh accepts reelection as 
overall president of the GPC. Any cabinet changes or reform 
election platforms will have to wait, perhaps until the dust 
settles and all the President's horses return to their corral 
by the end of the week. End summary. 
 
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Background: 
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¶2. (C) The ruling General People's Congress (GPC) opened 
proceedings of the party's seventh annual convention, 
December 15, in the southern port city of Aden. The choice of 
Aden was reportedly a deliberate gesture to the importance of 
the south, and therefore of the union, after repeated signals 
this year of a growing resentment among southerners due to a 
feeling of being relegated to second class citizenship in a 
lop-sided union that has favored the north for jobs, economic 
benefits and political influence. The convention was also 
held against a background of growing disenchantment among 
donor countries and international organizations with Yemen's 
poor performance and dropping international rankings in the 
critical areas of political and economic indicators. The ROYG 
has received particularly poor marks in fighting corruption 
and protecting freedom of speech. Days before the convention, 
the Joint Meeting of Parties (JMP), an opposition party 
coalition, preempted Saleh by announcing their joint platform 
for the upcoming elections in the summer of 2006. The 
convention, therefore, took on added importance as an 
opportunity for Saleh to accept the nomination of the GPC for 
a third term as President, but behind his own platform for 
bold new reforms and perhaps with the announcement of a new 
cabinet to help him put the corrupt past behind. (Comment: 
Upon his return from Washington, Saleh told us that we would 
soon see some serious new initiatives and decisions, as well 
as a new cabinet. Some of Saleh's ministers also led us to 
believe that the GPC convention might be the occasion for the 
announcement of new reforms. End comment). 
 
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Saleh's speech, a non-event: 
---------------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) Saleh's speech, declaring the opening of the 
convention, was a mere ten-minute affair. He declared that 
Yemen was in the fight against terrorism and corruption and 
intent on overcoming poverty. He said that he held his hand 
out to the opposition and their right to contest all 
elections against his party. On international issues, Saleh 
said that he deplored the conditions under which Palestinians 
and Iraqis were living and called on the international 
community to pressure Israel to stop oppressing the 
Palestinians and to affect a quick ending to the occupation 
of Iraq. (comment: This, after he had told us repeatedly, 
including during a recent visit by General Abizaid, that he 
was not calling for the withdrawal of American troops from 
Iraq but merely for regrouping them in bases outside the main 
cities. End comment)! 
 
¶4. (C) Saleh's only other contribution, during the  four hour 
event, was to jump up and take notes as a representative of 
the Arab Political Parties Union (reportedly a former Abu 
Nidhal colleague) suggested that the ROYG should rename a 
Adani street after Ahmed Shoqeiri (Arafats predecessor as 
head of the PLO and author of the infamous 
throw-the-Jews-in-the-sea statement). Shoqeiri, according to 
the speaker, stopped in Aden once during the early sixties 
and praised the city and the Yemeni people as genuine heroes 
of the Arab world. the only other words said by Saleh at the 
end of the convention were to thank the foreign delegates and 
express support for the suggestions made, in particular the 
one on naming a Adeni street after Shuqairi, and perhaps one 
after Arafat as well!! 
 
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Death by speeches: 
------------------ 
 
¶5. (C) By far, the bulk of the time at the opening was 
consumed by foreign delegations - though in the end, not all 
were invited to speak. The chain of speakers ranged from 
those with a message, like the Egyptian and Syrian delegates, 
to those who were just happy to be there, like the Cuban and 
Chinese delegates. The representative for the opposition JMP 
was invited to speak first, which was described by GPC 
loyalists as a grand gesture by the President towards his 
opponents. The speech was long but dignified and detailed 
economic and political defects in Yemen that needed to be 
corrected. In a critique of the government's piecemeal 
approach to reform, the speaker said, "It does not make sense 
to adopt some reforms and reject others. The country needs a 
comprehensive plan on all fronts and a commitment at the 
highest levels to all reforms, otherwise the country will 
miss the chance for averting the crisis and moving down the 
path of true development." To balance the magnanimity of that 
gesture, the next speaker represented a GPC clone, going by 
the misnomer of "The Opposition Council." Far from opposing, 
that speech was adulatory of Saleh and a scathing attack on 
the JMP and their program, described as pandering to the 
unpatriotic opposition outside Yemen. 
 
