Saudi National Day: Security, stability and development

When I was a student in a foreign university, I had a dream to go back to my home country and contribute to its stability and development. Back then, Arab students and many others from the Third World countries were obsessed with political discussions at the expense of their studies. Graduates from countries like Syria, Iraq and other socialist countries were a special case. They returned home with an ideology that was contrary to the reality there. Their hopes and aspirations evaporated simply because the concept of justice, even development, respect for citizens and their religious feelings that they had cherished, were absent.
Amid those ideological disparities, we used to view our country, Saudi Arabia, positively and rightly so. Communism came to an end as an ideology; the Baath Party crumbled in Iraq and is currently running out of steam in Syria; and Qaddafi’s rotten ideology has ceased to exist.
As regards the Iranian revolutionary ideology, it only stirs tension and instability in the region by supporting the dictatorship of Nuri Al-Maliki and backing Assad in repressing the Syrian people. Libya still lags behind the rest of the region in terms of education. An Iraqi academic told me that the Libyans commissioned him to establish a faculty for law and politics. But, Qaddafi interfered saying that his Green Book should be taught for analysis of international relations. This compelled the Iraqi academic to leave Libya.
When we look at today’s Saudi Arabia, we see economic and social developments benefiting societies that were beset in the past with disorder, tribal conflicts and regional disputes. Islam, as a religion, proved to be a unifying factor for people from different cultures. For this reason, the Saudis accepted religion as the cornerstone of their political social contract. And this helps in achieving security and stability. Then oil came as an important means for development. Anyone can judge the progress made with the advent of oil. This led to overall development. National economy grew and so did the political system. Education, industry and commerce also got a major boost.
I was listening to a political expert who came up with an interesting argument. He said that states pursuing ideology fail to understand that a social change is not easy and cannot be done politically. Also they fail to understand that moving from one culture to another is almost impossible without going through certain phases.
As a rule of thumb, people detest change and resist it. The state hence adopts policies of balanced and controlled socio-economic change in such a way that take into account sentiments of the society.
In the past, mere riding of bicycle was not religiously allowed. Today, it is normal. Much of the technologies were banned and today they are not. Nowadays, most Saudis are in touch with business world and the cultures and civilizations of the world. Additionally, we did not have many schools or universities in the past but currently the county is full of them. Needless to mention, the programs for scholarships abroad that were adopted by the state to help develop the Saudi society and to help it cope with developments at the international stage, coincided with a general state policy that believed in dialogue and believed in positive relations with the rest of world and the international organizations. In addition, the Saudi state — a key player in the world economy — is vigilant against being dragged into adventurous policy of failed states. Unlike other states that waste their resources in their quest for nuclear weapons under the pretext of resistance, Saudi Arabia believes in wisely using its resources and capabilities to develop and modernize the society without paying attention to false political presence. A close look at the dynamics of failure of these countries reveals that the reason for exporting tensions abroad — as in the case of Iran, Russia, and Syria — is due mainly to internal crises prevailing in these countries.
Saudi Arabia, like rest of the world, is pro-development and pro-changes. As Almighty Allah mentions in the holy Qur'an: “And had it not been for Allah’s repelling men, some of them by the others, the earth would have become filled with disorder. But Allah is Munificent to all peoples.” The push for change can be internal as well as external. Therefore, we believe that we are not separated from the rest of the world. On the contrary, we interact with them despite our peculiarly distinct cultures. We live in a world that has developed a universal scientific culture that we have to deal with so that we can benefit, and this is the essence of Islam.
On the whole, all societies across the world suffer from certain socio-economic problems in addition to problems relevant to authority, legitimacy, stability, participation, and distribution of wealth. These problems can be normal issues for regimes that put their relations with their societies on the right track. When people feel that development is not subject to a mere propaganda and not controlled by authoritarian criteria, the society can overcome any crisis. Seen in this light, our country believes that education, even development and social welfare are for the people. Saudi Arabia dedicated all its resources to serve its people and to affect substantial changes in the structure of the society. Not surprisingly, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah addresses his people by saying that he serves them. Iraq and Libya were among the richest countries that could have led to even development in their societies. And yet, these countries mismanaged the wealth as it gave priority to security but in a negative way. Iraq waged wars as Iran and Libya did.
When the Saudis celebrate their National Day, they recall their symbols and leaders in all walks of life. They look at how much they achieved and the stability that they enjoy in a volatile region. When they see the rationality and prudence of the policies of the state they feel that they really achieved a marked progress. We understand the National Day in this context and in this sense. Our distinguished relations with the world and with the human civilization are beneficial to our society. More importantly, we understand that we live in one planet and in this planet there is no place for morons and adventurists.