Donald Trump meets with Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office at the White House, March 14, 2017. Picture by Pool/ABACA/ABACA/PA Images. All rights reserved. If Machiavelli were alive today, he might have modeled his political treatise ‘The Prince’ on Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS). Events on the first Saturday of November show that the young heir apparent is confident enough to move on several fronts at the same time on his way to what increasingly seems like concentrating absolute power in one pair of hands: his own.
With the purge and detention of dozens of princes and business tycoons (some doubling both roles), as well as (former) ministers and other senior officials, MBS is doing two things: First of all, he is catering to the sentiments of the average, generally young, Saudi regarding the corrupt elites. This is a safe bet, because the population is well aware of how princes and their coteries acquired their wealth. Riskier, however, is the breaking of a long-held taboo: Publicly turning on other members of the royal family. The last time this happened openly was in 1962, when the then crown prince and later King Faisal exiled a number of firebrand young royals. Known as the ‘Free Princes’, their calls for reforms were considered too radical and dangerous for the position of the dynasty. Ironically, their ring leader is the father of one of the detained princes Al-Waleed bin Talal. In the present instance, the radical is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia himself.
Much attention is paid to a rapid succession of changes and initiatives launched by the intrepid crown prince, presented as part of his Vision2030 for a future post-petroleum Saudi Arabia: Women will not only be allowed to drive cars, but also issue fatwas or Islamic legal opinions. Then there is the plan for a high-tech mega city in the country’s northwest – strategically located near the Red Sea on the crossroads between Asia, North Africa and the Mediterranean. Now he personally heads an anti-corruption board that already seems to have a number of high-profile cases up-and-ready. To a degree, this is all cosmetic.
