The Saudis move, but move slowly

Richard Cohen pointed out recently that:

When coming to Saudi Arabia from the United States, you need to set your watch. Officially, the time difference is eight hours ahead of the East Coast. Unofficially, I think it’s about 250 years behind.

Indeed, as Glenn Reynolds has recently pointed out, the Saudis remain a potent source of terrorist support. Neverheless, the Saudi regime does seem to be moving forward — however slowly — in altering their behavior in constructive ways. Again, it’s maddeningly slow, but progress nevertheless. This week saw further evidence of this. This past week the British and Saudis held a two-day conference entitled “Two Kingdoms: The Challenges Ahead,” and some constructive things were said. Khaled Almaeena reports an example of this in Arab News :

It was a cold day in London, but the near zero degree temperature did not chill the second day of Saudi-British conference, where the two nations’ chief diplomats reflected on eight decades of warm relations between their two peoples and charted an equally amicable course for the future. Addressing the conference, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal announced plans to appoint women to the Foreign Ministry for the first time this year. He pointed out that successful political reforms required “an evolutionary process.”

Similarly, the Saudi government is making tentative noises about giving women the right to vote in future election. Beth Gardiner explains this in an Associated Press report:

Women may be allowed to vote in future Saudi Arabian elections, but such political reforms must be implemented “gradually,” the kingdom’s foreign minister said Wednesday. The Gulf nation, an absolute monarchy, recently held its first regular election, for city council members. But the vote was open only to men. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, in London for meetings with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and other officials, said his country’s election commission had recommended women participate in the next vote. “I would not be surprised if they do so in the next round of elections,” he said. Two more phases of the municipal vote will be held in March and April, but it was unclear whether Saud was referring to those elections…. Saud, however, said political reforms would have to come slowly. “The wish is to move as fast as we can, the reality says that you have to move gradually,” he said. “We in Saudi Arabia believe in the necessity of political reform, but it must be evolutionary.” He said the government wanted to improve human rights, an issue Straw said was on the agenda for the ministers’ talks. “We’re working very hard for that … to assure that justice reaches every single human being in the country,” Saud said.

One wonders if the strong performance of the conservatives in the first round of regional elections convinced the regime that giving women the political franchise might be in their own self-interest. This post is not meant to be a jumping up and down saying, “Look, Saudi reforms!! Yippee!!” Clearly, this is going to take a while. But it would be nice if one could say that the Saudis were only 85 years behind the times — instead of 250. Developing…. very, very, slowly.