SANAA — “Thawra” (revolution) has been on the tongues of Yemenis for the past two years, but revolutionary changes tend to move at a glacial pace. For example, it took President Ali Abdullah Saleh nearly a year to agree to the 2011 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) deal on the transfer of presidential power. This past week brought an the exception to the rule when President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi hastened the pace of change with presidential decrees altering the political and military balance of power in Yemen. “Awe” was the most apt word to describe the atmosphere when it occurred. Indeed, most Yemenis could be heard uttering, “Finally,” in response to Hadi’s decision to reshuffle the military.

The presidential decrees not only fulfilled one of the key demands of the 2011 revolution, but also brought to a close the long-standing dispute, and outright armed conflict, between Ahmed Ali Saleh, eldest son of the deposed president Saleh and who headed the powerful Republican Guard, and Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who had earlier defected to protect protesters in 2011.

While Hadi’s decree removed the two dueling strongmen, appointed thirty new military leaders and concluded 30 years of Saleh-family domination of the Yemeni military, it also contained an important gesture to foster reconciliation between the Yemeni military and the Yemeni people. The First Armoured Division base, a sprawling headquarters that effectively served as the nerve center and staging ground for attacks against protesters in 2011, will be transformed into a public park.

Yet, recent history and jousting strongmen may not be so easily forgotten in Yemen. Ahmed Ali Saleh, while being groomed to take over from his father, had been appointed head of the country’s most elite force, the Republican Guard, and given several sensitive political and economic portfolios. In 2009, Saleh was tapped to implement the 10-point Agenda for transforming the political and economic landscape of the country in what many viewed as a ploy to brand him a reformer, bolster his engagement in economic policy, increase his popularity among the people and, most crucial, spread his role among assorted high-level positions domestically and firm up contacts with Western diplomats who largely supported the agenda. The former good friend of Said al-Islam al-Qadafi tried to learn from his legacy and perhaps Jamal Mubarak.