Despite Prince Mohammed’s repressive domestic policies and external military interventions, he was impetuously hailed as a hero by U.S. national media, lobbyists, think tanks and lurking financial-seeking individuals and businesses.
Soon after what many Saudis hoped would be the beginning of a more participatory form of government, a restructured absolute system began to emerge.
The habitual Saudi methods of arbitrary arrest, incarceration without charges and due process, intolerance of all forms of expression and royal supremacy are intensifying under King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed.
Known for his contempt for other wings of the ruling family, life-long mistrust of Americans (intensified during the Obama Administration) and rejection of public participation in the decision-making processes, King Salman’s dream came true after inheriting the throne in 2015. He dismantled the traditional royal succession system and put the country’s fate into the hands of his novice 30-year-old son, Prince Mohammed. This unprecedented display of power consolidation was said to be necessary due to an economic crisis.
The economic crisis King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed inherited in 2015 is undeniable, but there are other agenda-driven objectives behind their conclusive consolidation of power under their control. Mistrust and contempt for his predecessor, King Abdullah and his clan and policies, were a driving force behind King Salman’s actions. His well-known claim of the royals’ ownership of the country, which he and his two powerful full brothers, former Ministers of Defense and Interior Sultan and Naif (deceased), believed can only be preserved by the sword, and only their wing of the family, the Sudairis, can safeguard.
By the time King Salman inherited the throne in January 2015, the ruling family was more divided, vulnerable, isolated and threatened than at any time in its tumultuous history. The princes were divided over domestic and foreign policies, fiercely competitive (backstabbing), openly corrupt and less obedient to central authority. By eliminating the traditional succession arrangements, in which all wings of the royal family shared decision-making, King Salman was able to install his sons in key internal and external positions.
Consequently, to avert a palace coup by marginalized powerful princes, King Salman authorized unprecedented arrests of potentially rival royals, business tycoons and former officials under the pretext of eliminating corruption. The luxuriously housed detainees were forced to pay for their release, revenues Prince Mohammed needed to restore the government’s public handouts and to offset lack of foreign investments in his single-minded economic reform project, Vision 2030.
Ordering well-calculated social initiatives, such as music and allowing women to drive, could not be implemented without preventing a potential religious uprising against the Saudi ruling family and its “un-Islamic” initiatives. Given the historical zealotry upon which the state was founded, alienating the religious establishment poses a real threat to Prince Mohammed’s rule, if not more. However, arresting a small number of “corrupt” royals in combination with these embryonic social initiatives ushered in what felt like a new era, in which important political reforms, such as institutionalized rule of law, public participation in the decision-making processes, transparency and accountability would follow.
Instead, ubiquitous political repression, economic austerity and an environment of fear and intimidation are emerging under Prince Mohammed’s rule.
Despite Prince Mohammed’s repressive domestic policies and external military interventions, he was impetuously hailed as a hero by U.S. national media (liberal and conservative), lobbyists, think tanks and lurking financial-seeking individuals and businesses. Prestigious opinion shapers and commentators from the New York Times and Washington Post to the Weekly Standard and major think tanks rushed to meet with an interview with Prince Mohammed. Those who couldn’t meet him were escorted to visit government designated destinations where they interacted with a few Saudi men and women and asked them about their feelings toward Prince Mohammed.
Under governmental supervision, the Saudis told their agenda-driven and fame-seeking visitors what the Saudi government wanted them to hear: Prince Mohammed was a God-sent savior, while privately and on social media Saudis of all ages, genders, religious orientations and socio-economic segments of society are not only skeptical about a better and kinder future under Prince Mohammed’s watch but critical of his duplicitous agenda.
The hordes of American media, individuals and groups returned to the U.S. and wrote glowingly about Prince Mohammed in visual and print media. He was featured on prominent programs and introduced as a “women liberator” and a reformer. While they all agree that he is a dictator, the media called on the U.S. government to support him. Hypocritically, most of Prince Mohammed’s media and think tanks promoters are severe critics of President Trump’s love for royals, dictators, and extravagant lifestyle.
What the glorifiers of Prince Mohammed seemed to have overlooked is that President Trump did not need their recommendations. He is not only Prince Mohammed’s and his family’s staunchest promoter and ally, but a defender, echoing FDR’s 1945 commitment to protect the Saudi rulers and defend their kingdom.
During his visit in May 2017, President Trump not only renewed FDR’s commitment to protect the autocratic Saudi rulers, but designated them leaders of Sunni Islam, concluded a $350 billion deal in arm sales, supported their blockade of Qatar and their catastrophic war in Yemen, which began during and was supported by the Obama Administration. The latter supported the devastation of the poorest Arab country, Yemen, and starvation of its 26 million people in return for the Saudis’ acquiescence vis-à-vis the Iran Nuclear Deal.
Despite the U.S. media and government’s promotion of, unequivocal support for and faith in Prince Mohammed’s abilities and determination to remake Saudi Arabia, their assumptions are proving to be largely premature, as exemplified by his regressive domestic policies and his stalling economic reforms.
During his highly politicized and successful three-week public relations and business tour of the U.S. in March 2018, Prince Mohammed secured extraordinary support and admiration for his social initiatives among U.S. media outlets, members of Congress, interest groups and, most importantly, from President Trump’s Administration. Consequently, he assumed he could do what he sees fit domestically and regionally without worrying about American censure.
His American promoters focus on his social initiatives, especially returning Saudi Arabia to “moderate Islam” and allowing women to drive, but ignore the unprecedented repressive measures Prince Mohammed employs to silence dissent. Arbitrary arrests, detentions, incarcerations, torture, and expropriation of property without due process have exponentially intensified under Mohammed’s watch without any criticism from the Trump Administration. This should not come as a surprise.
President Trump has made it clear, before and since he was elected, that human rights and the promotion of democracy is not a U.S. responsibility. He reiterated this fact in his speech to the Arab and Muslim heads of state in Saudi Arabia in May 2017. He told his autocratic audience that “America is a sovereign nation and our first priority is always the safety and security of our citizens. We are not here to lecture—we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship.”
Prince Mohammed should not take solace in the U.S. Administration and media support for him and tacit approval for his iron-fisted policies. Like his predecessors, Prince Mohammed is continuing the failed policies that the country has suffered from for decades: reliance on external powers and internal repression to prop up the system instead of including the Saudi people in the development and security of their country.
Unless Prince Mohammed and his hand-picked subordinates share institutionalized power with the Saudi people, the country will remain unstable, underdeveloped and susceptible to internal and external threats which will require U.S. military intervention to protect American economic and strategic interests.
Ali Alyami, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, CDHR, in Washington, DC. CDHR focuses on promoting peaceful and incremental democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia, including empowerment of women, religious freedom, free flow of information, free movement, free press, privatization of government industries, free elections, non-sectarian constitution, and codified rule of law, transparency, and accountability. Read other articles by Ali.
