HOPE ALIVE:

The Case The Saudis Can't Make (Faiza Saleh Ambah, March 27, 2005, Washington Post)

It's hard not to be intoxicated by the breeze of democracy wafting across the Middle East. An Arabian Spring, analysts call it, heralded by round-the-clock demonstrations in Lebanon, suffragists out on the streets in Kuwait, rare protests in Egypt, voting in Iraq and reform even here in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where limited municipal elections are being held this year. But just as I'm about to get carried away by the spirit of hope, my mind stops, does a U-turn and returns to three men -- two academics and a poet -- who've been behind bars in Saudi Arabia for a year. Their case, and not the ballot box, has become my barometer for real change in the kingdom.

Along with their lawyer, these men have forced a groundbreaking case onto the Saudi legal system, the power of which lies in its simplicity. They want the implementation of the rule of law in practice and not just in theory. Their tenacity could cost them their lives. But they take the risk because they know that without the rule of law this so-called Arabian Spring will prove to be as illusory as a desert mirage.

With their insistence on an open trial and legal counsel -- rights granted but not exercised in this kingdom -- these veteran activists have laid bare the Saudi legal system. Last August, the three made history after insisting on and receiving an open arraignment in Riyadh on charges that included holding a public gathering and claiming that the judiciary was not independent. But since then the hearings have been closed, and the defendants have refused to cooperate. Their case now stands as a symbol of how far Saudi Arabia still has to go.

Signs of change came earlier to Saudi Arabia than to the rest of the Arab world. Following the Americanoverthrow of Saddam Hussein's government in neighboring Iraq, the United States was pushing democracy on the region in general and Saudi Arabia in particular. The Bush administration was putting pressure on the kingdom to combat extremism with political reforms. To top it off, there had been a spate of attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants trying to topple the pro-Western Saudi royal family. When I returned to my homeland last year after three years in the United States, I found no trace of the stagnant political atmosphere that had driven me to leave. Instead I found my native country in a state of flux, the atmosphere effervescent with hope.

Once you allow folks their hopes they realize them.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 3, 2005 9:26 PM