It had been billed by organisers as an exhibition and a conference "in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Andrew, the Duke of York." Hosted by the Bahrain Federation of Expatriate Associations and its enthusiastic head Betsy Mathieson at London's prestigious and pricey Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, this was going to be the answer to the charge that Bahrain is a repressive and intolerant country. The Gulf island state has several thousand people locked up for protesting both peacefully and violently against the ruling al Khalifa family, and the vast majority of those in prison are Shia Muslims, the majority indigenous population. The al Khalifas, who have ruled Bahrain for more than 200 years, are Sunni. During the Arab Spring of 2011, peaceful protesters were ruthlessly suppressed by the government with the assistance of Saudi and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) forces. At least three protesters were beaten to death while in detention. After the uprising was crushed more than 30 Shia mosques and religious centres were bulldozed. Thousands of people were summarily dismissed from their jobs in both the private and the public sectors, again almost all of them Shia. So it was always going to be a bit of an uphill struggle to present Bahrain as an oasis of freedom and religious tolerance And the task was made a trifle more difficult when the star turn Prince Andrew abruptly pulled out the morning of the event, citing a scheduling conflict. The Queen Elizabeth II centre is just a stone's throw away from the Houses of Parliament. The fourth and fifth floors where the conference was held have a breathtaking view of central London, one that the 100 or so delegates who had come from Bahrain for the one day conference must have surely enjoyed. Just as well they did because they found themselves pretty much talking to each other as very few members of the British public showed up for what had been called an exhibition. Could the public have been put off by the handful of anti-government protesters standing opposite the entrance with their banner that read "End the Saudi Occupation Now"? Not likely. More likely, this was yet another Bahrain PR offensive gone rather spectacularly awry. Betsy Mathieson insisted that the government had not funded the event, although one was left to ponder just who had. After all, expat businesses have been hit hard by the economic downturn three years of civil unrest has caused. So it is difficult to imagine them reaching into their pockets to cover the airfare and the hotel costs of one of the world's most expensive cities. Perhaps it was the Bahrain Federation of Expatriate Associations that picked up the tab. If so the association must have been disappointed at Prince Andrew's no show. A somewhat deflated Ms Mathieson didn't know why the prince had debunked. "You would have to ask his royal highness that question yourself," was how she responded when queried by members of the British media. The afternoon session which was originally supposed to focus on Bahrain's perpetually stalled National Dialogue instead talked a great deal about religious tolerance. Speaker after speaker extolled the virtues of Bahrain's religious diversity. And it is true that unlike its powerful neighbour Saudi Arabia, the kingdom has long allowed religions other than Islam to openly practice their faiths. One said "there is no sectarianism, there is mutual trust and openness." Another spoke of "the sinister attempt by colonialists and the social media to pull Bahrain into the circle of the Arab Spring." The attempt he said had been a "failure." A third reflected on "7000 years of beautiful history." There is, she said "no sectarianism, just mutual trust and open hearts." No doubt there is an element of truth in most of what was said, although I was left wondering who exactly the sinister colonialists were. But the larger reality, the one delegates did not want to talk about is of stalled reconciliation talks and ongoing violence in a society deeply divided along sectarian lines. To say nothing of a damaged economy and a badly dented foreign image. And no amount of costly PR exercises is going to alter that reality, regardless of who pays for it.
