The new aggressive Saudi Arabia was on full display this month. Canada was the target and had to face the wrath of the powerful 33-year old Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, or MBS as he is popularly known. The new power centre behind the Saudi throne has taken umbrage at Canada’s criticism of its human rights record.
The world knows that the monarchy in Riyadh does not brook opposition. While Russia and China are castigated for their rights record, US and its Western allies, including Democratic US Presidents (who focus in promoting it), had chosen to look the other way when it came to Saudi Arabia. Mainly because Riyadh is a close ally of the US in the region. More important the petro rich desert nation keeps the cash registers of US arms companies ringing by buying billions of dollars worth of lethal weapons. Besides weapons, American and Western businessmen have thriving deals with the super rich kingdom.
Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been in the forefront of championing liberal values. So it was hardly surprising that his foreign minister Chrystia Freeland tweeted Canada’s concern over the arrest of Samar Badawi, a women activist. Samar had received the 2012 International Women of Courage Award.
Her brother Raif, a blogger, has been jailed since 2012 and ordered to be lashed a 1000 times. His wife and family were granted asylum in Canada in 2015. Freeland’s tweet read: “Very alarmed to learn that Samar Badawi, Raif Badawi’s sister, has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. Canada stands together with the Badawi family in this difficult time, and we continue to strongly call for the release of both Raif and Samar Badawi.’’ The next day the Foreign Ministry tweeted again asking for release of all civil society and women’s rights activists. Perhaps, if the tweets were translated into Arabic, things would not have flared-up as much. But the translation sent out of the tweets was the trigger that set things rolling. Many more people could now read the tweet.
A sharp statement from Saudi Arabia would have been enough. But with MBS, Canada had to pay a price for its transgression. For one, the Canadian envoy was expelled and the Saudi ambassador recalled. Saudi students in Canada were asked to leave that country and take admission elsewhere. Business firms were asked to stop dealing with Canada and told to divest its Canadian shares. The Crown Prince ensured that it become a full blown diplomatic crisis with neither side willing to blink first.
Canada would have wanted its Western democratic allies to support its stand. But few are speaking up. US president Donald Trump has little respect for human rights. Moreover, Saudi Arabia is a close friend. Riyadh was his first stop at an overseas tour soon after he came to power. The Crown Prince is not just a close friend of son-in-law Jared Kushner but is well liked by Trump. The Trump White House has little respect for human rights, except as rhetoric used again countries like Iran, and has walked out of the UN Human Rights Council. MBS is seen in the White House as a modernising agent. It is a fact that the Crown Prince has allowed women to drive something they were not allowed to do earlier. He has also brought back entertainment to the kingdom by granting permission for cineplexes to open in a kingdom which looked at cinema, public singing and dancing as un-Islamic. He has packed off the dreaded moral police from the streets. MBS is hugely popular with the younger generation of Saudis who look up to him to free them from the clutches of the austere Wahabi religious clergy.
Yet his critics regard him as a ruthless power seeker. With his ascent to power, the consensus that has guided the kingdom came to an end. The upheaval the Crown Prince has set in motion has never been witnessed in the kingdom. In a crackdown on corruption, he arrested hundreds of top businessmen and officials, including members of the royal family and put them in a five-star hotel. This included Saudi Arabia’s outspoken businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The commander of the National Guards Prince Miteb, son of the late king Abdullah. Quick on the heels of these arrests, there was news of a helicopter crash in which Prince Mansour bin Mugrin Al Saud, deputy governor of Asir province was killed.
MBS is a powerful King in waiting with no one to challenge him. The headstrong Prince’s intervention in Yemen is yet to show results. The Saudi leadership is being accused of indiscriminate bombings, including the latest on a school bus filled with children. He picked a fight with neighbouring Qatar and organsied a blockade. Qatar has survived the attempt to isolate it. He forced Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri to announce his resignation while visiting Riyadh. But had to send him back as Lebanon stood firm and the international community condemned this blatant interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign country.
Ironically, today his anger with Canada is on the grounds that no country should interfere in Saudi Arabia’s internal matter.
Seema Guha is a senior journalist with expertise in foreign policy and international affairs.
