Exclusive: Q&A with President Ali Abdullah Saleh
The state and the government are moving ahead with reforms—political reforms, judicial reforms, economic reforms, anticorruption reforms, counterterrorism. This is a full system.
How big a challenge is the problem of corruption?
There is no country without corruption, even the rich countries as well as developed countries. Corruption is a virus that is prevalent throughout the world. But in Yemen, it is not as [bad as] it has been described by the media.
You seem to be downplaying the seriousness of the problem.
No. What I said is that corruption is a widespread virus, everywhere. But we have policies to eradicate this corruption. And many actions have been taken to fire those people suspected of being corrupt and to send them to court. We believe there is corruption, but it is not in the same degree as has been described by others.
Yemen has many different voices now—some for modernization, others for conservatism. How do you see the future?
If we recall the past, the situation then was more difficult then than it is now, more complications—tribal, fragmentation between the two parts of the country, sectarian, a variety of issues that were very complicated. But to a great extent we have overcome such complications. Particularly since 1990, after the unification of the country, we have overcome such problems to a great extent when we chose a multiparty political system, freedom of speech, respect of human rights, participation of women—such kinds of things have created awareness in the Yemeni community, and we have overcome a great deal of such complications you have in mind.
The country is moving toward modernization and progress that keeps up with the international changes—in terms of education, in terms of economy, in terms of politics and social affairs. Certainly, in this forward movement, these voices cannot disappear—conservative voices, tribal voices, provincial voices—such voices will continue to exist. However, they shall not have great influence.
You have been criticized for moving backward on freedom of the press.
First of all, journalists aren't being harassed. It's part of propaganda. They are being held accountable by the law, not through a political decision. We are now in the process of amending the press law in order to prevent the imprisonment of journalists. And the maximum penalty, if some journalists do something wrong, will be to pay a financial fine.
You would not dare in America as journalists to attack the American officials in the same way the press in Yemen attack the president, the ruling party, and the government.
You have said you will not run in the September election. Is that true, or could you be persuaded to run again?
I as president will not nominate myself. This is my decision.
The true test of democracy comes with the first peaceful transition of power. Is Yemen ready?
I always say that democracy is bad, but what is worse is the absence of democracy.
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