Reform Begins At Home

A meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz and intellectuals from his country is the latest step in what appears to be a march towards internal reform in the Kingdom. According to attendees, Prince Abdullah said that it is only a matter of time before domestic reforms are instituted in Saudi Arabia.

Abdullah's remarks came during a landmark gathering on 22 January that brought together the Kingdom's de facto ruler and 36 liberal and Islamist thinkers who presented the prince with a "vision" for political and legal reform.

Leading Islamist reformer Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al- Qassem, who attended the meeting, said he "came out with the impression that the leadership was more serious [about reform] than at any time before." He added, "It was agreed to hold regular meetings, although no dates were set."

The holding of the get-together was confirmed last week when the group of intellectuals published their vision for change in the London-based Arabic- language Al-Qods Al-Arabi newspaper. A total of 104 leading Saudi Islamists and liberals put their signature to the suggestions for reforms.

Topping the list of changes the group called for are a separation of powers, an elected legislature with effective supervisory powers and the fostering of conditions to facilitate the establishment of institutions of a civil society in order to spread a culture of tolerance.

Basic democratic freedoms, like freedom of expression -- including freedom of the press -- guaranteeing basic rights for citizens and granting women equal rights were on the intellectuals' list. They also called for "more tolerance amongst the Kingdom's various religious sects and granting minorities rights".

The movement for reform, itself, includes the participation of minorities. According to reports, at least five of the 104 signatories are Shi'ite.

The meeting came only weeks after a statement by Prince Abdullah earlier in January in which he called on Arab countries to implement political reform and expand popular participation. At the time, some analysts took the prince's remarks as a harbinger of things to come in his own country.

The conservative Kingdom has an appointed parliament, the Shura Council, which was established in 1993. The council's powers, as indicated by its name "shura", are only consultative. Consequently, it reviews government- sponsored draft bills and, accordingly, makes recommendations to the cabinet. The council's decisions are not binding on the government.

In Saudi Arabia there are no elected professional associations or unions.

The landmark meeting between Prince Abdullah and the reformists came on the heels of Saudi Arabia's decision to permit the New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) to visit the Kingdom after years of ignoring its requests in this respect. The eight-day visit, which ended on 27 January, was the first by an independent international human rights group and was widely viewed as another indicator that the winds of change were blowing through the Kingdom.

Hani Megally, HRW executive director, said, "We have been encouraged to believe that many within the government understand the importance of matching words with reality." Megally also said that Saudi Arabia is reforming its judiciary and that it has improved lawyers' access to prisoners and has introduced clearer regulations in this respect.

While observers of Saudi Arabia acknowledge that Prince Abdullah's announcements appear to indicate a startling departure for the Kingdom, they suggest that given the current international political situation, the moves are really not so surprising. Consequently, they locate the prince's actions firmly within the context of the US's ongoing war against terrorism and the threat of war against Iraq that looms over the region. If a war should materialise, observers say, Saudi Arabia is in for a tough year.

So, while these changes seem in large part aimed at tending to strained ties with the US, they also appear to be directed at appeasing Saudi citizens -- including political Islamists -- disgruntled by the lack of political freedom in the Kingdom.

With 15 of the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks hailing from the Gulf country, there is a strong argument to be made that Riyad's calls for internal change are part of an attempt to repair its damaged image in the West. Since 9/ 11, the US has repeatedly charged that the Saudi Wahhabi brand of Islam and the country's religious-oriented education system fuel militant Islamism.

Saudi-American relations were further put to the test when in August 2002 the Washington Post spoke of a report submitted to the Pentagon that described the Kingdom as an "enemy" state and a supporter of terrorism.

A source who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity questioned the sincerity of Saudi Arabia's vows to make changes. According to the source, these days political leaders in the Middle East, and even in many European countries, are attempting to placate the US so as to avoid confrontation with it. "Politicians in the Arab world perceive this US bullying as temporary, so they seek to let it pass with the least losses." Accordingly, the source asserted that there are limits to what such pressure can achieve. "Saudi Arabia might accept a multi- party system that allows Islamist parties: Wahhabi, moderate... etc, but it will never accept a secularist one -- no matter how much pressure the US exerts."

Others, however, emphasise the current Saudi leadership's capacity to foster change. Gwenn Okruhlik, professor of political science at the University of Arkansas, Prince Abdullah has the capability and the personal legitimacy to initiate such change. She said the challenge before the Saudi prince "is to promote domestic reform that incorporates the diversity of the population. His strong nationalist voice can be used to counter the power of the radical movement. The wide middle ground between a revolutionary Bin Laden and the authoritarian ruling family cries out for cultivation."

The latitude Saudi officials are currently permitting reformers to meet, organise and use media outlets to disseminate "democratic ideas" in the Kingdom differs considerably from the state's response to such actions in the 1990s.

Petitions against stationing American troops in the country in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War and ones demanding structural reform in the Kingdom were usually rejected. Moreover, when voices outside the royal family, like Sheikhs Salman Al-Awdah and Safar Al-Halawi gained widespread popularity, they risked arrest as the aforementioned pair did.

The wider margin of freedom could be identified throughout almost the entire past year. A noteworthy example are articles carried criticising various aspects of Saudi society in the country's newspapers. A striking instance of this occurred last March after a fire at girl's school in Mecca that caused the death of 15 girls. Some articles blamed Saudi Arabia's powerful religious police for exacerbating the death toll by preventing girls from fleeing the school before they had put on full Islamic dress.