Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The Legislation and Legal Opinion Commission (LLOC) has recently launched hashtag "Call_of_Duty" for the upcoming elections to be held on November 24, 2018. The commission issued a strange statement on the day it launched the slogans and hashtags, in which it said that the Bahraini citizen has proven through history that he is the cornerstone and is always ready to answer the call of duty.

What is does the #Call_of_Duty slogan mean? "Is it a slogan for Haj?!" a politician asks sarcastically. It is a real joke; however, the one who made it isn't wrong, since slogans usually hold hidden meanings. This slogan is derived from the principle of "obedience to the ruler" which the regime always tirelessly strives to affirm, thus changing the essence of the upcoming elections in Bahrain the core of the voting process and reducing it to a subject's relation with a Sultan, reminiscent of ancient expressions like "I am at your beck and call, lord". A similar expression was used by Lulwa Budelama as a title of a book dedicated to protocols and etiquettes which she offered to the King in person. Therefore, voting in the coming elections has become an act of voting for the ruler in obedience to him. It is a slogan that has only one dimension and one direction. It bears no other meaning than that of obedience to the ruler, not having the choice to vote for the better.

We can simply realize the meaning behind the slogan, which is to fulfill the duty of loyalty to the ruler. This is all there is to it. The slogan tells the citizen: You know that the parliamentary and legislative game is in the hands of the authority but your duty is to vote. You also know that all of their promises are worthless and false, but your duty is to vote. You know that with your vote, you are going to give us four new years to make and pass political and economic decisions that you don't approve, but your duty is to vote. You know that retirement funds will be lost, but your duty is to vote. You know that the policy of putting the Bahraini citizen second not first is going to continue but you have to vote and you also know that nobody has any influence in this council, but you will vote.

Instead of being a "right" that the Bahraini citizens should enjoy, by which the "Parliament" gives the citizen power, authority, participation in governance, ability to change, confront corruption, and hold perpetrators of corruption accountable, the elections become "obligatory" and a "duty" that comes with taxes, grievances, violations and further monopoly of power and tyranny. The Bahraini citizen is required to "answer" what the regime "calls for", which includes abiding by a pre-designed constitution, a system of electoral laws that is knit with the regime's needle, electoral districts distributed based on blatant discrimination, as well as accepting this party's eternal grip on power, and the Legislation and Legal Opinion Commission governing the elections, a body in which the follow-up minister in the royal court Ahmed Atiyatallah has planted his spies, until a failure of a journalist like Ahmed Al-Modaweb became part of it working as an assistant advisor.

That is why this slogan #Call_of_Duty holds a threatening rather motivational connotation. You can motivate the people to go to exercise their right to vote when the parliament actually affects their lives and futures. However, it is considered a threat to the citizens if they abandon this duty, when this process only serves shaping your image [the regime's] in front of the world, rather than serving their interests, and when you make sure that people are tired of participating in a silly sham game that will only yield more losses, chaos and destruction.

The #Call_of_Duty slogan represents a formal declaration of the regime's bankruptcy in creativity, just as the country suffers from political and economic bankruptcy. The crisis in Bahrain has produced additional crises even at the level of this slogan.

Arabic Version