Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Saudi Stability?

Mutaween!

So, how's the original He Man Woman Hater Kingdom's future look as Arab League is reeling from the feeling that - amazingly enough - certain elements within Arab League - like, you know, the peeps - are all hot for what Uncle Tony prophesied eons ago?
  
Just how stable or unstable - to reform, fun and free choice - is Saudilanders ruling royalty?

"...Saudi population and clergy are deeply committed to a puritanical form of Islam and resist social change when it seems to come into conflict with traditional religious and social practices, and that Saudi society is driven by its internal values and demands that are very different those of Western secularism. 

When Tunisia and surrounding environs began to flame up, the ancient King eschewed alerting old school headcrackers, snipers and foreign bone breakers - rather, the royal gov blinged high dollar royal decrees resulting in 'Stability Investments' - multi-billion dollar decrees aimed at the people’s needs.

"...These investments total some $36 billion and they are obviously intended to defuse popular unrest. At the same time, they are not some sudden rush to invest in jobs, housing, medical services, and education. 

"...They reflect half a century of Saudi government investment in precisely the priorities that drove the core demands of the protesters in Egypt and Tunisia and the focus of social justice that has been the key to most of the current unrest in the Middle East. 

Ah, yet shall it be enough for a nation of sorts of nearly 26 million,  fully crunk with kids under 30yo, an unemployment rate of 30%, an underwhelming literacy rate of 78% and a somewhat understandable (not!) fear of unbound hoochies driving cars with tons of religious police, secret police and fashion police?
 
Even the super nerdy super rich Great Satan Hating Prince Doofus Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud (remember that jerk?) actually scored within Fire For Effect Range

"...For any reform to be effective, however, it has to be the result of meaningful interaction and dialogue among the different components of a society, most particularly between the rulers and the ruled. It also has to encompass the younger generation, which in this technologically advanced age has become increasingly intertwined with its counterparts in other parts of the world. 

 If Saudiland teeters all the way over and crashes into a revolutionary civil war - the effects on global markets will be devastating  not to mention the effects on House Of Saud

"No one will attack us from outside but our own armed forces will attack us and cut off our heads in streets." 

One notable note so far - all the toppled and toppling autocratic dictatorial despots have been non royals - Egypt, Tunisia and now Libya - all exMilitary cats that for whatever reasons - found themselves ruling nation states and abusing their stations.

Kingdoms and Royals may be diff critters - with or notwithstanding Bahrain: 

"...It seems impossible that the democratic genie in the Middle East can be put back in the bottle, which the Tunisians opened and Egyptians all but shattered. The era of long-lasting Arab presidents is drawing to a close. The dominoes have started falling and many other are swaying. 

"...Only the more liberal regimes, most of which happen to be monarchies, stand a chance of survival through reform.

Constitutional Monarchies?

 Pic - "Fall of the House of Saud"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Constitutional Monarchies are all fine and dandy but I have my doubts about that happening in this case. I see a fundie government with a nasty theological axe to grind with Iran and the Shiites. Just my two cents.

Don
Fords Prairie

SecondComingOfBast said...

A constitutional monarchy wouldn't work any better than a democracy, or at least not a Parliamentary democracy like Britain. The only thing that could hope to work in some Arab countries is a form of republic like we have in the US, with proportional representation based on popular vote, and a constitution that guarantees the rights of minorities to live and work in safety and liberty, while requiring adherence to the rule of law and respect for all members of society.

Good luck with that one in a Muslim society. Saudi Arabia would never adapt such a system because as there is no minority of any significance, they would insist there is no need. It would all come down to the rights of individuals, and in Islam, there are no individuals, thus no compelling need for such rights.

The Saudi King is doing the only thing he can do to keep the peace-bribery of the populace.