Outlook on Yemen Similar to Egypt, Abroad and in Bed-Stuy

Inspired by the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings that forced their presidents out of power, thousands of anti-government protesters have taken to streets of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Like Egyptian President Mubarak, President Saleh also has been in power for more than 30 years. However, unlike Mubarak, Saleh, has feigned little resistance, stating early he would not seek re-election or pass power on to his son. Saleh also pledged to freeze all the controversial constitutional amendments that allow him to be president for life.

“I think it’s time for him to leave; he’s been in there 32 straight years, and it’s too many,” said Yemen native Ali Ahmed, who lived in Sanaa but now lives in Bed-Stuy. “The problem is, there’s too many people who are suffering. President Saleh makes just enough for his family only. But for everybody else, there’s no food, no jobs, too many problems.”

In the capital of Sanaa – located in the Northern part of Yemen – more than 2,000 policemen were deployed this past Friday to break up bloody fighting between anti-government protesters and hundreds of government supporters wielding knives, batons, rocks and tear gas. Violence also has erupted in other southern Yemeni cities such as Aden and Taiz.

Tens of thousands of protesters angered by corruption and deep poverty in the country are demanding political and economic reforms. For ten days since the melee first broke out, they have braved attacks from government supporters in Sanaa, where at least 20 people have been injured and four have been reported killed. In Aden, the death toll is five.

The country has been wracked by a Shiite Muslim uprising, a U.S.-aided crackdown on al Qaeda, a secessionist movement in its once-independent south and a looming shortage of water.

Like Egypt’s government, Yemen also has employed media-crushing tactics, blockading foreign media reporters, confiscating memory cards from cameras, and shutting down the country’s access to the Internet.

And also, similar to the struggle in Egypt, Ahmed suggests that support for the current president is divided greatly along class and age lines. He says the more wealthy residents have less disagreement with Saleh. He says, it is the younger generations of Yemenis that have fueled the growing discontent.

The attempted coup marks the third American-backed Arab dictator targeted in a popular uprising in just two months. All are allies of the American government, co-operating with US attempts to fight al-Qaida in their countries.

However, the back-to-back uprisings raise questions about whether America’s friendly relationships and hands-off diplomacy with despots in some Arab countries -- such as Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen -- helps foster a climate of political unrest equally as pernicious as terrorism is in others.

The relationship between Yemen and the U.S. clearly has its benefits for Yemeni Americans such as Ahmed, who expresses mixed opinions about the entire situation:

“Saleh is not all bad, and not all good. There’s a lot of young people, they don’t like him, maybe like 75 percent,” said Ahmed, who works at Lafayette Deli on Lafayette and Classon Avenues. “They think that once the president is gone, it’s going to be Democratic like America. Four years, we’ll have an election, and then in another four years, another election.”

When asked whether he believes America has played a hand in supporting the dictatorship in his home country, he answers without hesitation, “no.”