Public opinion misdirection and false reform in Saudi Arabia while King Abdullah buys off the masses

Balancing act in Saudi Arabia
Friday, October 7, 2011 – GWYNNE DYER -Hurriyet Daily

It’s amazing how much sub-text you can pack into a single word. Consider this recent announcement by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia: “Women will be able to run as candidates in the municipal elections and will EVEN have the right to vote.” Well, hurray.

On the other hand, you could easily accuse the 87-year-old monarch of dragging his feet on reform, because he waited until this year’s municipal elections were almost upon the country (held last month) before announcing that women could vote the next time, in 2015. Boo.

But that’s not fair to King Abdullah. He’s actually moving fast on women’s rights, because 2015 will be only eight years after Saudi Arabian men were allowed to vote for the first time, in the 2007 municipal elections. AND women will henceforward also be eligible for appointment to the Shura Council, the 150-member unelected congress that the king consults with on matters of public concern. Hurray.

Hang on a minute. Two days after Abdullah made that announcement a Saudi court sentenced a woman to receive 10 lashes for the crime of driving while female. Boo. And hang on further, later the king overturned the court ruling and spared the woman. Hurray. And on and on, in an endless counterpoint of progressive measures and conservative crackdowns.

So what is actually going on here? What we are seeing is a few surface manifestations of the struggle that is going on among the Saudi elite about how to respond to the “Arab Spring.” The pro-democracy movements are operating right along Saudi Arabia’s frontiers, in Jordan, in Yemen and, most frighteningly, in Bahrain. Everyone agrees that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE, but what? …more