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One Member (So to Speak), One Vote - Part 1 of 2
That great father of Arabian democracy and sometime infidel George Bush, following the "success" of the elections in Iraq, welcomed the first municipal council elections to be held in Saudi Arabia for forty years as "a further sandaled and sandy foothold for Mother Democracy in the Middle East."
The house of al-Saud, who hold their kingdom in an absolute monarchy, have shown their friend and fellow member of the oil billionaire club that they are keen to be seen to allow the good folk of Saudi (in Bush's words) "a higher standard of freedom" by opening up half the municipal council seats to the democratic process, thereby wresting absolute control over sewage and refuse collection from the Royal Family.
Although only men can vote for the fifty percent of seats open to election, the other half being by appointment of the Royal Family, and the council being unable to raise revenue or set its own budget, only a mean mind would see this historic Dawn of Democracy in Saudi as a cynical sop of democratic window dressing, the shop floor full of the same old stock, to sustain Mr Bush's public delusion of a fledgling pan-Arab democratic movement.
The same rotten cynics would probably also ask why the house of al-Saud doesn't open up the Shura Council, a consultative body appointed by the King - think English House of Lords 800 years ago - to elections and grant it legislative powers.
Dismiss these gloomy, crusty troublemakers to the back of your mind and listen to that great paternal ruler of an innocuous people, Crown Prince Abdullah: "We must go slowly, and indeed we are," he warned. "We must not be afraid to stop and look how far my people have come, and then, once the hoo-ha has died down and the sand has settled, go back again."
But there have been calls from ungrateful activists inside Saudi Arabia for even greater reforms...
For the second half of this startling report, in which we learn, among other things, how ink is applied in a most unusual place during the voting process, click here!
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