I followed with pleasure the election of the members of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry and, prior to that, the elections for the Municipal Council, which form the only two decentralized bodies in our system of administration.
I wish regional systems would adopt such a procedure for choosing its members while retaining the authority to appoint the members to their specific jobs.
On the morning that the three systems were created — the governing system, the Consultative Council (Shoura) and the regional bodies — the king confirmed in a meeting with Arab media that the Shoura was a consultative body and not a Parliament in the traditional sense of the word, which accords with the philosophy on which the Shoura system is based, namely that it is the ruler’s right to choose his own advisers.
Members were chosen with the utmost care and would be impossible to match by election.
It is therefore surprising that suggested reforms have concentrated on elections as the foundation for suggested reform, rather than looking for ways to develop the Consultative Council so that its duties might expand into the political realm.
If that were to happen, then election of the members would be conceivable.
It would allow us to go into the issue of elections step by step: Most legislative bodies in the world have embraced the process gradually.
Arab News Features 26 February 2003