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230 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

of urban modernisation initiated by the municipality in the 1920s. In an
era of relentless globalisation, government neglect and the absence of a
consistent policy of urban regeneration and of heritage revival have left
the inner city in decay. Its landscape now appears almost as disorderly as
it did before the establishment of the baladiyyah in 1919.
Politically, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 shifted the platform of con-
testation against the state from historical Manama to its new Shi‘i sub-
urban communities. The attempted coup d’état of 1981 which sought the
establishment of an Islamic Republic in Bahrain and the unrest of 1994–7
marked a turning point in the more recent history of political activism.
Both events placed suburban districts such as Bani Jamrah, al-Diraz and
Bilad al-Qadim on the new map of Shi‘i radical politics stretching from
Lebanon to Pakistan. In 1994–7, leading clerics and a disaffected gener-
ation of angry young men spoke a new language of welfare for the Shi‘i
community that rehearsed the demands for democracy, parliamentary
rights and political participation which had inspired the turmoil of the
mid 1950s and 1960s. Mass demonstrations and strikes, the trademark of
the nationalist politics of al-Ha’yah, were replaced by guerrilla tactics and
arson in Manama’s suburban areas, which were routinely besieged by the
security forces. The graffiti which covered their walls became part and
parcel of this language of political communication with the government.
Essentially, they demanded the reinstatement of the Parliament which was
formed in 1973 and dissolved in 1975. In the immediate post-
independence years, parliamentary politics was a crucial feature of
Bahrain’s political life. After 1975, it became the rallying cry of the
opposition to the government, which continued to be dominated by the
Al Khalifah.
Manama has regained its position as the centre of political militancy in
the new age of political liberalisation which followed the accession of
Shaykh Hamad ibn ‘Isa Al Khalifah in 1999. Elections for the municipal
council were held in 2002, the first since 1965, and again in 2006. That
the reinstatement of the council as an elected body could be used as a
platform for the enlargement of political participation in Bahrain was an
idea ventilated by the British residency on the eve of independence. In
2002 and 2006, new municipal councils were formed in connection with
the first parliamentary elections held in the country since 1972. The
composition of the new councils mirrored the new political realities of
Bahrain rather than reflecting the demographic and social make-up of the
inner city and of its metropolitan areas. Out of the ten members successful
at the ballot box, seven belonged to Jam‘iyah al-Wifaq al-Watani al-
Islamiyyah (popularly known as al-Wifaq), a Shi‘i political organisation
which emerged out of the unrest of the 1990s. Although several municipal