“You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
….” The Beatles, sans King Abdullah
The Saudi King spoke today. He did not disappoint me in his speech today. I had made some predictions yesterday about what he will not offer, what he will not say:
He announced salary raises for state employees.- He announced an immediate bonus of two months’ pay for everyone.
- He raised the minimum wage for state employees (including his own and all those thousands of princes?).
- He announced a monthly stipend to every unemployed Saudi (again: thousands of princes).
- He ordered creation of a Commission to Combat Corruption. He did not appoint Prince Bandar to be its chief, which can be good or bad.
- He ordered the creation of
60 thousand new jobs “in the security services”. He is telling the
people: you get some more money, you also get thousands more security
agents to make sure you don’t ask for more. - He assumed his people are happy about their politics and decided not to change anything there. The increased state secret agents are just one more step to make sure of that.
No apology for invading the people of Bahrain. Basically he offered them a few more crumbs from the royal table, in exchange for no politics and he expanded the state security to keep the people subdued. These people, whether they are named al-Saud or al-Khalifa or al-Nahayan, are a hopeless case. It is time to rise in the Arabian Peninsula from Qatif to Jeddah, and passing through Riyadh and al-Qassim. I am not talking revolution here, of course not: I am talking sending a message to these clueless potentates who live inside their own watermelon states.
Cheers
mhg