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Oman: Statute of State Amended Following Shura Council Elections

Riyadh Al Balushi — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:07:36 +0000

Two nights ago a Royal Decree by the Sultan of Oman Qaboos announced amendments to the Basic Statute of the State - the closest legal document the country has to a constitution - giving the Shura (Consultative) and State councils a say in the way the country is run. The new laws give both houses new legislative and monitoring powers.

The Sultanate of Oman has had its share of protests and public outcry earlier in the year pushed the Sultan to do a major reshuffle of the Cabinet of Ministers, increase salaries, and grant thousands of scholarships to send Omanis to study abroad, amongst other reforms. However, the biggest change the Sultan promised, in March 2011, was issuing an amendment to the Basic Statute of the State to empower the Shura Council and the State Council with legislative and monitoring powers. This amendment finally came out on Wednesday 19 October, 2011.

This biggest amendment to the Basic State allows the Shura Council (an 84-member elected council) and the State Council (an appointed council) to have a more significant role in the legislative procedure. The collective capacity of the two councils forms the Council of Oman, which now has the exclusive authority for submitting draft laws to the Sultan after receiving proposals for these from the Cabinet of Ministers.

Previously the Cabinet of Ministers was the body responsible for this procedure, but according to the new text of the Basic Statute of the State the Cabinet of Ministers must pass draft laws to the Council of Oman who can review it and amend it before submitting it to the Sultan. The Cabinet of Ministers cannot bypass the Council of Oman even when it comes to laws that require expedite treatment as the Council of Oman will still have to see it but will have a limited time frame to review the document before submitting it to the Sultan.

The amendment to the Basic Statute of the State also added new authorities to the Council of Oman to review draft development plans and the annual budget, and the Cabinet of Ministers is required to look into the comments made by the Shura Council on the entry into any international treaty that has an economic or cultural impact before signature.

There are many other amendments such as a minimum qualification requirement for members of the Shura Council and further authorities on questioning Ministers, but a major amendment involves the appointment of the next Sultan; prior to the amendments the Basic Statute of the State required the Defence Council to enforce the secret will of the Sultan on who should rule next if the Ruling Family fails to agree within the period of three days after the death of the Sultan on that matter. The new amendment makes the Defence Council work with the Head of the State Council, the Head of the Shura Council, and the Head of the Supreme Court along with two of his deputies to enforce that will.

The reaction to the amendments of the Basic Statute of the State has been somewhat mixed, a great number of people are optimistic about the new changes as it seems to them the Shura Council will finally be able to have an influence in the decision making process, while some people on the other hand are disappointed that the opinions of the Shura Council are still not truly binding on the government and the Sultan still has the authority to reject the opinion of the Shura Council and take that of the Cabinet instead.

A discussion board commentator going under the name of Firas Al Riyami [ar] posted the following:

قد تكون انطلاقة حقيقية نحو تغيير شامل وجذري في عمان..قفزة كبيرة نحو الديمقراطية ودولة المؤسسات..واصلاح من العمق
السلطان بهذا سيعطي خارطة طريق لعمان جديدة..مكملا ما بداه من ورش الاصلاحات التي كانت تنم بالاساس القطع مع سياسات العهد الماضي..والاوراش الكبرى.
اليوم على الشعب ان يكون في مستوى التطلعات وفي مستوى الوعي الذي يؤهله لانجاح هذا الرهان..الان على الشباب والشعب بصفة عامة الانخراط في المؤسسات والجمعيات لاجل طرح صوته ومشاركة سياسية فعليه..
على الشعب ان يساهم في تعزيز دولة المؤسسات و يساهم في تعزيز دورها و تفعيلها و تأسيس مؤسسات تشاورية فعلية قوية.

This could be a real start towards a comprehensive and fundamental transformation in Oman, a big leap towards democracy and the establishment of an institutional country, and a reform from the true depths. The Sultan has given with this a roadmap towards a new Oman, completing what he has start from reform workshop that ere completing the termination of the policies of the old age. The biggest workshops are now, and the people must be up to the aspirations and must aware enough to make this bet succeed. Young people and the nation generally must get involved in institutions and associations in order to share their opinion and participate effectively. The nation must participate in supporting the institutional state, and its role and formation of a strong real consultative one.

