A snapshot of a "MAJLIS" according to the world of
al-Saud House, CACSA, May 3, 1996
A Majlis in Saudi Arabia is the "democratization" of
the government. Al-Saud claim that their country is a democracy because of
their use of the Majlis. The Majlis works like this : There is always a
prince at the Majlis and he is always an al-Saud. People flock in strove
and meet in an informal way and petition the prince to solve their
problems. Depending where one lives in Saudi Arabia, a Majlis like a court
room is held with the prince that governs that area. This public display
of democracy is not so democratic. The princes in question have not had
any formal training to judge or apply any of the laws that exist in Saudi
Arabia.
We have three different transcripts of a Majlis with three different
nationalities. When one looks at the results and outcome of the prince's
rule, one would see immediately how democracy is applied today in Saudi
Arabia through a system of injustices and based on a whimsical approach
and not applied rule of the law. These examples are excerpts from :
"The Rise, Corruption, and Coming Fall of The House of Saud" by
Said K. Aburish. St. Martin's Press, New York (212) 387-9100
SAUDI CITIZEN
Presiding Prince : Salman bin Abdul Aziz
Petitioner : 70 year old Saudi citizen
Petition : Seeking money and permission to marry a 15 year old
Egyptian girl.
Two Years later, [1988] in Riyadh, in the middle of the country, a
Lebanese journalist who is in the pay of the House of Saud attended a
Majlis of Prince Salman, the Emir of Riyadh and head of the House of
Saud's family council. Initially, the journalist occupied the seat of
honor, to the right of the Prince, but continued to make way for important
people as they arrived and was soon at the other end of the Diwan. Behind
Prince Salman stood a tall black guard with a sword and a gun. Following
is the report of the journalist :
"Everything big and small is handled in a Majlis. Believe me, there
was a blind man who was there to petition the Prince to allow him to have
a driver's license. He was questioned in an amusing way then dismissed.
Some Bedouins spoke to the Prince and they addressed him by his first
name, the way Bedouins have called rulers since the Prophet Mohammad. The
House of Saud claim the Majlis is their way of staying in direct touch
with the people, and in a way an open house serves this purpose. But damn
it, though Salman is probably the best among them, the whole thing is
arbitrary and some aspects of it are most unattractive. Let me give you
some examples.
"There was a seventy year old man, a man from Riyadh. He had married
a 15 year old girl in Cairo and, because marrying foreigner needs special
permission, he wanted to bring his Egyptian bride home. The old so-and-so
turned out to be a regular at the Majlis and it led to an musing exchange
between him and the Prince.
The Prince :"But, old man, are you able to support your young bride
?"
The old man :"No, no, but I told her we have a generous Prince and
she'll never need as long as he's alive."
The Prince laughed :"How many times have you been married ?
"A mere eleven, may you live long, but I promise this will be the
last time."
"But you have made this promise before ?"
"I do remember, Allah bless you, but I do not think I can go beyond
this beautiful thing."
Everybody laughed. The Prince issued an order approving the marriage and
granted the old man funds to bring his bride home.
FOREIGN WORKERS
Presiding Prince : Local Provincial Prince
Petitioner : General Manager of a Saudi hotel on behalf of a
foreign worker
Petition : Seeking to find the whereabouts of the foreign worker
In 1986 the general manager of a major Saudi hotel, part of an
international chain, went to see the local province prince regarding one
of his employees, a Filipino bellboy, who had been arrested by member of
CAVES (Committee for Advancement of Virtue and Elimination of Sin). The
manager entered the diwan and sat down until his turn to speak came. He
handed over a piece of paper containing his name and occupation and a
statement about the case, but stood up and made an oral presentation which
elaborated the paper's contents. "May you live long, one of my
employees, a poor Filipino boy of 17, was arrested by members of the
Mutawa [another name for CAVES] three months ago for wearing indecent
clothes. I do not question their right or judgement, but my initial
inquiries indicated that he would be released in four weeks. My subsequent
inquiries produced similar promises, but nothing has happened. May you
live long, I am here to inquire about the boy's fate. And upon my honor,
I'll see to it that the boy behaves in accordance with the blesses laws of
Islam in the future."
The man remained standing to hear the prince's response:.
"What was the exact nature of his crime, what kind of clothes did he
wear ?"
"May you live long, he wore his shirt immodestly. It was open in the
front and exposed parts of his body it shouldn't have and wearing gold
objects around his neck."
"Is he a good looking boy ?"
"He is not bad looking, sir."
"Then you'll never see him again."
The laughter was loud and long; the petitioner, still standing, joined in
to protect himself. The Prince, visibly enjoying himself, spoke again.
"You need not bother about your employee. Sooner or later they'll
find him and send him home to his mother. There is no question of
returning to work. We cannot permit loose men like him to infect our
country with their ways."
The manager thanked the Prince and left. To this day, he has no idea what
happened to the boy. When not in Saudi Arabia, the prince wears Western
clothes, frequents nightclubs to chase blondes and drinks like a fish. In
Saudi Arabia, he drinks in private and marries often.
FOREIGN WORKERS
Presiding Prince : Salman bin
Abdul Aziz
Petitioner : Korean and Filipino Workers
Petition : Seeking retribution for salaries not paid.
... later, in the same Majlis, there was a delegation of Korean and
Filipinos workers. They came to petition the Prince because their Saudi
employer hadn't paid their salaries for two months and they didn't have
money to eat. The Prince had heard about the case and he wasn't amused. He
asked the spokesmen for the delegation whether it was true that they had
demonstrated against their employer. When they admitted they they had, he
ordered them deported from the country. He saw their action as a
disturbance of the local peace which superseded the gravity of their
grievance.
AMERICAN EXECUTIVE
Presiding Prince : Salman bin Abdul Aziz
Petitioner : American banker
Petition : Seeking justice in an car accident.
... 'Even later that day, an American banker appeared in front of the
Prince and his case showed how uneven the Majlis' ways can be. He had had
an automobile accident with a Saudi in which the latter died.
"Unaccustomed to the ways a Majlis works, the banker proceeded to
explain the accident; he blamed the Saudi driver and claimed that he had
no driver's license. The Prince moved his hand in a motion which asked the
American to stop and ordered him to pay a sum of money to the victim's
family. In the final analysis, the rights and wrongs of the case as we
understand them and they would have been judged by an insurance company
didn't matter--what counted was the death of a Saudi driver.
"What is wrong with the Majlis is beyond the obvious and by that
I mean the lack of pattern, precedence and the competence of a prince.
What is wrong with it is the freedom of the person who renders judgement,
that he is not bound by a recognizable law" Lebanese journalist
witnessing the above incident.