The sudden purge in Saudi Arabia has taken the Arab world by storm
You have read about in the history books, where a young prince eliminates all rivals to his throne. Under Mughal rule, we famously had the case of Aurangzeb and Dara Shikoh. And now, recent events in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where hundreds of the elite, including members of the ruling family and powerful clerics, were arrested in a sudden ‘anti-corruption’ crackdown. One prince who could not be arrested died in a mysterious helicopter ‘accident’ while apparently trying to flee across the Saudi border. However, students of political history will compare events across Riyadh and the speed with which they were conducted less to a battle between members of the al-Saud ruling family and more to a putsch. But a comparison with the infamous ‘Night of the long Knives’ in end-June 1934 when Adolf Hitler along with Heinrich Himmler acted against rival Ernst Rohm, although this happened with a lot less bloodshed and the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh are better digs than a Nazi German prison, is unavoidable. Corruption is a favoured tool of rival ruling factions to take out rivals, as happened in China when Xi Jinping put away his main rival Bo Xilai five years ago.
People who have done business in Saudi Arabia talk of the immense corruption in that country. But Mohammed bin-Salman, the 32-year-old Prince whose father Salman sits on the Saudi throne has decided to shake things up. last year, he changed Saudi Arabia’s complicated power-sharing arrangement where the sons of ibn-Saud ruled one after another. Prince Mohammed has taken out all his key rivals, including Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal, the owner of Kingdom Holdings and one of the wealthiest men on the planet. The young Prince has reined in Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police and has decided to list Saudi-Aramco, the country’s oil company, in what will likely be the biggest public offering in history. He has positioned himself as a reformer, realising that the world is moving away from running on crude oil as the move towards renewable energy and electric vehicles is now set in stone. He was also the person who pushed through the decision to let women drive in Saudi Arabia. That might not seem like a big deal, but in a deeply conservative society where the aspirations of young Saudis were being denied by old conservatives, this was a big deal. Earlier this year when US President Donald Trump travelled from Saudi Arabia straight to Israel, which might have seemed like another small thing, it made clear that the largest Arab country in the world and one whose King is known as the custodian of the mosques at the two holiest sites in Islam is not an implacable foe of the Jewish state.
But what nextIJ Prince Mohammed is clearly wary of Shia Iran, and has funded Sunni forces in Syria and Iraq which have fought against Iranian-backed forces. Indeed, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition in Yemen against Iranian-backed rebels in a forgotten war. He has led a Gulf blockade against Qatar, whose young ruler Sheikh Tamim obviously rubs him the wrong way. And India in this emerging situation has been extremely quiet as its interests are tied up everywhere in West Asia — we have friendly relations with Saudi Arabia, Israel and Iran, and buy gas from Qatar. But MEA mandarins need to figure this one out quickly to ensure we are in pole position as the region shows signs of change. As for Saudi Arabia, the dust is yet to settle.