Dr Farrukh Saleem

The writer is an Islamabad-based

freelance columnist

farrukh15@hotmail.com

Over the past half a century, America has bombed at least 19 countries. The 50-year average stands at bombing a different country every two and a half years. The list of unfortunate ones include China, Korea, Indonesia, Cuba, Vietnam, Congo, Laos, Peru, Guatemala, Cambodia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Grenada, Libya, Panama, Iraq, Bosnia and Sudan ((most of America's targets have annual per capita GDP of under $500). The last country to be bombed was the former-Yugoslavia and that was in 1999. In that sense, there is nothing new in the new 'war on terrorism'. Why is the world now going hoarse crying that there should be broad-based government in Kabul? Why should the victors share the prize?

Now on to Saudi Arabia, the topic of the week. Over the past 25 years, Saudi Arabia has earned more than a trillion dollars (that is 1 followed by 12 zeros) from oil exports. A whole lot of that money has gone into arms purchases. Annual military expenditure frequently approach $20 billion. For the 1987-97 period, Saudi Arabia spent a colossal $262 billion (in constant 1997 dollars) on its military. During 1995-97, more than $31 billion was spent on arms imports from the US and Europe. Since 1989, the US has delivered over $40.6 billion worth of arms and training through its foreign military sales, direct industry sales and foreign military construction sales (Pakistan's entire foreign debt is $38 billion).

Here's a sample of what Saudi Arabia has bought over the past few years. In 1995, Tactical Surveillance System for $350 million, 130 turrets for General Motors Light Armored Vehicles for $690 million, US Army Corps of Engineers services for $500 million and 556 Rockwell GBU-15 guided bomb units for $371 million. In 1996, the Royal Air Force transferred $2.5 billion to the US for command, control and communication systems. In 1997, 130 90mm Turret Weapon Systems for $1 billion and additional communication systems for $300 million. In 1998, $831 million was transferred to the US for training and support services.

What has been on order is even more expensive. A total of 600 M-1A2 Abrams main battle tanks and up to 600 M-2A2 Bradley vehicles. The original order of some 355 Abrams carried a price tag of $3.3 billion (Abrams were originally designed for open German terrain).

Why do the Saudi kings spend so much on arms? Saudi Arabia has seven neighbours and all of them are Muslim countries. Saudi Arabia's border with Iraq is 814 km, Jordan 728 km, Kuwait 222 km, Oman 676 km, Qatar 60 km, UAE 457 km and Yemen 1,458 km. Iraq has largely been neutralized. In 1974, there was a de facto boundary agreement with the UAE. In 1990, a million Yemenis were deported from Saudi Arabia for Yemen's opposition to Saudi Arabia's military undertaking against Iraq. In 1992, there was a minor clash with Qatar over a disputed border post. The clash left two dead. In 1999, there was a border agreement with Qatar. There are no other major international territorial disputes.

What are the kings up against? To be certain, there isn't much of a threat outside of the Kingdom itself. Saudi Arabia claims to have 17 million Saudis plus an additional 5 million non-nationals (including Pakistanis, Egyptians, Filipinos, Americans, Indians, Bangladeshi and British). Military branches include the Land Force (Army), Navy, Air Force, Air Defence Force, National Guard, Ministry of Interior Forces (paramilitary). The total personnel strength is estimated to be approaching 200,000 and rising steadily. The army is full of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), armoured personnel carriers (APC) and multiple rocket launchers (MRL). Are these for the locals or to defend the country's geographical boundaries?

In addition to the military and the paramilitary, there are a couple of million Saudis employed by a whole host of intelligence agencies including the Saudi Arabia Directorate of Intelligence, Saudi Arabia General Directorate of Investigation (the secret police or Mubahith), Saudi Arabia Committees for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the religious police or Mutawwiin), Saudi Arabia Public Security Police, Saudi Arabia General Staff, Saudi Arabia Intelligence Section (G-2), Saudi Arabia Ministry of Defence and Aviation, Saudi Arabia Ministry of Interior Forces, Saudi Arabia Ministry of State for Internal Affairs and Saudi Arabia Ministry of the Interior. One out of every one hundred Saudis is in the military and one out of every ten Saudis is employed by an intelligence agency. All of this is a well-oiled spying network or Saudis spying on other Saudis.

To be sure, oil money is going into arms and into intelligence agencies not for defending the sheikdom from outside threats. These agencies have so far done a tremendous job for their employers. For the past 70 years, there has been only one ruling family. The ruling family, in return, has been very generous in distributing the wealth around in the form of free healthcare, schooling, heavily subsidized gas, electricity and water.

What the ruling family is adamant at avoiding is any form of democratic inclination or democratic forces pooling their resources together. To maintain the status quo there is a well-deliberated, intricate policy-apparatus at work. For a window into that policy we first need to understand the concept of a 'rentier government'. A rentier government is one that simply derives a large part of its revenue from external rents such as export of oil or minerals. Saudi Arabia, in essence, has a rentier government whose main source of revenue is oil while there are no taxes on the local population.

A government that levies no direct taxes on the population it rules, generally un-enlightened masses do not demand accountability from the rulers. In economics, it is referred to as the 'taxation effect'. The idea being that no taxes on the masses and they will not demand a representative government. Next comes the 'repression effect', low media participation and little or no 'occupational specialisation' within the Saudi population. Oil money goes into the military and into intelligence agencies and they are both repressive agents of the state. In other words, government's fiscal powers are being used to pacify dissent.

Media participation is simply the number of newspapers on a per capita basis, percentage of population that owns televisions and the percent of population with Internet access. The lower is this number the lower would be the demand to democratise. Occupational specialisation is the percentage of men and women working in the industrial sector (secondary sector) and the services sector (tertiary sector). The lower the percentage of population working in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy the lower would be the push for democratisation.

Three decades of arms purchasing sprees the Saudi national debt now stands at over $170 billion, some 115 percent of GDP (Pakistan's debt-to-GDP ratio is about the same). The per capita military expenditure in Saudi Arabia continues to be over $1,000 a year (the per capita income in Pakistan is $450). Why can't some of the Saudi oil wealth flow towards poor Muslim Africa or Asia?

September 11 has now put all Saudi policies on trial including the Kingdom's human rights record and its treatment of women (two things Saudi Arabia has in common with the Taliban).