Hilal discusses key issues in Yemen politics in on-line forum

Minister of Local Administration, Abdul-Qader Hilal

Minister of Local Administration, Abdul-Qader Hilal was a guest at Hiwar on-line Forums in Yemen last week and responded to many questions regarding the new local authority law.

Hilal talked about many things including the situation in the southern governorates. He said that the government is actively working to solve the problems and that some of the issues had already been resolved.

"There is a discourse that some are trying to spread which is aiming to make Yemen insecure, unstable and haunted with bloody strife," said Hilal. "This discourse is trying to take Yemen back to what happened in 1994."     

These 'separatists' as Hilal describes them have been defeated by the will of the public in the past century. "People in Yemen are very concerned about what is being perpetrated by those who want to turn back the clock to how Yemen was before unification, but this will never happen. Those people must know that people in Aden, Lahj, Ibb, Mareb and all the Yemen cities are not simply pawns in their game of chess."

"The international community is completely convinced that Yemen has a key role to play in the region; without being united this role can never be played in the best interests of the region," said Hilal.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has established some committees to look at citizens' problems in the southern governorates and has directed the head of these committees to solve them.

"The most important step that we are taking is enhancing the local authority that President Saleh announced last Ramadan. Yemen still has many things to achieve in order to reach the desired administrative reform in local authorities," said Hilal.

Hilal then talked about the dispute between the government and the opposition and said that both disagreement and agreement is needed and this is what makes Yemen a real democracy.

Before taking up his present post, Hilal was a governor of Ibb and Hadhramout governorates. He has left a very good impression on the people in these areas because of the wisdom of his policies and his establishment of many projects which benefited the governorates.

He said that people in charge should be "very open and easily reached by the people and look carefully at their cases." Responding to a question regarding how to enhance unity in Yemen, Hilal said that "unity now is much stronger and one can see how an investor from Hadhramout is investing in Taiz and Sana'a and vice versa."

Concerning the problems present in younger generations, Hilal said that their problems are not because of official policies, but rather they are due to some social and cultural factors. "There are so many parties in Yemen led and headed by people who used to be young thirty years ago. Young generations have zero representation in many places and we are trying to move them away from political strife by educating them to become effective and productive citizens of their country."

Hilal fielded a lot questions that severely criticized the government and authorities, yet he respond to all questions except for those that were not properly asked. 

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