Better than no government

Laura Kasinof has an article in The New York Times about the situation in Yemen:

Even as antigovernment protesters in Yemen struggled to revitalize their movement, sketching somewhat shaky plans over the weekend for a transitional government, they produced a show of their core strength, taking to the streets in huge numbers on Sunday to protest the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. It was the 33rd anniversary of Saleh’s rule, dubbed a “day of rage” by the protesters (photo), tens of thousands of whom turned out across the country. But despite their numbers, any advance in their position seemed tenuous, and the country remained deadlocked and leaderless.
The president’s supporters also turned out to demonstrate on his behalf, although their numbers were significantly smaller. Saleh, who is in Saudi Arabia recuperating from the severe injuries he suffered in an attack on the presidential palace last month, has refused to leave office, defiantly dismissing the nationwide uprising, which is demanding his ouster, and the loss of international support.
The protest leaders’ announcement of a planned shadow government represents their strongest effort yet to bring some structure and organization to the disparate groups of mostly youthful demonstrators who have rocked the country for months. But the move also reflected their fundamental fragmentation and disorganization, with the announcement taking many of the people named as leaders of the transitional government by surprise. Nor was it clear what role the shadow government would play, what its relationship would be with the formal political opposition, or how much support it had.
At a news conference in the capital, Sana'a, the protest organizers named members of a transitional council who would become the movement’s political leaders. Towakil Karman, who announced the decision, said the council would “implement the goals and the demands of the people’s youth revolution” and would serve during a “transition period not exceeding nine months”. The council is to appoint a shadow cabinet of technocrats and ultimately select a 501-member national assembly to draft a new constitution. Karman asked “the international community to respect the decisions of young people by recognizing the institutions of the revolution”.
The seventeen council members come from many segments of society: former members of the governing party, military leaders, members of various opposition political parties, and southern separatists. But many of the council members named by Karman said they had no idea the council would be announced Saturday. One of them, Judge Fahim Abdullah Mohsin, the chief of the appeals court in Aden, said he had not known that he would be chosen to represent the protesters, the official Saba news agency reported.
Horeya Mashoor, who was also announced as a council member, said that, while she supported the idea of a transitional council, she was “surprised” to find her name among its members. Mashoor said the council can begin a political transition to help Yemen “find solutions to prevent the country sliding into chaos more than it already is now”.
A government spokesman, Abdu al-Janadi, denounced the council as a “coup against the Constitution”.
The formal political opposition did not comment officially on the council. Opposition leaders had considered naming their own shadow government but said that they had been pressured against it over the last few weeks by Western nations because it could be seen as a hostile move by some of the remaining governing party leaders. Nor was there public comment from the government’s two most powerful opponents, the military commander Ali Mohsin al-Ahmar and the tribal leader Sheik Hamid al-Ahmar.
But the Houthi rebels, a militant group that controls large portions of northern Yemen and which is not represented in the protesters’ list of council members, released a statement on their website warning that “declaring a transitional council before the collapse of the regime will only repeat the Libyan experience”. The Houthis also said the council was “a dangerous step, and it may lead to fighting and civil war”.
It was unclear what percentage of the protest movement was represented on the council. Even Karman, one of the organizers of the street protests that began in January, is a polarizing figure among some of the demonstrators. “I would call this council Towakil and Khaled al-Ansi’s council,” said Adel al-Musanif, a graduate student, referring to Karman and the protest leader who announced the council with her. Another protester, Abdul Rehman al-Qubati, said he recognized the need to organize. “The council is a good step toward the completion of the revolution, regardless of its drawbacks,” he said.

Rico says he used to work with a guy named Saleh; probably no relation...