The announcement that municipal elections will be held within a year is welcomed by everyone here as a very significant step on what is likely to be a journey which will see the Kingdom once again dramatically modernizing while holding firm to its Islamic principles. At the same time, it should not be interpreted as a radical departure from the past. This is not because elections will not mean anything: They will mean a great deal indeed. Rather, it is because, for more than seven decades, Saudi Arabia has constantly changed with the times. It would be difficult to imagine another country in the world where such extraordinary development has taken place with such little negative effect. Nor by the same token should the announcement be seen as a concession to parts of the US media which has used the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 to launch a smear campaign against the Kingdom. If anything, that smear campaign may have made Saudis less inclined to listen to reformist ideas than they might otherwise have been. Every Saudi’s priority has been to defend the Kingdom. Thankfully the trauma of the post-Sept. 11 period has now abated, to the extent that we can all move out of its immediate shadow. Saudi Arabia has in fact been introducing, characteristically without fanfare, many reforms which address key social and economic concerns everyone agrees must not be left to fester. Twenty of the main industrial sectors have now been earmarked for privatization, and a new comprehensive insurance law has been introduced. Membership of the WTO will bring in greater change to the laws and rules which regulate the economy. Women have been given their own ID cards, and issues related to women’s rights now get extended coverage in the local press. Two human rights bodies have been announced, and in June a national forum for dialogue brought together various Saudi representatives who recognize that only through serious discussion and analysis can obstacles be overcome. By visiting a Riyadh slum in January, Crown Prince Abdullah demonstrated to the world that he is proud to deal with the issue of poverty, rather than ashamed to look them squarely in the face. By meeting with reformers on numerous occasions, he has also shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a man willing and eager to listen to the concerns of intellectuals as well. To outsiders, this might not seem like much. But only the cynical or the naive can fail to acknowledge that what is taking place in Saudi Arabia is a very radical reassessment of the social contract.