Another commentator on the same discussion board going by the name ‘Ibrawi Omani' didn't share the same optimistic view saying [ar]:

لا يجوز إستجواب رئيس الحكومة
لا يجوز إستجواب نواب رئيس الحكومة
لا يجوز إستجواب وزراء الوزارات السيادية
لا يجوز مناقشة الإتفاقيات الأمنية والعسكرية والسياسية
رأي المجلسين غير مُلزِم للحكومة

You can't question the head of the government.
You can't question the deputies of the head of the government.
You can't question ministers of sovereign ministries.
You can't discuss security, military, or political treaties.
The opinion of the two councils are not binding on the government.

It will be very hard to predict what approach the Sultan will take when dealing directly with changes requested by the Shura Council and there are still other significant issues about the elected members of the Shura Council as many still believe that tribal pressures force people to vote for their tribal leaders instead of voting for capable people who they can really trust and support.

The Shura Council in its current form is also still not well equipped for reviewing legislation or international treaties as the members of the Council do not have staff members or even an office to go to and study the legal documents they are expected to comment on.

The majority of Omanis do not seem to be bothered with the fact that the exact scope of the authorities of the Shura and State Council were unknown, as the country was alive with excitement about the recent elections for the membership of the Shura Council, probably due to the assumption of many people that the future government will be selected from among members of the Shura Council. The result was that the country was swept with billboards of candidates and advertisements filled the newspapers and the Internet, and on Sunday the results came out with the names of the 84 members of the new Shura Council of Oman.

To me personally, the results seemed somewhat anti-climatic as it seems that the majority of people who got elected were tribal leaders who have always been elected to the Shura Council due to the tribe influence in many regions in Oman. Only one women made it to the council, and as we do not know what the authorities of this council will be yet, we really cannot expect much of them yet.

Blogger Mohammed Al Shahri wrote about the elections in a positive [ar] light saying:

بارك لأعضاء مجلس الشورى في الدورة السابعة 2011-2015، الذين نالوا ثقة الناخبين في ولاياتهم وتم ترشيحهم بالطريقة الديمقراطية التي شاهدناها بالأمس في كل محافظات ومناطق السلطنة، والتي حضرنا بعض منها في عدة ولايات في محافظة ظفار منها ولايات (سدح ومرباط وطاقة وصلالة) أثناء تغطيتنا للانتخابات من قبل جريدة الرؤية، وقد شاهدنا توافد المواطنين على مراكز الاقتراع، في واحدة من أهم المشاركات الشعبية في الحياة السياسية في عُمان.

We congratulate the members of the Seventh Session of the Shura Council 2011-2015 who acquired the trust of the votes in their states and were elected in the democratic manner we saw yesterday in all governates and regions in the Sultanate. We attended some of them in a number of states in the Governate of Dhofar including Sadah, Mirbat and Salalah. During our coverage of the elections by Azzaman Newspaper we saw the citizens come to the election center in one of the most important instances of public participation in the political life in Oman.

Blogger Mahfif [ar] from Dhofar, on the other hand, believed that tribal influence was very significant in these results:

قالت القبائل كلماتها.. نجحت القليل من الكفاءات وخسرت بعض الكفاءات… لكن يجب أن نقر بأن كلمة القبيلة هي المسيطرة على مشهد الشورى في ظفار. حتى الكفاءات التي نجحت في الانتخابات كانت معتمدة على التنافس القبلي أكثر من اعتمادها على الكفاءة.

The tribes have said their word, some capable people succeeded, some capable people failed, but we have to admit that the word of the tribe has control of the Shura situation in Dhofar. Even the capable people who won depended on the tribal competition rather than on their own capabilities.

The elections took place before the people got to know the exact scope of authority the Shura Council now has, and the new amendments require the members now to have at least a high school certificate as a minimum qualification requirement - this could mean that a number of of elected members who are old tribal leads with no educational qualification might have to be removed, but that it is still not confirmed.

