The brutal frenzy that the Houthi militia authorities have recently reached against the private sector in Sana'a and its areas of control brings to mind the group's soft behavior during its preparations for a coup against power in 2014.
The Houthi militia would not have been accepted by the people without that soft behavior, which was represented in helping travelers on the roads on which its patrols and fighters are present, under the pretext of securing the way for its members, and this behavior continued until its representatives entered the National Dialogue Conference. When the group announced its adoption of demands to reduce fuel prices and form an alternative government to the government of Basindwa, citizens thought that the group had a national project that it would present to save Yemen from the disputes that were ravaging the national forces and parties after the 2011 protests against the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The Houthi militia benefited from these differences and took advantage of a historical moment when Yemen was in its darkest conditions, and instead of contributing to salvaging the critical situation and converging views as a rising and emerging group in the political scene, the group seized power in September 2014. And brought down the capital, Sana'a, by force of arms. She was planning her dynastic project in order to restore the rule of the country, as was the custom of her ancestors of the imams who ruled Yemen with oppression and tyranny, seizing its natural wealth, and dealing with citizens as enslaved subjects or laborers to work for the benefit of the imam and his authority, but how did the imama return in the absence of time?
More than fifty years after the revolution of September 26, 1962, which overthrew the last imam regime that ruled Yemen, Yemenis believed that the imam tendency and authoritarian ambition had dissolved in all Hashemite families and that the descendants of the imams had become assimilated within the framework of the republican system, which removed the differences between Yemenis, especially those that were The Hashemites cling to it because they prefer themselves in ruling over the rest of the Yemenis, being from the family of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace. However, the Houthi movement spared no effort in excluding the political forces, taking advantage of the state of division that afflicted the country's leaders, and did not hesitate to devour the capital and send its fighters to control the provinces under the slogan "The Scream" and patriotic and nationalist slogans that days have proven that the group used to hide its dynastic and authoritarian project only. Then, it took advantage of the military intervention of the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to mobilize more fighters and blackmail the tribal sheikhs into recruiting their sons and the sons of their tribes into its ranks.
The blackmail of tribal sheikhs and community notables, and the militia's attempt to withdraw their weapons is one indication of the lack of a popular incubator for this group, which surprised Yemen at a time of inattention and division. It also indicates its insecurity in light of its monopoly on power and the depletion of natural and human resources. And after it was approaching the citizens by opposing the corruption of the ruling authority, the power became in the hands of the militia, and it began to practice corruption by force of arms and abuse power to suppress opponents of its corruption and militia behavior in government.
During the nine years of its rule over most of the governorates of northern Yemen, the Houthi militia authorities have perpetuated the levies system against citizens and businessmen, not even the sellers of mobile mattresses on the side of the streets. Collection methods with many names and repressive practices committed by the group’s supervisors and fighters wherever they are and wherever they find rest of the dignity and dignity of the Yemenis oppose their domination, which injected the citizens in the areas of their control with hostile feelings towards the group in general.
In order to legitimize its militia behavior in government, the group began to amend laws in line with its tendencies to control society, which no longer desired its existence after its goals and project were revealed, which contradict all the national constants gained through decades of struggle and the establishment of a state of equal citizenship.
Another indication of the Houthi militia's lack of confidence in the existence of a popular incubator is its insistence on holding summer courses for school students, and indoctrinating them with ideas that make them soldiers for the dynastic project in governance and spiritual control over society. In order to control the administrative apparatus of the state in the areas under its rule, the group deliberately issued a functional code of conduct that guarantees the loyalty of state employees to the authority of the Ahl al-Bayt, as well as their approval of any penalties against opponents of this policy.
The Houthi group realizes that it is nothing more than a militia that is empowered by being a loyal arm of Iran, which supports it diplomatically and provides it with arms and manufacturing experts. It is also empowered by its willingness to use the most lethal weapons in a way that does not take into account international laws and social and humanitarian norms. Therefore, it adheres to this authoritarian and unbridled tendency in order to ensure its safe survival in areas of its control. It also bets, in its continuation of this arrogant approach, on the prevailing division among its opponents, and on presenting itself as the guardian of Islam by heredity, and dealing with its opponents as apostates outside the community.