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Yemeni scholarship students around the world... between government interruption and private support (Part One)

بين التعاسة والسعادة … حياة المبتعثين

يقضي الطلاب اليمنيون المبتعثون في الخارج إجازتهم الصيفية تحت أزمة تأخر المستحقات المالية لهم، أو إسقاط بعضهم من كشوفات المنح الدراسية، أو تعثر بعضهم في التخرج، هذه الصور تنقلها لنا صفحة “الطلاب اليمنيون في الخارج” على الفيس بوك، حيث تظهر احتجاجات الطلاب في دول عدة أمام الملحقية الثقافية اليمنية، وأمام محاولة إيجاد أسباب وحلول هذه المشكلة، نظل في دائرة من الاتهامات المتبادلة بين كل من السفارات اليمنية وملحقاتها الثقافية، وبين وزارة التعليم العالي، ووزارة الخارجية، ووزارة المالية، حيث يرشق كل منهم الآخر بتهمة التسبب في معاناة الطلاب، ويقف الشارع اليمني خصوصاً، ومسؤولو الدول الأجنبية حيارى أمام هذه الأزمة، إذ أنذرت بعض الجامعات الأردنية والماليزية والروسية وغيرها الطلاب اليمنيين بالفصل ما لم يسددوا الرسوم الدراسية، وفي الجانب الآخر تفشت ظاهرة العمالة الطلابية من أجل جني لقمة العيش في ظل تأخر المستحقات المالية لهم، وبدأت جذور الأزمة بالظهور بعد تنحي الرئيس الراحل/ علي عبدالله صالح عن الحكم، فتشكلت الأزمة بدايةً بحكومة باسندوه، مروراً بحكومة بحاح، وصولاً إلى حكومتين، حكومة الشرعية بقيادة بن دغر، والحوثية بقيادة بن حبتور، ووسط كل هذه الحكومات فهناك تراشق حزبي بينهم، وكل يتهم الآخر بالتسبب بمعاناة الطلاب.

في الجانب الآخر … يعد طلاب المنح الدراسية الخارجية على حساب الحكومات الأجنبية، الأسعد حظاً من بين أكثر من عشرة الآف طالب يمني مبتعث إلى 32 دولة للدراسة الجامعية بكافة درجاتها، وهناك أشخاص آخرون يعيشون الحظ السعيد، وهم طلاب مؤسسة الصندوق الخيري لدعم المتفوقين وطلاب مؤسسة حضرموت للتنمية البشرية، والتي يقودها رجال أعمال سعوديون ذو أصل حضرمي، على مساحات شاسعة من شرق وجنوب اليمن.

If we delved deeper into both directions, we would find the difference between them and the reason behind the unhappiness of some and the happiness of others.
القضية جذبت انتباه وسائل إعلام محلية ودولية، كالقنوات الفضائية ( يمن شباب، وبلقيس، وصنعاء، والشرعية، والجزيرة) وصحف مثل: يمن برس والمشاهد و”من الداخل الماليزي”، حيث أن الاحتجاجات الأخيرة التي وُجِهَ بعضها بالقوات الأمنية أثار حفيظة الشارع اليمني تجاه الشرعية وتعاملها مع الطلاب، وكذلك نهب الحوثيين لمستحقات الطلاب من البنك المركزي تحت مبرر “المجهود الحربي”.
And all we want to know in this investigation: Who caused the crisis that appeared since 2010 AD, and brought it to its worst form in 2018 AD, and is private support an alternative to government support temporarily in light of the war crisis in Yemen, and the cessation of air traffic to many countries? What is the role of the struggling student in the crisis, and is it true that students are part of the problem?

Under the Basindawa government, the legacy of corruptors and corruption of dignitaries overwhelms the legitimacy of the state. Students contract with the embassy about financial corruption

When the Basindouh government took over the reins of government in Yemen based on the Gulf initiative, and since they had a mark in the National Dialogue Conference, which requires efficiency in fair distribution between the regions, but we found the opposite. The Hadhramaut region, with four governorates, was given 52 grants in 2014, and the Azal region was given 137 grants. Knowing that the best region in which the educational plan was implemented is Hadhramaut, according to a statement by Al-Ashwal - the former Minister of Education - there are influential people in the Yemeni authority whose children, high school graduates, suffer from diarrhea with grades of good or very good. These are given priority over qualified students who are distinguished and qualified to study. Abroad, because they are the children of officials, and this is what happened with the grants provided to the Hadhramaut region (Al-Mahra Governorate), from which grants were taken for the benefit of the children of influential people from the (Al-Samawi) family.

