KUWAIT CITY — The announcement of municipal polls, hot on
the heels of a huge economic aid package, may not be enough to spare Saudi
Arabia from the upheavals sweeping the Arab world, activists said on Wednesday.

They said the Gulf state still needed to embark on real
political reforms, including an elected parliament with legislative powers,
public freedoms and true independence for the judiciary.

Riyadh announced late on Tuesday that it will hold its
second municipal elections next month, after a two-year delay. In landmark
first polls held in 2005, Saudi men elected half the members of 178 municipal
councils.

“If the municipal polls are going to be held in the
same way like seven years ago, then it will be of very little
significance,” said Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, head of the Human Rights First
Society.

“At least all members must be elected, women should be
allowed to take part as well as men, and the voting age should be lowered to 18
from 21,” said Mugaiteeb, whose group is based in the oil-rich state.

It was the second major measure taken by the kingdom in less
than a week in apparent reaction to democratic uprisings in several Arab
countries and increased calls from Saudi activists for true political reforms.

On Friday, King Abdullah announced unprecedented economic
benefits worth nearly $100 billion, on top of $36 billion ordered in February,
mostly aimed at solving chronic unemployment and housing shortages.

The 86-year-old Saudi monarch also ordered the establishment
of a state authority to fight corruption, almost four years after the cabinet
approved such a body.

“Excluding the corruption combating body, I really
don’t see any signal for political reform yet… Peoples do not live with food
only,” Mugaiteeb said.

Anwar al-Rasheed, coordinator of the Gulf Civil Society
Forum, a pan-Gulf group of intellectuals, said the spending packages do not
amount to “true economic reform.”

“These are simply distributing surplus funds to buy
political favors… Most of it cannot be called real economic reforms like the
two-month bonus to employees and the 60,000 security jobs,” Rasheed said.

Despite repeated appeals by activists for a parliamentary
election, public freedoms and for women’s rights, including the right to drive,
the Saudi dynasty has remained unmoved and at times cracked down on reformists.

With pro-democracy revolutions sweeping Arab countries,
Saudi activists have submitted petitions urging the king to undertake
democratic changes, including the establishment of a “constitutional
monarchy.”

Cyber activists have urged Saudis to demonstrate twice in
March to press for political reforms, but their calls have gone unheeded, at
least in part because of a massive deployment of security forces.

Protests have still been held in Saudi Arabia’s largely
Shi’a Eastern Province, calling for the release of prisoners and expressing
solidarity with Shi’a demonstrators in neighboring Bahrain.

Reforms have been very slow and almost negligible, despite
warnings by King Abdullah’s half-brother, Prince Talal, that “anything
could happen” in the kingdom unless it speeded up reforms.

Earlier this month, the National Society for Human Rights, a
body close to the government, called for political reforms including the
partial election of the consultative Shura Council and more independence for
the judiciary.

Abdullah bin Bajjad al-Oteibi, a columnist in the Saudi
newspaper Okaz, on Monday defended the government’s policy and said activists
have drastically raised the ceiling of their demands.

“Some thought the (Arab) scene will transfer to the
kingdom and raised their demands to an irrational level,” said Oteibi, who
however acknowledged that some of the demands were legitimate.

Rasheed of the Gulf Civil Society Forum, however, said the
Saudi authorities may have “misunderstood” why ordinary Saudis appear
to have shunned calls on the Internet to go out on the street and demonstrate.

“If the Gulf dynasties, including the Saudi ruling
family, do not respond to changes in the region, they will certainly be at risk.
Those who think they can maintain the status quo are definitely mistaken,”
Rasheed said.

Middle East Online