Chapter
8:
Case
studies
in
Wadi
Siham
When
Saleh
visited
Wadi
Siham
in
2011,
many
farmers
saw
the
ex-‐president
embracing
the
powerful
players;
all
the
influential
men
accompanied
him
in
his
visit.
“Farmers
became
afraid
of
those
influential
men.”
Political
friction
between
the
parties
led
to
violations
of
civil
rights,
people
with
unjust
causes
would
gather
others
around
them,
provide
them
with
weapons
and
start
to
abuse
others
and
disturb
the
general
peace.
“For
example
if
you
have
a
farm
land
and
you
don’t
have
connections
and
support
from
certain
shaikhs
in
the
area,
your
land
may
not
be
irrigated;
this
case
is
happing
to
one
of
the
TDA
staff
who
has
a
piece
of
land
in
the
wadi
and
without
the
intervention
of
the
TDA
his
land
would
have
no
water.
This
deterioration
started
in
2009
and
continued
after
the
revolution.“
As
formal
systems,
particularly
the
security
services,
are
regarded
as
corrupt
and
law
enforcement
authorities
unreliable
and
ineffective,
people
continue
to
resort
to
traditional
actors
for
certain
issues.
However,
with
the
death
of
the
elder
generation,
local
traditional
authority
has
vanished;
the
new
leadership
-‐
the
“generation
of
sons”
-‐
is
far
less
powerful
and
has
become
increasingly
involved
in
political
activity,
thus
loosing
legitimacy
and
authority
at
the
local
level.
Accordingly,
nowadays
most
of
the
conflicts
for
which
Abdulkareem
Qaserah,
the
shaikh
of
Maraw’eah
district
and
Wadi
Siham
area,
is
sought
are
for
minor
issues,
mostly
related
to
family
issues
e.g.,
resolving
marital
or
family
disputes,
as
well
as
other
disputes
resulting
from
car
accidents
and
disagreements
between
neighbours.
Despite
some
general
exceptions,
sheikhs
in
the
Tihama
are
known
for
abusing
their
people.
The
overall
perception
is
that
they
care
more
about
serving
the
agenda
of
the
ruling
elite
in
the
country
than
that
of
their
constituency.
Since
the
tribal
system
and
sheikhdom
has
never
been
as
strong
in
the
Tihama
as
in
the
north
of
Yemen,
sheikhs
often
acted
as
the
regimes
heavy-‐hand
against
their
own
people
during
the
2011