This implementation is among the reasons that led to the unhappiness of scholarship students, as the Bassindoh government decided on February 13, 2014 to stop financial support for scholarship students in Malaysia, as the newspaper reported. From inside Malaysia على لسان أحمد الربيعي – مدير عام البعثات والمنح الدراسية في اليمن بوزارة التعليم العالي والبحث العلمي قوله: أن مستوى التعليم في الجامعات الأهلية في ماليزيا أدنى من الجامعات الحكومية، وأن الرسوم الدراسية في الجامعات الخاصة تصل إلى ثلاثة أمثال الجامعات الحكومية.
He said: The cost of studying at a public Malaysian university is approximately (US $ 1500) (RM 5000) per year, while the costs of private university education are about (US $4500) (RM15000), and spending is on 9,000 Yemeni students, including four thousand in Private universities, and that the government can only cover $1,500 in monthly salary for each academic year

The Bahah government inherits corruption and leaves the scholarship crisis untreated

Khaled Bahah - Yemeni Prime Minister

With the arrival of the Bahah government in late September 2014, the problem still exists and has worsened to a noticeable extent. Seven students on scholarship from King Fahd University in Saudi Arabia began sending an appeal to the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Muhammad Al-Mutahhar, demanding that their financial dues from the Yemeni side be paid to them in addition to their dues from the Saudi side. This is similar to seven sons of officials and influential people under (the Scholarships Law, the decision of the Minister of Higher Education, and the Delegation and Scholarships Committee), which was behind the dismissal of Al-Rubaie during the era of Minister Sharaf.

Students are part of the same problem, and it is known to everyone that the financial dues for Saudi Ministry of Education scholarships are disbursed by the Saudi side in accordance with the Saudi Council of Ministers law related to scholarship students.

But financial corruption has a flavor among these people, which you do not find among those supported by foreign governments and the private sector, where there is competence and integrity.
واستمرت الأمور على هذا الحال حتى اندلاع الحرب في اليمن مطلع 2015م، حيث بدأت فيها فصل من الفصول الجديدة لمعاناة الطلاب اليمنيين، وهو سيطرة جماعة الحوثي على مستحقات مالية لهم بالبنك المركزي، لكن ووفق تصريح بعض الطلاب المبتعثين إلى الأردن بأن التأخر في صرف مستحقاتهم يمتد بالأسبوع والأيام، وفي هذا الصدد فقد وجهت حكومة الشرعية اتهامها لجماعة الحوثي بالمسؤولية الكاملة عن التأخير وصرف جزء من تلك المستحقات لما تسميه الجماعة بــــ “المجهود الحربي”. 

ومع هذا التأخير لم يكن هناك انقطاع في صرف المستحقات المالية حتى جاءت الحكومة الأخيرة بقيادة “بن دغر”، الرجل الذي مكث في سلطة صالح قبل انشقاقه، والأعرف بأمور الدولة هناك، وهنا الفصل الأشد في المعاناة، ولعل لعز من ألغاز هذه القضية يجد جوابه لدى “بن دغر” حول الأزمة المالية التي أوصلت الأمور إلى ما هي عليه الآن.

حكومة بن دغر  ... وعود حكومية بالحل المستعجل ... صمت السفراء والملحقين ... المتنفذون والمسؤولون ينعمون بخير

Dr. arrived. Ahmed Obaid bin Dagher to the Prime Minister’s Office on 4/4/2016, and the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Hussein Abdul Rahman Basalama on September 18, 2016. The date of arrival for both of them was accompanied by the latest mission that records a turning point in the intensification of the suffering of students abroad, and in response to it the emergence of a new surge of corruption, and the transfer of the Central Bank from Sana’a to Aden in September 2016 also played a role, where they met All these events took place in one month, and let us start with a document revealed by the head of the training committee of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, Nabil Al-Asidi, about a military intervention by the Chief of the General Staff of the Sharia Forces, Muhammad Ali Al-Maqdishi, who addressed his speech to the cultural attaché in Kuala Lumpur about approving financial dues for the fourth quarter of the year. 2016, where it expressed the twin corruption between legitimacy and Houthis, and this list included the following names:

* نجل شقيق اللواء المقدشي – رئيس هيئة الاركان

* Sheikh Saghir Aziz’s son

* نجل صالح شعبان – وزير المالية في حكومة الحوثيين

* Son of Brigadier General Abu Bakr al-Ghazali - Staff of the Republican Guard of former President Saleh.