¶6. (C) Third on the list of speakers, and the first of the 
foreign delegates to speak, the delegate from the Syrian 
Ba'ath Party stole the show with a bombastic speech on the 
role of Damascus throughout history as the "bastion of 
nationalism and resistance" and vowed that no amount of 
American or Zionist pressure would get the Syrian people to 
change their principled stance on regional and international 
issues. The speaker went into great detail on how resolution 
1663 was an ominous precedent of foreign intervention in the 
Levant and that, despite Syria's efforts to comply, the 
attacks against it continued. The speaker also attacked 
"certain Lebanese factions" for allowing themselves to be 
used against Syria. "The Arab nation needs to stand hand in 
hand with Syria," said the speaker, "to defeat these foreign 
plots against our nation." The speaker put the "plots against 
Syria and Lebanon" full square in the same bloc with plots 
against the Palestinians, Iraqis and Sudanese! 
 
¶7. (U) The Egyptian delegate, seemingly more reasoned than 
his Syrian colleague, did not mention any American Zionist 
plots, but left no doubt in his praise for Yemen, that it was 
Yemen's independent approach to democratic reform that he 
admired. "Egypt," said the speaker, "will never allow 
outsiders to dictate our path for us. Democracy cannot be 
exported. Just like in Yemen, it will be our own internal 
dialogue that will guide our democratic path." 
 
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Liberal Voices? 
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¶8. (U) At the end of a chain of speakers, denouncing outside 
interference in the affairs of the Iraqi, Palestinian, 
Syrians, Lebanese and Sudanese, a Kuwaiti writer/journalist 
took the stage and made the only short, to the point and 
honest statement of the evening. Ahmed al-Rab'ie, one of the 
few liberal and vocal voices in the Arab world, reminded the 
audience that party loyalty is not the goal, but the means to 
serve the nation. "When a party becomes a tribe and deals 
with other parties as tribal enemies, nothing is left for the 
service of the country," said al-Rab'ie. "I warn you also, my 
friends," continued a-Rab'ie, "that it is when we as Arabs 
forget to face the enemy within that we lose the war, the 
peace and the struggle for development. The enemy I'm talking 
about is corruption." 
 
¶9. (U) The evening wouldn't have been complete without 
poetry. In the long-standing Arab tradition of "al-Madeeh" 
(poetry of praise), the GPC brought out a Yemeni poet who 
extolled the virtues of the great leader (Saleh, of course) 
loudly and rhythmically. The poet however did have some 
advice and a warning to the President. He recommended 
fairness in treating the Yemeni people, equality for women 
and warned that if Saleh didn't rescind his decision not to 
run for a third term, "the Yemeni people would rise and fill 
the universe with their cries of anger!!" As for corruption, 
the poet added, "deal with it by all means, but if you want 
to wipe it out completely, perhaps you will have to wait 
until you completely replace the Yemeni people with another." 
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Comment: 
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¶10. (C) The whole tone of the convention was a 
disappointment. Where we expected substance, we saw only 
ceremony; where we hoped for even-handedness, we saw tokenism 
and taking away with one hand what the other had just given. 
Saleh, instead of inspiring a new sense of pragmatism and 
demonstrating a real will to reform, chose to take the easy 
way out with hackneyed clichs. His insisting on PM Bajammal 
as Secretary General of the GPC, despite resistance from his 
own party loyalists, did not bode well for a departure from 
the past, something the donor community had been hoping for. 
His pandering to Arab nationalist sentiment on foreign policy 
issues and providing a platform to the Syrian Ba'ath delegate 
(when he had been touting to us for weeks his support for our 
message with Bashar al-Assad) struck us as the height of 
insincerity. End comment. 
Khoury