I’ve been interested in the upcoming elections in Saudi Arabia because of course elections there aren’t something that happen every day, or, you know, EVER.
While I’ve been pretty upbeat about even the idea of elections there, limited as they are, they haven’t gotten any media attention from the liberal mainstream media here—likely because that would lend credence to President Bush’s effort to spread freedom and democracy across the world in order to bring peace to the world.
And we couldn’t have that! Are you kidding me? No, better to have wars and persecution and rapes and dictatorships and tyranny and keeping women in their place—this, it seems, is what’s important to liberals in Canada and the United States.
I just read an interesting perspective in the Times of India. Not as upbeat as me, to be sure, but it’s always interesting to get the view from another land—this one from the largest democracy on the face of the earth.
I’m more upbeat because of the recent massively successful election in Iraq, and most of all because of those fantastic Iraqi people.
It’s mere tokenism, not a sign of democracy
Anyone who believes that the forthcoming Saudi municipal elections are a stepping stone to major polls in future is being naive. The polls are to be held without women’s participation, a clear indication that democracy is not about to take root any time in the near future. Saudi Arabia is one of the most secretive societies in the world where women are virtually invisible. A harsh moral police ensures that women do not go out unaccompanied by a male relative and that they are covered from head to toe. An accurate gauge of democracy is the way a society treats its women. Saudi Arabia fails on all counts. Though Saudi Arabia’s women are better educated than its men, they constitute only 5 per cent of the workforce and own a mere 5 per cent of businesses. This repression is done under the guise of promoting Islamic values but is at sharp variance with the emancipation of women in other Muslim countries.
The real reason behind this big production being made over these civic elections is the fact that Washington has been making threatening noises about Saudi involvement in the international terror network. The US has also raised concerns about the lack of democracy in the oil-rich kingdom. The Saudis are apprehensive that more attention may fall on them after the US is through with Iraq. It is to ward this off that the House of Saud is eager to prove its ability to change. Internally too, there have been a series of terror attacks in the past 18 months. The elections could also be a way of allowing people to let off a little steam. But that is where it will end. In the past too, the desert kingdom has resisted any international pressure to initiate democratic change. It is only by denying the space for dissent that the Saudi rulers have been able to perpetuate their authority. They will certainly not allow anything which challenges this to flourish.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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