Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Minister Ghanem Al-Buainain did not lie when he said that "the Civil Service Bureau does not act alone, but implements state policy". Yes, it favors foreigners and anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong.

Al-Buainain said what the citizens were saying themselves, which is that the service bureau doesn't "take decisions on its own". It is a executive authority loyal to the general state policy. But the dispute between the general public and the state was regarding the policy itself, was it with or against them?

Numbers and evidence on the ground remain the constant confirmation that the purpose of the policy of the state, which is sponsored and implemented by the civil service bureau, is the replacement of Bahrainis by foreigners in various sectors of government, no matter how hard the government tries to deny it.

Statistics confirm that the number of foreigners working in the government exceeds 9,730, most of whom work in the educational and medical services where the lengthy queues of unemployed Bahrainis are hard to miss. These represent 28% of the government's workforce.

MP Ahmad Al-Salloum asserted, in a comment at the House of Representatives, that "the government had vowed in its program to reduce the percentage of foreigners from 16% to 1% following the voluntary retirement program, but the percentage of foreigners in the government increased to 28%."

When the government needed to reduce recurrent expenditure, the state (CSB) did not begin to lay off foreigners, but rather began dismissing the Bahraini expertise from the ministries under the pretext of voluntary retirement, thereby increasing the proportion of foreigners, whose salaries exceed 100 million dinars yearly.

Speaking in numbers, in five years (from 2013 to 2017), the government employed about 3,000 foreigners, according to official statistics. "Do those expatriates have something that Bahrainis do not have?" MP Zainab Abdulamir wondered.

Abdulamir adds another number: "The percentage of Bahrainis in the ship repair company (under the state investment wing) does not exceed 26%, while foreigners amount to 74%". "A non-Bahraini heads the the senior management, while only two Bahrainis are in the board of directors," she notes.

Meanwhile, Hamad Al-Kooheji shows other figures: "There are 502 foreigners who have been employed in the electricity and Water authority in 30-year contracts, according to the report of the National Audit Office, with a cost of 6 million BD. Doesn't the Bahraini citizen deserve to have these jobs instead?"

"There are over 100 foreign employees over the age of 60 in the ministry of works," he adds, noting that they are granted livelihood improvement and vehicle allowances.

This is a simple part of the reality in the island kingdom. Government jobs are distributed to foreigners instead of Bahrainis, and the allegations of "employing foreigners after the exhaustion of all Bahraini options" are false statements that only fuel the citizens' anger and frustration over the state's policy which honors foreigners and insults them in their own country.

Yes, Ghanem Al-Buainain, you were right and made things clearer to the people. It is not about the violations practiced by the head of the civil service bureau Ahmad Al-Zayed, but it is rather about the policy of a state which is loyally implemented by him; it is the oppression and marginalization of all Bahrainis in their homeland.

Arabic Version