From Ahmet in Tunisia: "Asad,
one can sniff a western apologetic of the gulf dictatorships when a so called
researcher takes seriously the dog and pony show of tribal majal-Less and sees a
democratic element in it that, according to him, "direct petition" of the Saudi
king is a democratic practice that possibly dwarfs as an accountability measure
what has transpired after Arab uprisings. This doha-based
British researcher manages quite well to not pronounce it in his realpolitik
lingo but he lets his guard down when commenting on the Kingdom of Horrors and
he says that public beheadings,institutionalized misogyny and other iniquities
only "leave much to be desired". Enjoy your ally, the Shah and Mubarak once
looked as immovable:
"In some ways, the kingdom is far
more politically accountable than Arab countries that underwent revolutions in
2011: Traditional governance structures in many parts of the
kingdom still prevail, and the role of the provincial governor in attending the
daily majlis to address the problems and needs of his
constituents is still highly important in maintaining ties between the people
and the ruling elite.
It would have been unthinkable, for instance,
for a normal citizen to be given the right to petition directly to former
President Hosni Mubarak, or even current President Mohamed Morsy -- such is the
enforced bureaucratic distance between the citizens and the ruling class in
Egypt. Not so in Saudi Arabia, where one can observe tribal
elders lambasting rather
forlorn-looking princes for not addressing the country's problems.""
