Saudi’s King Abdulla caused a major shakeup a couple of days ago with drastic changes in the Saudi political landscape!
In short, he removed officials with Islamic fundamentalist ideas and replaced them with moderates, as well as appointing a woman in government at a position which is equivelant to a minister.
This is an excellent step forward for the country, which has the strongest influence in the region on other neighboring countries. This move comes very late in my opinion, I predicted changes to happen back in early 2006, but of course better late than never!
Would such a reshuffle with an obvious reformist message ever happen in Kuwait? As a friend of mine said, “the problem is not with the reshuffling, it’s with our deck of cards” … I think that’s the perfect explanation.
Promising moves. Timing aside, King Abdulla deserves a pat on the back.
And so do you for coming back to blogging :*
نتمنى من سموه الاستمرار في طريق الانفتاح و الحرية
فلم يكذب من قال ان المملكة أختنا الكبيرة
good for him
long time coming
Moderation is the way to go. Excellent decision by the Saudi government.
good for him
Great for the country
“the problem is not with the reshuffling, it’s with our deck of cards”
… you forgot the dealer
I would agree more with the above comment only you can’t talk about the dealer without including the whole casino staff… aka the royal family (no disrespect intended, I’m just going with the metaphor).
The King’s move comes at time when the royal family is performing a very delicate balancing act. The average citizen sees himself living at a level far below his potential income per capita but he sees no explanation for that. On the other hand, he sees a fellow citizen who is paid the combined per capita income of all the other Gulf states combined just because he was lucky enough to be born with that special surname.
This perceived lack of equality feeds into the balance of the religious institution which will eventually eat up the monarchy if it does not begin dissolving that old alliance. Church and state just do not mix, in the end one of them has to destroy the other.
Real change would come when regular citizens feel an equality with the ruling class and when the religious institution is reduced to an advisory role, not a behemoth with it’s own police force. But then again if the King tries taking that leap he risks an all out “Jihad” against the monarchy and that’s why he needs to go forward in baby steps. It’s just too bad that he’s too old to see that final goal achieved and nobody knows if the crown prince will follow the same policy of appeasement as his predecessors.
Shurouq, intay illy pat on the back for hanging on so long still!!
Ma6goog, agreed!
eshda3wa, at least it came.
lensman, yalla lets hope thats just one of many more moves on the way.
كويــتي لايــعه كبــده …. u said it much better!
Mo, great comment. Thats one thing we have better here in Kuwait than most other countries in the Gulf, although its slowly trying to change but so far so good. i also totally believe in the baby steps that need to be taken and found the reaction to his visit last year to London very silly by all the people criticizing Saudi and him for not changing everything! I still believe that this move coupled with the scholarship one 2 yrs ago will have very good long term effects on the country as a whole. I hope ur wrong about him not being able to see the final goal achieved and i dont know anything about their crown prince unfortunately :/
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