We are going through interesting times in the Sultanate of Oman as it tries to draw a balance between its gradual approach in making political and cultural change and the public's desire to have a change right here and right now.

Thumbnail image of Omani flag by Flickr user Shenghung Lin (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Oman: The Aftermath of Cyclone Phet

Riyadh Al Balushi — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:37:25 +0000

Oman was hit a few days ago by cyclone Phet, a tropical cyclone originating from the Indian Ocean. This is the second major cyclone to hit Oman after Cyclone Gonu three years ago. Unlike Gonu, Oman and its people were more prepared for the cyclone this time around, but the city of Sur, which was directly hit by Phet, still suffered serious damages. The cyclone reached the capital city of Muscat, but the damages were nominal in comparison.

Blogger Undercover Dragon reports wrote a detailed report on the impact of Phet on the country, the deaths, the infrastructure, communications, and even the production of oil and gas:

In the end, at least as far as Muscat is concerned, Cyclone Phet was nowhere near as nasty as Gonu, neither in duration, wind speed, rain nor impact. For the town of Sur it was probably worse, as Sur was directly under the eye of the storm as it grazed the eastern most tip of Oman. Sur had a record of over 40cm of water recorded. The town was mostly underwater by Friday pm.

While a lot of accidents took place because of the storm itself, many more accidents happened because of people's carelessness and improper curiosity to explore the dangerous newly formed wadis (valleys). Interesting comments were made on Dhofari Gucci's blog on this topic as the Royal Oman Police decided to take action against all those who took unreasonable risks in relation to the aftermath of the crisis:

Evidently the ROP (see above image if you can read Arabic - was published in today's newspapers) will be questioning people who put themselves and others in danger by going into wadis or even going to 'stare' (the ultimate Omani hobby). According to my fellow blogger Reality, an ROP officer drowned trying to save a kid who was 'swimming' in a wadi. I SALUTE THE ROP FOR DOING THIS.

It is scary to think that cyclones will become a regular thing for Oman as a victim of global warming. We hope it won't.

You can see many pictures of the aftermath of Phet on the blogs of Omanizer, Dhofar Gucci, and Kishor Cariappa.

Oman: Tweeps Meet Shashi Tharoor

Riyadh Al Balushi — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:52:47 +0000

Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Dr Shashi Tharoor is to have a meeting with the Twitter community of Oman on February 5.

Oman: Diet, Podcast, and the Higher Educational System

Riyadh Al Balushi — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:52:41 +0000

Omani bloggers are back in the blogging scene as they start the new year with big resolutions and plans. Blogger ATGM started a new blog to share his extreme diet program which involves having only four extremely small meals a day while drinking loads of water. However, ATGM is aware that it is not possible to maintain this diet as a permanent lifestyle and is considering healthier lifestyle options:

What I know and realise from all related information I came across related to dieting and how to eat healthy; that it is all about your eating habits. If you balance your eating timings around the day, have smaller portions and have a reasonable amount of water; then consequently you should be able to stabilise your weight, stay in shape and most important have a healthy eating routine.

You can learn more about his diet progress over at his blog.

New in the Omani blogging sphere this year is a launch of a satire podcast called T-Junction which discusses in a comic manner in its short audio episodes the latest news published in local papers. The show is made by Mohammed Al Tamami and Abdulla Ali. You can learn more about them from BeInOman.com and their Facebook page. Embedded below is their latest episode:

On a more serious note, Undercover Dragon of Muscat Confidential interviewed recently the COO of Michigan State University in Dubai to learn about his opinion on the higher educational system in Oman. The interview suggests that the Omani education system is poor due the spread of plagiarism, the inappropriate of the assessment system, and the culture of passing everyone. Suggestions on how to improve the system mentioned in the interview include introducing an accreditation system and publishing employability data and salary figures to make it possible to compare colleges and force them to compete. You can read the whole interview at Muscat Confidential.

