Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Dr Abdul Khaleq Al-Oraibi received a “withdrawal of membership” letter from BMS signed by Maha Ali Al-Kowari who was placed at the top of the BMS after the Ministry of Development dissolved the previous Board of Directors, as a punitive measure against the condemnation statements he had issued during the

events of February 2011.

The letter stated that the Society’s Board of Directors had decided in its session held on 2nd October, to withdraw Al-Oraibi’s membership upon the issuance of the verdict of the Supreme Court on 1st October. The resolution pointed that Al-Oraibi contradicted the membership conditions which provides that the member must be of good reputation and conduct, and not to be a subject of a verdict for a crime of indecency or dishonesty.

Al-Oraibi sent a reply to the (illegitimate) resolution of the BMS Board of Directors, as he described it, of which Bahrain Mirror has obtained a copy and is publishing in its entirety.

In draconian resolutions, the (illegitimate) Board of Directors of BMS dismisses Bahrain Medics from BMS.

Most of us have heard of Qaraqoush and his rulings that were unjust in times and far from reason in others, to the extent that people were talking about those rulings and attributing stories to him that had no connection whatsoever to his character, such as the jokes about Joha and Asha’ab. They also attribute to him any unjust or weird act, and described it as “Qaraqoush Ruling”.

The so-called BMS Board of Directors (illegitimate) wanted to receive Qaraqoush rulings so it decided to withdraw

 the membership of some medics from BMS. It sent registered letters to the medics –of whom I was one- signed by Dr Maha Al-Muqla which stated “we regret to inform you that the BMS Board of Directors has decided in its session on 2nd October 2012 to withdraw your BMS membership. This decision follows the final verdict issued by the Supreme Court on 1st October 2012. By virtue of paragraph (c), article (a), third clause, of the membership chapter, which requires that the member must be of good conduct and reputation, and must not be subject to a verdict condemning him of a crime of indecency or dishonesty. In addition to the text of paragraph (h), article 14, concerning refrainment from any act that jeopardizes the interests and ethics of the profession or degrades it”.

This Board whose legitimacy is challengeable has preferred to violate the simplest of professional criteria, through breaching many legal and ethical factors. This could be a result of ignorance, but it is surely compound ignorance.

First: it is not professional and not administratively ethical to point to the medics and defame them in the press and official statements and boast their dismissal, before officially addressing them and informing them of the decision (on the third of October, al-Ayam Newspaper published an article titled “A statement by BMS Board of Directors”). That is one of the basic alphabet of ethics, let alone, professional ethics, which you breached article (44), Chapter Seven which stipulates that “A medical practitioner shall not defame his colleague, and must refrain from backbiting or criticizing him by sayings that are harmful to his reputation or honour”.

Second: the date of crime of the statements clearly reflects the state of lurking enmity of the persons in this Board towards their colleagues. The decision was taken only one day after the court ruling, which means that they had taken their decision to dismiss these medics before the court verdict without any subsequent consideration.

Third: the decision referred to some articles of BMS Charter which requires good conduct and reputation –according to the letter- using the third clause of article (9) of the membership law as a reference. But they did not cointue with the text of the article! Why? Because it reveals their intentions. The article states that “The Society member must fulfill the following conditions: Be a Bahraini citizen, of good conduct and reputation” This is precisely what they have breached in the election of their challengeable Board, where they allowed for the violation of this particular paragraph and the foreign medic (I am not against any medic, but I am going by the text of the law) was given the right to be a candidate and elected, in order for them to sit at the top. Is it right for a person who violates the text of the said article to use it as a base for their decision later?

Fourth: The illegitimate Board has always claimed that it respects the judiciary and its rulings, but, day after day, it is proving that it only respects its own desires and wishes of revenge and elimination without looking around and weighing its actions. How is this?

A quick look at their justifications for withdrawal of membership they reiterate that the court ruling against me personally was issued for a crime of indecency and dishonesty! This is not true, the ruling is for participation in non-licensed marches in which time and place were not mentioned, this is only an offense which is not in any way related to honour, integrity or professional ethics. Doesn’t this letter represent a falsification of facts, ignorance of the law, disrespect for the judiciary and a breach of professional ethics, by defaming a colleague in his reputation and honour? Are you the ones who are preserving the professional ethics while you yourselves are breaching them?

It is seen from the above that the decision to dismiss me from BMS membership is not valid for the lack of reasoning, but despite that, I myself and many of the brothers and sisters distance ourselves from this Board of yours, and announce our resignation from a Society that is headed by you, because we don’t want to be false witnesses to your violations nor do we want to be your partners in breaking the law. So, you should not represent us –the resigning medics- in the affairs of the profession or anything that is related thereto. You have no right to attend committees that discuss our affairs, if anything of that sort happens someday.