(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - We have conducted an interview with Ali Al-Ahmed, director of the IGA, to further discuss the issue.
The following is a transcript of the interview.
Q: Protests in the Eastern province continue despite the regime's crackdown. What is keeping the uprising up there?
Al-Ahmed: The uprising will continue to be present in Saudi Arabia because all the elements of the revolution and protests continues to be present.
The deteriorating economic situation, the oppression, the lack of political freedom, the lack of civil society, the oppression of women and the religious freedom and the freedom of expression, and all types of freedom in their country, in addition to the massive corruption, and the monarchy's monopoly of wealth and power in that country are all factors in the continuation of this simmering revolution that will spill over in the coming weeks or months.
Nothing has changed. It has gotten worse in the past few months under the new crown prince, Nayef, who has been arresting people, beating even elderly women - breaking their arms, and so on.
So, the Saudi government is ratcheting up the oppression on the people, and the people are responding by more protests and revolt. We will see that in the next - and Friday's going to be a major day in that country!
Q: How significant then is the threat of unemployment amongst youth to the ruling monarchy of Saudi Arabia?
Al-Ahmed: The threat of unemployment is probably the largest threat because in that country we have one of the largest unemployment rates in the world. In such a stable country where there is no war and with massive oil income, their country has an unemployment rate that runs over 30 percent.
If you add women to those calculations, you will have more than 50 percent.
The problem is that that country remains a country that is considered to be an iron curtain. Information is hard to come by from the government, and freedom of the press is limited, so you cannot get all the information you want.
Q: It baffles the mind as to how such a rich nation can have anywhere from 10 to 30 percent unemployed citizens, as you just mentioned. Is this to be blamed on bad management by the monarchy?
Al-Ahmed: It is considered not only bad management but the corruption of the ruling family has exploited the majority of the wealth in the country in the past 60 years. You can imagine that the majority of the land of that country, the house-ready land, has been exploited by the ruling family.
Saudi Arabia, inside the country, is called the 'kingdom of census' because members of the ruling family have spent millions and millions of meters to their own name so people in that country cannot afford to buy a house or build a house.
Approximately 80 percent of the people are without a home of their own. They live in rented apartments or houses.
It is really a situation where a few thousand of the members of the ruling family are controlling 90 percent of the wealth, and the rest of the nation is fighting over that 10 percent.
/106