Oman: Bloggers Swine Flu Dance Off

Riyadh Al Balushi — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:59:11 +0000

As part of their on-going online and offline initiative to raise awareness about the H1N1 virus, Omani bloggers organized a new roadshow event in which sanitizers and information leaflets were given to the visitors of Jawharat Al Shatti mall in Muscat. The event was accompanied by a freestyle dancing performance by local Omani dance group SNK.

An edited video of the event can be seen below:

You can learn more about the Omani bloggers campaign against H1N1 by visiting the Omani Bloggers Wall.

Oman: Twitter Meet Up

Riyadh Al Balushi — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:27:16 +0000

Oman had its first Twitter gathering last night at Al Masa Mall. The main organizer of the event was blogger Sangeetha at Digital Oman who coordinated the process and planned the program. More than 25 users of Twitter attended, including male and female, locals and expats. A raffle was held at the beginning of the event and goodie bags were awarded to the attendees.

Blogger [R] at Dear Raed posted about the event saying:

overall 3ashra 3alla 3ashra (10/10)… next time i think it needs to be less formal and more relaxed so people can get a chance to talk more and get to know each other .. this can become a start to what can eventually become an official Omani On-Line community.. or maybe not ..

Blogger Muawiyah described the event in Arabic:

معظم الحاضرين كانت في أيديهم أجهزة الحاسوب الكفي، أو هواتف الآي فون وعن طريقها كانوا ينزلون آخر تحديثاتهم على تويتر، كنت قد حضرت وبي شوق للقاء بعض الأسماء التي أتابعها في النت إلا أن زحام المكان، وأيضا عدم تجانس الحاضرين على صعيد السن أو التعارف الجماعي جعلَ من الجلسة تعارفاً أكثر من نقاش، بعد الشاي جلسنا إلى طاولة وطفق العُمانيون يتحدثون عن الشؤون العُمانية. بالطبع كعادتي كنتُ فماً كبيراً ولم أتوقف عن الثرثرة، وغشرتُ عدائي الشديد للإعلام العُماني، كان البعض يتفق معي والبعض الآخر يتحدث بدبلوماسية، إلا أنني شعرتُ أن التحرّج يغلب على البعض الآخر. دخلنا في نقاشات عديدة حول مختلف المواضيع وبدأ الكل يعرِّف بنفسِه. هناك ربما أستطيع أن أقول أنني توقفت عن الشعور بالغربة ووجدت الكائن العُماني بداخل الجَميع

The majority of the attendees had handheld computers or iPhones from which they published their latest tweets. I arrived excited to meet a few of the names I follow on the next, but the crowds in the place and the difference in age and the unfamiliarity among people, made it more of a socializing event than a discussion. After tea, we sat at a table and the Omanis started talking about Omani issues. As usual, I was a big mouth and I did not stop blabbering, I reannounced my hatred for Omani media, some were in support and others spoke diplomatically, but I felt that some were overwhelmed with hesitation. We discussed many different topics and people started introducing themselves, I think I can say that at that moment I stopped feeling alienated and found the essence of Oman inside all the attendees.

On Twitter, Maithams tweeted that he expects to feel more comfortable using Twitter now that he knows the identity of other people online.

Muscati tweeted that he would like to have more similar gatherings:

All Twitter updates relating to this event were tagged by by #MuscatTwestival including picture updates.

Oman: Swine Flu Campaign Update

Riyadh Al Balushi — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:08:52 +0000

The recent initiative taken by Omani bloggers to help raise awareness about the spreading swine flu in the country managed to attract media attention and raise money to help take the initiative further. The campaign that was started as an online idea and then as a gathering in a local market was covered by the Arab new channel Al Arabia, and was later supported financially by a local securities company.

On Friday of this week bloggers have arranged for a public awareness event in which bloggers will again inform the visitors of a shopping mall about protection methods and will distribute masks and sanitizers. The event will include a street dancing session by a local freestyle dance group and will be sponsored by some local companies and newspapers.