* Son of Brigadier General Abbas Al-Madhahi - Director of Supply at the Houthi Ministry of Defense.

* نجلا العميد عزيز الحجيري – مسئول حماية الرئيس السابق/صالح.

* نجل العميد صادق سرحان – قائد اللواء22 مشاة في تعز.

*Son رشدي الكوشاب – الملحق الثقافي في ماليزيا.

By researching and before we address the impact of transferring the Central Bank from Sanaa to Aden, we stop with a name that caught our attention and we searched for the details of its work, to find it on the list of spoilers, and to confirm to the public once again that the Yemeni embassies and their attachés have a role in increasing the suffering of students, and with Rushdi Al-Koushab, who does not know. Is he a university student or a cultural advisor at the Yemeni Embassy in Malaysia?

Nabil Al-Asidi published a document proving that Al-Koushab eats with both hands. The document dates back to 9/25/2017, when he ordered the disbursement of 2,000 Malaysian ringgits from the attaché’s account to the account of the student “Rushdi Al-Koushab.” Only his signature is noted in the document and without the signature of Ambassador Dr. Adel Bahamid.
But his partners in corruption are a group of students and other officials. A week after the dismissal, the decision comes to dismiss Al-Koushab from his position and refer him to investigation, as stated in Ambassador Bahamid’s memorandum to the Yemeni Foreign Minister, Abdul-Malik Al-Mikhlafi.
What prompted Hameed to take this step was that Al-Kushab sent an official letter to the ambassador asking him to clarify the students’ financial dues, which were disbursed without the knowledge of the attaché by order of the ambassador and his financial advisor.
If we return to the story of the scholarship academic who explained to us the system of corruption between the scholarship applicant and the embassy, we found that explanation completely consistent with the documents we found proving the involvement of the cultural attaché in Malaysia in financial violations, as it paid financial dues to students who were not registered in the higher education records, in exchange for a share received by the attaché. Of that money is spent on students who do not deserve it.
Some may say that the ambassador’s interference in the cultural attaché’s powers is against the law, in order to get the ambassador into a problem that has a partisan depth, but what redeemed the ambassador for his intervention was his implementation of the instructions requiring the disbursement of transcripts sent by the Undersecretary of the Scholarships Sector in Higher Education, Dr. Saleh Al-Abd, in addition to Minister Basalama’s acknowledgment of the dismissal decision a month after its issuance, and also that Al-Koushab was repeating the same problem against the financial advisor to the former ambassador before Bahmid assumed his duties on 12/3/2016, as Al-Koushab incited the students against the two ambassadors.
The step of dismissing Al-Koushab is considered by some to be an attempt to stop corruption, while the other party sees it as a cover-up for the decision of the Minister of Higher Education and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to add 250 names to the list of financial dues statements. This is what Al-Koushab rejected, because that contributes to doubling the financial crisis for students, and let us not forget. Among them are those who stumble.
There is a neutral party between the two parties that holds everyone responsible for the crisis. Al-Kushab has proven this against him. But what will come to us during the investigation proves the other party’s involvement in this crisis more clearly.

