Issue 870, 29 January 2010

New campaign group challenges Al-Saud

Islamist campaigners for constitutional reform have managed to sustain a permanent and openly declared organisation in the Kingdom for three months. Protests have usually consisted of one-off petitions or statements by groups of intellectuals, but the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) is maintaining a campaign presence through a series of statements and ‘letters to the King’ on its website www.ksaright.org.

The group launched in October, setting out a broad agenda for change. In December, it demanded parliamentary elections, exploiting widespread feeling that the government had mishandled the floods crisis in Jeddah which killed at least 116 people. It said the crisis highlighted the need to give the Saudi people “the right to elect their representatives in a national assembly which can watch, monitor and evaluate the services of all government agencies”. Just three weeks after calling for elections, ACPRA pressed for two regime critics detained without charge to be given a proper trial (Saudi law states that detainees should be tried within six months). It also alleged that the two activists, Mohammed Al-Otaibi and Khalid Al-Omair, had been tortured.

ACPRA has just 11 central founder members, but presents the government with a new challenge. Petition campaigns effectively condemn themselves to failure from the outset by requesting specific reforms that can easily be refused. ACPRA’s main objective is simply to establish the de facto right for an independent reform group to exist and operate in public. At its launch, the group said it could not wait for the government to pass a law to allow the creation of independent non-governmental organisations (NGOs). “The idea is to form a society to defend civil and political rights,” said founder member Mohammed Al-Qahtani.

If ACPRA sustains operations over coming months, it will establish the principle that it is normal for groups outside government and the ruling family to have a permanent presence and comment on a range of policy issues. Because of this, the authorities may regard ACPRA as a threat; even before its launch, the security services were interviewing potential members. The group has adopted the usual reformist tactic of positioning itself as loyal to King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz while criticising unnamed regime figures who it claims are trying to block the King’s agenda for change.

One of ACPRA’s founders is former literature professor Abdullah Al-Hamid. In the early 1990s, he was associated with the conservative Sahwa (Awakening) movement of Wahhabi scholars such as Salman Al-Awdah and the Committee for the Defence of Legitimate Rights (CDLR), which was accused by some of sympathy for radicals. More recently, Al-Hamid has developed links with liberal intellectuals such as Matrouk Al-Faleh and Ali Al-Domaini. His move away from the traditional Islamist agenda towards human rights and governance issues exemplifies a wider shift among a significant number of Saudi opposition Islamists.

A new opposition encompassing liberals and Islamists has emerged, and ACPRA marks a further stage in this process. Islamists and liberals may disagree over religion and social issues, but they agree on a basic political reform agenda – respect for human rights and freedom of expression, and constitutional change to allow elections and to make the government and legislature more accountable. While this trend has broadened the reformist challenge, the Al-Saud family may ultimately maintain its hold on decision-making. Opposition hopes that King Abdullah would introduce elections to the Majlis Al-Shura (Consultative Council) – or at least permit a second wave of municipal elections – have so far been disappointed. Greater scope for effective opposition could lie with civil society groups such as the women’s movement. When the authorities agreed to submit to the United Nations women’s rights review process last year, their official submission was challenged by a more critical review by independent feminist campaigners, whose report had significant influence.

As ACPRA speaks out as a genuinely independent voice, some wonder how long the authorities will allow it to survive. If the group is allowed to continue, it will, in a small way, confirm Abdullah’s reformist agenda. Shutting it down and detaining members would signal a clear setback for modernisers.