Anti-government protests by Bahrain’s marginalised Shiite majority on February 14 are not likely to rival the Egyptian revolt, but will add to the pressure on the king to make more concessions to his people. Gulf states are not expected to face full-scale revolts thanks to a golden bargain under which their rulers trade a share of their oil wealth for political quiescence, but Bahrain is among the most vulnerable to popular pressure. “There’s a deep sense of frustration among large segments of Bahraini society,” said Toby Jones, professor of Middle Eastern studies at US-based Rutgers University. “If there was one place in the Gulf that I was going to predict that there would be something similar (to Egypt), it would be Bahrain,” he said. Bahrain is a small oil producer with a majority Shiite population that has long complained of discrimination by the ruling Sunni Al-Khalifa family, well before popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt emboldened activists across the region.
BAHRAIN PROTESTS TO ADD TO PRESSURE ON GOVERNMENT
Anti-government protests by Bahrain’s marginalised Shiite majority on February 14 are not likely to rival the Egyptian revolt, but will add to the pressure on the king to make more concessions to his people
