MIDDLE EAST : GAS LEAK IN THE HOUSE / THE FINANCIAL TIMES COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS ( A MUST READ )

Middle East: Gas leak in the house

By Abeer Allam and Roula Khalaf

Published: March 10 2011 22:08

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On the streets: defying a national ban on protests, Shia in Qatif brandish placards that highlight the plight of jailed demonstrators. Among majority Sunni, many also now want political change

The Riyadh International Book Fair, which closes on Friday, has become a symbol of subtle social change in Saudi Arabia, a show of openness to foreign cultures where men and women – unusually for the kingdom – mingle in the same space as they browse newly published works.


Now in its sixth year, it is billed as the Middle East’s largest annual cultural event. But when the information minister, the liberal Abdelaziz Khojah, opened the fair at the start of the month at an exhibition hall in the capital, a group of young bearded men stormed the venue.


They ordered women, each already covered from head to toe in a loose black abaya, to hide their figures even more and chastised them for having gone out in public in the first place.


Picking on Mr Khojah too, they accused him of “westernising the country”.
The official religious squads, or mutawa’a, which had seen their wings clipped lately after a string of well-publicised abuses, denied that the men belonged to their organisation, claiming the young men were independent moral guardians of society. Some of them were later arrested but released after intervention from conservative clerics who, like many Saudis, now turn to the internet to spread their message. They launched a Facebook group and used Twitter to press for their freedom.

Among more liberal Saudis, the incident provoked a broader question: was this a message from elements in the royal family, designed to remind Saudis mesmerised by the Egyptian and Tunisian revolts that curtailing the powers of their monarchy and pressing for democracy could bring to the fore more radical Islamist forces?

“What happened in the book fair is a show of force of the ‘other reform demands’,” says Abdelaziz al-Qassim, a lawyer and political analyst. “It is the same language used by various Arab governments to say, ‘it is either us or the radicals’.’’


As the Arab spring sweeps the region, the prospect of the revolutionary spirit catching on in Saudi Arabia has excited segments of its population and troubled its rulers. It has also affected perceptions of Saudi stability abroad, with more analysts and consultancies now considering Saudi Arabia not to be immune from the upheavals.


But if the Egyptian revolution that forced out Hosni Mubarak as Egypt’s president confounded the US and Europe, any hint of change in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer and a heavyweight in the Islamic world, would be seen as an earthquake. Few people inside or outside the kingdom are predicting imminent turmoil. But analysts and diplomats are warning that without significant political reform – including within the sprawling and spendthrift royal family, composed of about 7,000 princes who make up the House of Saud – the kingdom’s stability cannot be taken for granted.


In a country where any form of assembly is banned, the number of protesters until now has been in the low hundreds, a far cry from the masses that have taken to the streets in other Arab countries. Yet the signs of a growing mood for change have scared off investors, driving the Saudi stock market to a 22-month low.


Even if King Abdullah, 86, staves off a popular challenge in his remaining years, failing to embrace a more inclusive political system would leave behind an accumulation of frustrations that could erupt in the face of his successors – the two most immediate of whom are also both ageing and ailing but lacking the popular support on which the king can still count. “Egypt has changed the mood,” says Mohsen al-Awaji, a political activist. “Now, people want a manifesto for freedom, dignity and jobs.”
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King Abdullah returned on February 23 from three months of medical treatment abroad to a radically changed Middle East. Saudis had watched with awe as Tunisian and Egyptian protesters toppled two of the strongest regimes in the Arab world and many welcomed what they hoped to be the Egyptian effect on Saudi Arabia.


When Saudis now discuss politics, they often tend to speak of “after or before Egypt’’, to emphasise that the world has changed and the ceiling for Arab societies’ demands has risen.


The king was greeted with three petitions from democracy activists, calling for a constitutional monarchy and an end to corruption. A group of protesters staged a rare rally in front of Riyadh’s al-Rajhi mosque a week ago, chanting slogans against the government. Another group on Facebook called for an Egyptian-inspired “Friday of rage” on March 11 to press peacefully for reform, and attracted a few hundred online supporters. And on Thursday night police moved against 300 protestors in the oil-rich eastern city of Qatif, firing shots to disperse the crowd and leaving three injured.


