Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The offensive group that has launched a campaign to silence and intimidate Bahrainis is not the issue here, since the tweeters are Bahrainis, the country is theirs, the unemployed are their own family members and the deducted money is theirs. However, the issue is that an ambassador of a gulf state has supported an inflammatory campaign against them and join the group urges to "oppress them", "imprison them", "torture them" and "fire them".

This is the greatest danger from an authority that remains silent over criticism, lost all logic and independence and sent its drummers to incite against the compatriots of their country who requisite in their constitution in article 23 "everyone has the right to express his opinion and publish it by word or mouth". The catastrophe is that "oppress him" campaign becomes under the sponsor of a state like Saudi Arabia.

After a campaign of six inciting articles by Mohammed Mubarak Jouma'a, and Sawsan Al-Shaer through the Gulf News and Al-Watan newspapers against Bahrainis who expressed fears over the erosion of their living privileges, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Bahrain Abdullah bin Abdulmalik Al-Sheikh joined the incitement group in person. He considered that the criticism of Saudi Arabia and its role in Bahrain is a "malicious campaign". This constitutes a formal Saudi sponsorship of the campaign of Bahrainis intimidation, and a cover for the dangers that tweeters may be exposed to.

The background of what is happening is that some Bahraini activists criticized a statement made by the Saudi ambassador on March 9. Despite the suffering of large numbers of unemployed Bahraini teachers, and at a time when the Bahraini government announced what it called the National Employment Program, the Saudi ambassador came out to announce that "Saudi Arabia sent approximately 274 Saudi teachers to Bahraini schools".

The ambassador's statement came regardless the widespread controversy that was taking place inside Bahrain, with hundreds of Bahrainis openly talking about their marginalization and increasing unemployment, while both the government and the private sector prefer to employ foreigners instead of Bahrainis.

Many citizens criticized the Ministry of Education from which more than 3634 of educational staff left for voluntary retirement; they constituted 45% of the total retirees accepted in the voluntary retirement. Despite this huge emptiness, officials of the Ministry of Education said that they won't hire anyone, and started meetings with school departments to increase the job burdens on teachers. Then, the Saudi ambassador's statement came to irritate the Bahrainis who were waiting to employ their unemployed children.

The undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Resources and services, Mohamed Mubarak Jouma'a, used the opportunity to invest his column in the Gulf News newspaper with malice, and wrote three articles entitled "Who manages the discontent on the country" accusing Bahrainis who express their opinions through social media outlets of working within a systematic campaign to provoke discontent and resentment against the state.

After "Bahrain Mirror" published a report on the impact of the Saudi ambassador's statement on the work of a parliamentary commission of inquiry which is supposed to investigate the reasons for not employing Bahrainis in the public and private sectors and the resignation of three of its members, and after some Bahraini tweeters criticized the Saudi statement in this regard, Mohammed Mubarak Jouma'a fabricated the case and considered it an attack against Saudi Arabia and wrote an article entitled "Saudi Arabia is a Red Line".

Then, Sawsan Al-Shaer joined in writing against the Bahraini tweeters and published two articles, "I Leave you the comment", and "the threat insult him group", after a campaign of popular criticism that reached housing minister Basem Al-Hamr, and a member of the Shura Council Adel Al-Moawda. Al-Shaer considered tweeters bullies, and described as rebels, and incited against them as a class of no use.

The campaign was completed by the coming of the Saudi ambassador who sent an official thank you letter to Mohammed Mubarak Jouma'a published by the Gulf News newspaper, in which he supported the campaign against the Bahraini tweeters, which perhaps constitutes an unprecedented act from a Saudi ambassador in Bahrain. The ambassador considered the criticism a malicious campaign on Saudi Arabia, without forgetting to say that Saudi Arabia will spare no effort in standing with Bahrain in "various fields and areas, whether political, economic or security."

It is to mention that the ambassador's support on the "security level" is becoming more obvious among Bahrainis, thus Mohammed Mubarak Jouma'a was not shy to threaten the tweeters whom some of them quickly deleted their critical tweets out of fear. While some of them retreated even from retweeting the critical tweets. Jouma'a praised via Twitter the Saudi support for him saying "deleting tweets (and deleting retweets) against Saudi Arabia will not benefit you now". He started threatening his people after the blatant Saudi support on issues affecting the country's internal affairs. The danger is not the insults and harsh criticism, but the danger of those who threaten, by repression, arrest. "Insult him" is a peaceful one, however, "oppress him" group is a bullying team that does not hesitate to harm those who oppose it.

Arabic Version