وإذا ذهبنا إلى الملحقية الثقافية بالقاهرة، ومع الملحق/ وهيب خدا بخش، المطبق لنظرية “حاميها حراميها” حيث يدعي أنه يحارب إعطاء المنح لأبناء الدبلوماسيين، وذلك بعد إقالته وإحالته للتحقيق، بالرغم من أن زوجته ضمن من أعطيت لهم منح بأمره، إضافة إلى ما وصفه البعض بالاختلاس المالي الذي قام به بخش تحت مسمى “سلفة راتب” بقيمة 80 ألف دولار من حساب المستحقات المالية للطلاب.
وكما أشارت صحيفة “عدن نت” في تقريرها أن قرار تعيين بخش مخالفٌ لقانون التعليم العالي والبحث العلمي؛ لكونه طالب متعثر في دراسة الدكتوراه، والقانون يمنع تعيين أي طالب مستشاراً ثقافياً، علاوة على عدم حصوله على شهادة الدكتوراه إلا بعد تسع سنوات من الابتعاث، كما وتم إلغاء قرار ابتعاثه من قبل رئيس جامعة عدن في عام 2014 ولم يحصل على الدكتوراه إلا في عام 2017 بعد تعيينه مستشاراً ثقافياً في السفارة  بالقاهرة .
So we have two Yemeni cultural attachés who were dismissed due to corruption, knowing that corruption has not stopped until this moment.
Returning to the transfer of the Central Bank from Sanaa to Aden in September 2016 and its role in increasing the suffering of students, students from Jordan appeared in one of the video clips in which they complained about the delay in their dues for months, after the transfer of the Central Bank, in addition to stopping the dues of 115 scholarship students, as The total number of scholarship students in Jordan until 2017 is (587) male and female students, and the stipend for bachelor’s degrees is: 18,00$ per 3 months, while for postgraduate students: 21,00$ per 3 months, where the stipend is paid every three months.
وبين الحوثية والشرعية تراشق اتهامات حول المتسبب في ذلك، حيث قال عبدالكريم الروضي – وكيل وزارة التعليم العالي لشؤون البعثات في حكومة الحوثيين المسماة بــ “حكومة الإنقاذ الوطني”: بمجرد ما تحول البنك المركزي إلى عدن حصلت المشاكل، وأوقفوا التحويلات وأثر ذلك على الصرف على الملحقيات الثقافية والطلاب بالخارج، حيث يتم الصرف لبعضهم والبعض الآخر لا.
While the cultural attaché to Jordan, Dr. Abdul Karim Al-Warafi said that the crisis was not the result of the moment when the Central Bank was transferred, but rather began with the transfer of Yemeni students to Syria to complete their studies in Jordan, fleeing the war that broke out in Syria in 2011, where he said: The Syrian crisis affected the financial disbursement of Yemeni students transferred from universities in Syria to universities in Jordan. This is because of their equivalent years in Jordan.
Of course, we do not forget the departure of the Yemeni embassy in Syria from the control of legitimacy and the Houthis’ seizure of students’ dues.
As for the current situation, Al-Warafi held the Ministry of Finance responsible for the delay in liquidity, as this was stated in his speech during the student protests in front of the Cultural Mission at the end of August 2016. 

In an attempt to clarify the matter before public opinion, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Hussein Basalama that what is happening is due to the war breaking out in Yemen, and that they are in the process of raising this to the Yemeni Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdul Malik Al-Mikhlafi added in his meeting with scholarship students in Jordan on 8/8/2017 that the reason for the crisis is the difficulty the government is facing in providing financial liquidity, as he pledged to solve the problems of Yemeni scholarship students abroad.
Despite this, the clarification was condemned by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education for the Scholarships and Cultural Relations Sector, Dr. Saleh Al-Abd Al-Awlaki, who revealed the curtain in his Facebook post on 1/14/2018, where he said:

The Committee to Investigate Administrative and Financial Violations with the Cultural Attachés in Malaysia and Egypt aims to bring the curtain down on an organized looting of millions of dollars.

On the other hand, Al-Awlaki explains that corruption is based on its origins, as he said in his Facebook post on 1/12/2018: 

The directives of His Excellency the President and the Prime Minister have been lost, and the verse has become upside down. As it is intended to close the door of grants to the first and to open it wide to the children of the influential and the up-and-coming, I apologize, and in public I appeal to His Excellency the President and the Prime Minister to take the necessary measures to protect scientific excellence.

Although Dr. Al-Awlaki returned five days later in another post to thank the Yemeni Prime Minister for removing the obstacles to granting the first ones, but three months had not passed since the thanks had passed before Halima returned to her old habit, as a new document dated April 2018 was revealed, approving grants for the children of diplomats at the Yemeni embassy to China, with the approval of Minister Basalama, which included the following:
1- ” هيام ” ابنة السفير اليمني لدى الصين (محمد عثمان دبوان المخلافي) 
2- “لمياء ولقاء” ابنتا نائب السفير أحمد مثنى قاسم .
3- “رائف” نجل الملحق الثقافي محمد عوضين ربيعة.
4- “روان” ابنة المستشار المالي فارس طاهر درهم.
5- “فارس” نجل القنصل عبدالله سنبل.

He follows

The second part

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