The uprising in nearby Bahrain, where a Sunni minority rules over a largely Shia population, also encouraged a more vocal tone among Saudi Arabia’s own Shias, who account for an estimated 10 per cent of the population. Several rallies were held to demand the release of prisoners held without trial since the 1996 bombing of a US military complex in Khobar, a coastal city in the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province.


“The whole region is changing and other governments have taken serious steps,” says Jafar al-Shayeb, a Shia activist. “But reforms are not only about the Shia – all of Saudi Arabia wants reform.’’


The regime’s response, however, has so far been neither consistent nor in line with expectations. On his arrival from Morocco, where he was convalescing after two operations to his back in New York, the king announced a SR135bn ($36bn) package of social investment to improve housing, education and other services. Although a welcome relief in a country where per capita income at $16,600 a year is still below that of its oil producing neighbours in the Gulf, and youth unemployment exceeds 30 per cent, it was a throwback to the days when people were content to give their rulers a free hand in government so long as they were well kept.

The initiative has seemingly failed to acknowledge that the popular wish might now be for political change and accountability. Along with the incentives offered with one hand, the regime waved the stick with the other. A teacher who dared to post a YouTube video calling for the ousting of the al-Sauds, describing them as a corrupt bunch who squandered the wealth of the nation, was arrested.

His tribe later apologised to the king. A Shia cleric who called for a constitutional monarchy was also detained, provoking further protests in Qatif and al-Ahsa in the Eastern Province to demand his release. He was freed on Sunday.


Four of a group of nine activists who had announced the founding of a political party were also arrested. Two were released only after signing a pledge not to attempt the same move again. Sheikh Salman al-Ouda, a cleric who signed one of the petitions for reform and had been arguing that protests against unjust rulers are not against Islam, meanwhile had his popular television show on Saudi-owned MBC suspended.


Western and local observers say the ruling family is nonetheless discussing ideas for political reform. Since he took over in 2005, Abdullah has championed a measure of social liberalisation, easing some of the draconian restrictions on women, spending vast amounts on education and judiciary reforms and allowing greater space for expression. But his attitude towards political change has always been cool.
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Under pressure from the US, the kingdom held a partial municipal election in 2005 in which women could not vote. It turned out to be a one-off experiment. Other modest moves that back then had been expected to follow – including elections for half of the Shoura Council, a consultative body with no legislative power – are now said to be back on the cards.


“The reformers in the family know that for them to continue they need to reform now,” says one Saudi analyst. “Years ago, the king said the reform agenda was his agenda, but nothing happened. Had the reforms started back then, we would have avoided the pressure today.”


Abdullah al-Malki, a university professor in Jeddah, says several youth groups have been holding weekly meetings in the country’s socially more open second city, debating the meaning of reform: “Young people do not want to change the regime – they want to redefine the relationship with the regime. They do not want to be treated as subjects but as citizens who participate in building the country. They do not have fears or red lines.”


The argument against shaking the political system has long been that the kingdom, united by the royal family only 79 years ago, is a complex society, with deep divisions between liberals and conservatives, between Sunni and Shia, between rival regions and tribes. Signs of these divisions emerged in recent weeks as many Sunni Saudis dismissed the uprising in Bahrain and accused Saudi Shia of being Iranian agents when they too started staging protests.


Moreover, the influence of liberals, even among the youth, who dream of a western-style democracy, is difficult to gauge in what is a largely closed political system. Until now, they have been thought of as a minority; conservatives backed by the powerful clerical establishment were seen as a more influential force. The history of Saudi Arabia has indeed been that reforms are dictated from the top and are often only grudgingly accepted by the conservative society.


But while the impact of political change could be much riskier for Saudi Arabia and the outside world than in other Arab countries, the regime faces a growing consensus over what people want – a more accountable, representative system in which the royal family does not monopolise power.


The third petition recently sent to the king was signed by 330 people and included liberals, conservatives, Islamists and women.


