On his return from months of hospitalisation and recuperation in the US and Morocco, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was characteristically unstinting in his generosity. He lavished $36bn on his subjects, in pay rises and debt forgiveness, and to help them buy houses and start businesses. As munificence goes, this was princely. Whether it was politic is another question.
It might buy off whatever unrest is brewing underneath the kingdom’s thick layers of political, military and religious control. Or it may be perceived as the panicky response of an absolute monarchy to the wave of revolution unfolding across the Arab world; the rulers of neighbouring Bahrain offered their people a similar bribe but they took to the streets anyway. Yet King Abdullah’s decision to hose Saudis with money to pre-empt any revolt is certainly old politics in a new era – and unless it is followed by political reforms the king himself has timidly championed, the future of the kingdom must be in question.
The House of Saud is, of course, resilient. It resisted the radical pan-Arabism of Gamal Abdel Nasser when Nasserism was sweeping all before it, from Syria to Yemen. It saw off Ayatollah Khomeini’s attempts to export the Iranian revolution. It has overcome violent Islamist challenges, and emerged reasonably unscathed after inviting half a million foreign troops on to its soil – the birthplace of Islam – during the 1990-91 Gulf war. Many have bet against the al-Saud, but here they still are.
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