WHEN THEN US President Bill Clinton famously said “it’s the economy, stupid!” he created a catch phrase that still rings the world over. He had put into sound bite terms one of the most basic facts of political life, one that in fact has always been instinctively understood.
Good economy is central to good government and, for ordinary people, to good life. Without it there is discomfort and discontent, and ultimately, if nothing is done, misery, chaos and strife. That is not to say that the economy is everything. There is more to sound government than economic competence, otherwise heads of state might as well employ bankers and economists to run governments. That they do not is because there are other areas to consider: Defense, geopolitical allegiances and alliances, culture, crime and a host of other areas where costs, while important, are the means, not the end.
In pursuit of the non-economic agenda, Prince Abdullah, the regent, has recently spent much time and effort, specifically to one great end — the peace initiative that could bring calm to the Middle East. The nature of the problem is such that it requires the greatest involvement and dedication. Compromise does not sit easily beside the violent legacy of hatred, suspicion and oppression which in half a century has seen all other attempts at peace falter and fail and compromise is at the very heart of the prince’s land-for-peace plan.
To get even this far, it has needed his active involvement, promoting it in every necessary quarter — to the Arab states and to the United States. There is still a long way to go. We can be sure that wherever the next step is to be taken along the road to peace, Prince Abdullah will be there to help make it. But he will do it with one eye firmly fixed on the Saudi economy.
The need to press ahead with economic reform and diversification is his other priority and together, like twin political pillars, they dominated his address to Wednesday’s opening session of the annual Shoura Council. The importance of the speech is that it shows that economic reform — in particular continuing privatization and the opening up of the local market to foreign investment — has not been put on the political back burner while he concentrates on the Middle East’s great issue. It is up there, alongside it. It has to be.
Finding jobs for young Saudis, diversifying the economic base away from oil, and making sure that a growing population has the education, the health care, the water supplies and all the other facilities it needs are as much struggles to be fought and won as the Palestinian issue. When Prince Abdullah says that Riyadh will proceed with its diversification program and that everything will be done to encourage domestic and foreign investors to create jobs, it is what people want to hear. They want to know that the economic prospects ahead, for them and for their children, are good.
It is not that they regard the Palestinian issue or the plight of Muslims elsewhere in the world as being of minor importance. On the contrary, there is great identification throughout the Kingdom with the Palestinians in their pain and oppression. The proof of that is the remarkable outpouring of cash in the Saudi Telethon. If the public thought only of their own pockets, it would not have happened. But the national economy is still the immediate priority for most people; and with justification.
The old proverb that charity begins at home was never so true. If people here do not have jobs and prosperity, how can they help their brothers and sisters elsewhere less fortunate than themselves? Bill Clinton’s catch phrases are not Prince Abdullah’s style. But his ringing promise of economic reform shows an incisive understanding of what has to be done to assure the Kingdom’s future well-being. Moreover, it is what the Saudi public want.