Bloggers have also announced a new poster design competition to raise awareness about the flu. The first place winner of the competition will be awarded a Wacom Bamboo drawing tablet and the top submissions will be published in The Week and Muscat Daily newspapers.

Bloggers organising this campaign have started a new dedicated website to cover the latest updates happening in the Omani blogosphere and to publish the latest events for swine flu campaign.

Oman: Eid on Twitter

Riyadh Al Balushi — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:42:51 +0000

(Photo credits: alucard187)

Oman celebrated the first day of Eid al Fitr yesterday, a day after most of its neighboring Gulf states. The celebration, which culminates the end of Ramadan - the month of fasting, is determined after the sighting of the new moon, and not all countries, or sects for that matter, celebrate it on the same day.

The outbreak of swine flu in the Sultanate was also supposed to put a damper on Eid. The Government ran TV and newspaper campaigns urging people to take precautionary measures - such as avoiding giving hugs, kisses, or even shaking hands if possible during this event. The Ministry of Interior Affairs also ordered the Mayors of towns not to hold any public receptions for Eid. On the first day of Eid, unlike most other Eids, Oman TV did not broadcast Sultan Qaboos bin Saeed attending an Eid prayer.

However, the scare of Swine flu did not seem to take from the joy of people celebrating the first day of Eid. Instead of having mass public prayers areas, some places performed the morning Eid prayer in regular mosques which accommodated a smaller number of people than larger places.

Omani tweeps were making updates throughout the first day of Eid. Omanizer_muscat tweeted that even though OmanTV ran all these awareness messages, this was the Eid in which she had the most kisses ever!

The majority of people seemed to be going out and socializing without any fear of the flu as Alucard187 tweeted on the night of the first day of Eid that all the tables in restaurants in the capital Muscat seem to be fully taken. Otheroman also tweeted that the traditional Souq of Matrah seemed to have thousands of people hanging out around the corniche.

Makorani kept updating us with funny quotes she heard during Eid. Fatmanoor posted pictures of her homemade version of the traditional Omani Eid meat dish “Shiwa”, while alucard187 showed us pictures of the real thing getting dug up from the ground and unwrapped, and then ready to be eaten. Whole villages take part in the cooking of Shiwa, which consists of a whole cow or goat roasted for up to three days in an special oven prepared in a pit dug in the ground.

Eid al Fitr in Oman is celebrated over a period of three days after the end of the month of Ramadan.

Omani Bloggers Take the Streets To Combat Swine Flu

Riyadh Al Balushi — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:12:21 +0000

Omani bloggers have started their Swine Flu Awareness Campaign yesterday by going through Souq Matrah to spread the message and educate people. The campaign which was originally initiated by Hamed Al Ghaithi, and then was taken to its next step by the cooperative effort of Bader Al Hinai, Ammar Al Mamari, Waleed Al Nabhani, Hashr Al Manthari, and Muawiyah Al Rawahi. These bloggers distributed sanitizers to restaurants and coffee shops and guided their staff on the proper method of cleaning the tables after the customers. The restaurants and coffee shops were very receptive of the advice and seemed to take it seriously, probably as some of them thought the bloggers were an official delegation from the Ministry of Health.

The bloggers then moved to taxi drivers to inform them about the benefits of using alcohol hand sanitizers and face masks for reducing the risk of infection. The majority of the taxi drivers had no idea what the sanitizers were and thought that these are liquid soup that required using water to wash it off.

The final state of the program was walking around the souq to inform visitors about the benefits of using alcohol hand sanitizers.

Blogger Muawiyah wrote a detailed post with pictures on how the event went and the varied reactions they received from the visitors of the souq.

Another event in the campaign against the Swine Flu is supposedly scheduled during the Eid break, but no specific details about the event can be found online yet.

Omani Bloggers Swine Flu Campaign

Riyadh Al Balushi — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:38:16 +0000

Oman had a relatively big swine flu outbreak. With the number of fatalities in the country reaching 16, it is the largest announced number in the Gulf. Schools and universities were supposed to start by September, but were postponed to the mid of October. The biggest festival in the country due in January has already been canceled in fear of the flu.

