
Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring, at Last - zonotope
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/opinion/saudi-prince-mbs-arab-spring.html
======
candiodari
I highly doubt that the king massacring half of the current power structure
for his own ends, and castrating the other half is an arab spring, and will
not bring increased freedom.

We all know what's coming next: a few incidents where the old power structure
takes some small measure of revenge, followed by mistrust, fear and
repression. The king, and all of the new government, does not trust it's hold
on power and will have to cut benefits across the population. These things
don't mix well.

Half the western press is implying that the current king, who was not even the
successor to the throne as little as 5 years ago is really an attempt to
modernize and westernize saudi arabia. This is exactly the line the saudi
government is putting out (while keeping significant parts of the old power
structure hostage at gunpoint one might add [1], maybe worse than just keeping
them hostage [2]). Currently the king is taking a populist viewpoint, but
that's out of desperation and fear.

The economic reality means he's going to have to cut financial benefits to the
population by a lot. And if there's one thing for absolute certain in this
world, it's that that has never brought social progress. Conservatives will
increase in power as a result of this for obvious reasons. What will happen ?

It's embarassing, one might even suspect a lot of money is involved in that
western press attitude.

[1] [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/06/how-saudi-
elit...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/06/how-saudi-elite-became-
five-star-prisoners-at-the-riyadh-ritz-carlton)

[2] [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5108651/American-
mer...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5108651/American-mercenaries-
torturing-Saudi-princes.html)

~~~
_nedR
One 'anonymous' source cited by the Daily mail; Really? That too claiming that
billionaire prince Alaweed no less is being dangled by his feet.

------
hedonistbot
Just came to say that Tom Friedman is a hack and this op-ed reads like a paid
commercial. To call a top-down authoritarian power grab "Arab Spring" is mind
boggling.

------
polotics
The Saudis rulers are trying to sell a small chunck (5%) of Aramco, for about
a hundred billion bucks. If they fail to attract capital, it's back to camels
after oil.

------
wavefunction
>>it will not only change the character of Saudi Arabia but the tone and tenor
of Islam across the globe. Only a fool would predict its success — but only a
fool would not root for it.

That's for sure. Murdering millions of their fellow muslims in Yemen. What's
not to root for?

------
stablemap
A collection of like stories in the Times over the last 70 years:

[https://twitter.com/anhistorian/status/934080718816399361](https://twitter.com/anhistorian/status/934080718816399361)

------
thisisit
> So when his father, who has never been tainted by corruption charges during
> his nearly five decades as governor of Riyadh, ascended to the throne in
> 2015

Is it just me or that sounds sarcastic?

------
erikb
No revolution, written by a man, talking about another man before he even
really started his reforms, a good chance that most of the "reforms" the
Prince is planning are more on the marketing side than on the implementation
side.

~~~
_nedR
Some of the reforms have already happened. Prominent examples include the
reforms to the guardian system and woman's driving issue. Also there is the
planned and widely announced IPO of Saudi Aramco. If the IPO announcement is a
marketing stunt, then it is a pretty lame one as it is easily
verifiable/disprovable. I have trouble figuring out what the short term gains
could possibly be from announcing a fake IPO.