Mr al-Qassim, the lawyer, says Saudis have been subjected to an intensive course in civil and democratic rights in recent weeks and they are not about to forget the lesson. “The gas has leaked into the house already; the situation will either explode or be dealt with wisely through reforms,” he says. “This is the first time that liberals, Islamists, technocrats, atheists put their name on one list and agree on one thing – reform.”
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Unrest in Bahrain: A split between sects on an island where flowers are met by guns


Located less than 30km across a windswept causeway from Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province, the tiny island kingdom of Bahrain – an offshore banking haven and a liberal bolt-hole for fun-starved Saudis – has become a study in the future of Gulf monarchies, whose ageing rulers control almost half of the world’s oil, writes Simeon Kerr.


Back in the 1990s, in response to riots by a Shia majority claiming discrimination, the ruling Sunni al-Khalifa family began a process of political reform. This radical experiment culminated in parliamentary elections in 2002.


A slow move to constitutional monarchy under King Hamad captured the interest of Saudi royals seeking a road towards more democracy in their own conservative kingdom. But last month’s violent shift in Bahrain’s political tectonics has created alarm among Gulf autocracies.


The island’s majority Shia have long been the most restive population of any Gulf state. Their frustration at the pace of reform and what they see as a sham parliament has been galvanised by the success of the youth movements in Tunisia and Egypt.


On February 14, the police cracked down on largely peaceful “day of rage” pro-democracy Shia-led rallies focused at Pearl roundabout in the capital, Manama. A series of demonstrations then ballooned into the greatest threat to the Gulf’s absolute monarchs since the anti-colonial revolutions of the 1960s as the army opened fire on flower-wielding protesters. Since then, Sheikh Salman, the crown prince, has been struggling to establish a national dialogue.


The growing sectarian breach has sounded geopolitical alarm bells. Government supporters murmur about influence from Shia Iran, knowing this will worry Saudi Arabia and the US, which maintains its Fifth Fleet in Bahrain’s capital. Fearing the collapse of an ally and a victory for the Islamic Republic, America turned its initial criticism of the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement to support for the regime. For its part, the Shia opposition has been attempting to avoid sectarian rhetoric and denies Iranian influence.


The roots of the pan-Arab “youthquake” lie in economic disparity, yet the goal is political change and accountability. The Bahraini opposition’s minimum demand is the removal of prime minister Khalifa bin Salman, the king’s uncle. He is accused of treating the country as a personal fiefdom during his four decades in office.


Battle lines are drawn between a relatively disadvantaged population and rulers desperate to cling to the privilege conveyed by family ties, which typifies the Gulf. Sunnis have better access to government jobs. Their numbers have been boosted by the policy of granting nationality to foreign co-religionists.


Emboldened by calls at Pearl roundabout for an end to monarchy, radical Shia groups are calling for the formation of a republic following two centuries of al-Khalifa rule.


Pro-government gangs, stirred by large rallies of their own and cyber-hatred, are tooling up for a fight.


“The country is on a razor’s edge – the outcomes could either be very good or very bad, especially if sectarianism increases and groups try to polarise the situation,” says Jean-François Seznec of Georgetown University, a Gulf specialist.


A path towards true democracy would send ripples of populism around a region whose monarchs have helped keep the oil market stable for decades. Concessions could anger a Saudi Arabia concerned about instability among its own Shia minority, and may lead it to urge the use of force.


But ignoring their demands risks thousands of disaffected youths marching to meet the army’s bullets. The collapse of dialogue could thus trigger a descent into civil war, fanning sectarian flames across the region and inviting external interference.


Finding common ground will challenge even the crown prince’s charm and intellect. His hardline relatives, who led last month’s crackdown, wait on the sidelines.


The days ahead will not only determine Bahrain’s future but also demonstrate whether the old monarchs of the Gulf can adapt to the demands of their newly empowered young societies.

Oiler of the wheels

Saudi Arabia is the de facto central bank of the oil market, thanks to its unmatched ability to produce more crude at short notice to offset a shortfall elsewhere, writes Javier Blas.

The speed with which the kingdom last month raised output to 9m barrels a day, to bridge the gap left by strife-torn Libya, highlights its role in stabilising global oil prices.

As a matter of policy, the kingdom maintains 1.5m-2m b/d of idle capacity that can be brought into production at any time, officials say. That cushions the global economy against crippling price jumps similar to those of the 1970s and 1980s.

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 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011.