Most Omani bloggers do not seem to be happy by the coverage provided by the local media and believe that more awareness activities should be carried out, especially as the disease could further spread during the celebrations of Eid ul Fitr, which begins tomorrow. Blogger Hamed Al Ghaithi started a bloggers' swine flu awareness campaign in which he suggests:

Urging Omani media to transform into crisis mode that educates people about best practices, personal hygiene, and the recommendation not to shake hands, cheek kiss, or group prayers.

Urging the government to impose restrictions for attending shopping malls and large social and religious events such as weddings and Eid celebrations.

Canceling the whole of the first semester of the current academic year, and if the crisis is not mitigated by February, canceling the whole year.

Launching a campaign for sanitizing public service institutions such as public markets ans schools.

Monitoring the health status of arriving expatriate employees and putting them in quarantine if they are found to be infected.

Not all of these suggestions can be logically carried out, for example canceling a whole academic year, but it is still nice seeing Omani bloggers brainstorming ideas and spreading the message for taking precautionary measures to minimize the risks of infection.

Blogger Bader Al Hinai reported that the first offline activity in the bloggers campaign against swine flu was to be started today in which some bloggers were supposed to go to a local market to educate people on the proper use of sterilization products. No updates can be found online on how the event went. According to Bader, future events to be held after the holidays are expected to be published soon.

Oman: Random Internet Censorship

Riyadh Al Balushi — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:13:33 +0000

Unlike some neighbouring countries, the internet in Oman is rarely censored by the government to block websites that criticize the authorities.

There are blogs and forums that explicitly publish leaked government documents and shame high government officials, yet the government in most cases uses legal methods to prosecute such authors if they are residents in the country by relying on the criminal law legislation and the controversial Omani telecommunication law. Though rarely ever tested, Oman does guarantee the right for freedom of expression after all. Websites such as YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter were never blocked in Oman.

In Oman, we have a different problem with censorship. The issue of censorship is taken care of by a public company called Omantel that occasionally, due to human or machine errors - we don't know - blocks out random websites. Though initially it sounds like a silly problem, due to the blackbox nature of the censorship department, once a website is blocked, it is a nightmare to get it unblocked.

Two months ago, I discovered that a blog I keep on IT law in Oman got blocked while I was abroad. It took me a whole month to get it unblocked where I had to make an official complaint to the Telecommunication Regulation Authority to have my website unblocked.

While the blocking of my website might have only caused me to lose a whole month of traffic and have a whole month of hosting fees wasted, having a number of services by Google such as Gmail, Blogger, and Scholar blocked for more than a day by mistake has a serious impact on the lives of people.

Currently, it seems that does not seem to be any method to hold Omantel accountable to its various censorship mishaps, other than complaining to the Oman's Telecom Regulation Authority, which will order Oman to unblock a website, but is very unlikely to issue any other sanctions. The future of the situation and control of the censorship department is unknown as the second fixed line internet service provider starts its operations. Hopefully something will change.

Meanwhile, it is worth noting that Global Voice's own Bangla portal is now blocked in Oman.. probably by mistake. I already wrote to Omantel to have it unblocked, but I have no idea how long it will take, if ever, to have it unblocked.

Oman: Big Business Idea Competition

Riyadh Al Balushi — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:48:43 +0000

The Big Business Idea Competition (BBIC) for 2008 was held yesterday. Check out how it went on Blue_Chi's.

Oman: The Sandwich Artist

Riyadh Al Balushi — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:42:20 +0000

Omanymous shares with his (mis)adventures when ordering in a Subway in Oman and his analysis of the different type of sandwich artists around town.

Oman: The Gamer Bill of Rights

Riyadh Al Balushi — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:41:09 +0000

Gamer blogger from Oman Moody posts his opinion on the Gamer Bill of Rights - which he believes many gamers in fact lack.

Oman: Ramadan Delicacy

Riyadh Al Balushi — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:39:38 +0000

Expat wife L_Oman shares some secret recipes of her Ramadan special - such as the Puffy Heaven Cheese Rolls.