October 16, 2003	Thursday	Sha'aban 19, 1424

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia is taking its first hesitant steps towards liberalization but is already finding the experiment a nerve-wracking experience, analysts say.

On Monday, the absolute monarchy showed the first sign of concession to growing demand for reform by announcing plans to hold the first municipal elections in the oil-rich country.

Only a day later more than 200 Saudis, in a rare show of public opposition, demonstrated outside a human rights forum in the capital Riyadh to show their displeasure at lack of reform.

Disregarding a ban on protest and a warning by the interior ministry, Saudis, mostly under 30, called on the government to implement drastic reforms, end a crackdown on reformists and address nagging issues such as poverty and rising unemployment.

Police fired shots in the air and arrested about 50 people.

“It is a miscalculation for people to expect that the government would shower them with constitutional reform just by having intellectuals sign petitions,” said Abdullah al-Hamed, a former university professor who was jailed after signing the first reform petition in the early 1990s.

“What happened yesterday is a good sign. If people demanding reform don’t go to jail there won’t be change,” he said.

Since the September 11, 2001, attacks on US cities — in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis — Riyadh has come under pressure from key ally Washington to implement reform in the cradle of Islam and the world’s largest oil exporter.

In a normal Western democracy, the protest would have barely been reported but in Saudi Arabia it caused ripples, not least because the protesters were not thought to be from Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, which is active in the kingdom.

They belonged to dissident groups. Witnesses said a few were Islamists but others appeared to be ordinary citizens.

“There are changes in Saudi Arabia but the pace is too slow. It is natural that change sparks some kind of rumblings,” one prominent Saudi journalist said.

SURPRISE PROTEST: The peaceful protest took not only Saudi officials by surprise but also political analysts and diplomats familiar with the kingdom, which is ruled by sharia law and where public protests are severely punished.

They said it showed young Saudis are ready to take to the streets to air their grievances and challenge the authorities.

“This was unusual. There is no general pattern of people demonstrating here. It is clear that Saudis are responding to calls for change. It shows the depth of their frustration,” one Western diplomat said.

Reformists said they had expected that the first political protest would provoke harsh reaction from the authorities.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said Tuesday’s protest was orchestrated by “some people who had been duped by others”.

The protest coincided with the country’s first human rights conference and came after London-based Saudi dissident Saad al-Fagih called for a vigil in Riyadh to protest what he called a recent wave of arrests of reformists.

Saudi reformists hailed the introduction of municipal elections as a major step, but said more, and greater, changes were needed to meet both the challenge posed by militant Islamists and the expectations of ordinary people.

Hamed said nothing short of moves towards a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament and an independent judiciary, along the lines of other Gulf countries where gradual reforms have started, would reassure Saudis.

“The state should announce a programme for political reforms even if the implementation is in the future,” he said.

“People want a serious commitment from the government that issues like unemployment, squandering of public wealth and corruption will be addressed,” he said.

The cabinet call for local council elections next year, and the rare human rights conference, follow Western charges that the lack of political freedoms in Saudi Arabia had helped the rise of militant groups sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

Riyadh had already responded by allowing more press freedom and scrapping school teaching that promoted hatred of Christians and Jews. It also mounted a major crackdown on militants, arresting more than 200 suspected members of Al Qaeda.

Analysts said political reforms were the only way to curb growing militancy by providing non-violent channels for people to voice their opposition.

“If the government wants to defeat militants and extremists it should speed up reform,” Hamed said. “A peaceful trend for change will eventually pull the rug from under their feet.”—Reuters