By: Madawi al-Rasheed*
The brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 shattered the myth of the benevolent monarchy and set Riyadh on a charm offensive.
While the murderers are yet to be convicted in Saudi courts, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MbS) has come close to admitting responsibility. His recent PBS interview included a statement that should have been made a year ago, as the prince admitted the crime happened under his watch - but he went on to say that there are three million Saudis working in the public sector, and officials among them were responsible for the crime.
A year after the murder, neither the perpetrators nor the boss who gave the orders have been convicted. A secretive trial of 11 operatives has yet to issue its verdict. And bin Salman’s key aide, Saud al-Qahtani, named as one of the suspects, has disappeared from the public eye, while the crown prince enjoys applause at carefully staged populist events, including the September 23 celebration of Saudi Arabia’s national day.
Yet, while the veneer of "life as normal” continues in the kingdom, the crime of the century changed many things. It was a catalyst that reminded the world of the treacherous nature of a regime long endeared to its Western allies. The U.S., UK and other partners were not going to change their intimate relations with Saudi Arabia simply for the sake of a slain journalist.
After all, thousands of Yemeni men, women and children have been bombed over the past five years, without shaking the conscience of those who arm Saudi Arabia and support its air strikes on the ground.
Realpolitik prevails against the uproar of global civil society and UN agencies who have conducted their own investigations of the Khashoggi murder and the war on Yemen. The Khashoggi case was not going to change the basic rules of the game.
But domestically, the trust between the Saudi leadership and the people has been permanently shattered. The murder exposed the deep state that Muhammad bin Salman inherited from his deposed cousin, Muhammad bin Nayef, who wired Saudi Arabia to control its citizens and widened the net to catch critics, dissidents and civil society founders, under the guise of fighting terrorism.
'Maybe He Did'
Unfortunately for bin Nayef, he became persona non grata despite him being the CIA’s preferred candidate to succeed King Salman. Bin Nayef was sacked as U.S. President Donald Trump clashed with his intelligence agencies and offered the crown prince cart blanche to rise to the top posts in the kingdom, amassing a half-dozen senior jobs.
Trump even refused to accept the verdict of his own intelligence services on the Khashoggi murder, shrugging off the evidence and the intercepted phone calls, and concluding that "maybe he did” have knowledge of the event "and maybe he didn’t”.
The Khashoggi murder was merely a symbol of the erratic, daring and brutal thinking of the crown prince, who proved capable of humiliating his own kin under the guise of anti-corruption.
His bullying of the wealthy elite to save the initial public offering of five percent of the state-owned Aramco oil company promised to safeguard his Vision 2030 and raise much-needed cash. The princes and business elite detained in the Ritz Carlton two years ago are terrified at the prospect of losing their own excessive wealth, but also their heads, should they attempt resistance.
A Clear Message
Murdering Khashoggi sent a clear message to all citizens, including royalty. This regime is drawing the curtain on previous episodes of royal politics, namely the deployment of carrots and sticks, which to a certain extent succeeded in containing dissenting voices and earned the regime the title of benevolent dictatorship. But alas, the carrots have vanished, and the sticks have been replaced by sharp knives.
The rentier redistributive economy that ensured acquiescence is giving way to a new strategy of ultimatums. You either pay and keep silent, possibly while under a travel ban, or face a return to the Ritz or somewhere even worse. This is the new face of the kingdom, under the full control of the boy king.
Bin Salman’s treacherous nature is reminiscent of an earlier historical episode. It reminds us of that moment when his grandfather, Abdulaziz bin Saud, eliminated the very people who consolidated his kingdom, a consortium of zealot tribal leaders, as he killed them one after another when the job was finished. He sacked towns, killed people in mosques, and precipitated massacres in places such as Riyadh, Taif, Hayil and others.
While this history has yet to be written properly, the boy king promises to continue that tradition with impunity. The murder of Khashoggi, described by his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz as a man "from the palace”, was perhaps just the beginning. Saudi jails are bulging with prisoners of conscience, and executions are on the rise.
Dishonoring the Dead
Bin Salman will not even honor the dead. Khashoggi’s corpse disappeared, and there are no signs that parts of it will be found or returned to his family to be buried properly.
According to Ali al-Dubaisi, director of European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights in Berlin, the regime is still holding 83 corpses of slain detainees, mostly Shia prisoners who were executed behind closed doors.
Khashoggi's murder alerted the world to how the boy king is determined to rule with an iron fist
The future of the kingdom under the crown prince looks bleak, despite all the hype about tourism, entertainment and other new opportunities on the horizon. Repression will continue hand-in-hand with so-called reform. Khashoggi’s murder alerted the world to how the boy king is determined to rule with an iron fist.
*Madawi al-Rasheed is visiting professor at the Middle East Institute of the London School of Economics.
-Courtesy: Middle East Eye
