The world is witnessing a sea change in the desert Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A sea change is hardly something you would expect in a vast and arid land. But the phrase is used to describe a change of great magnitude. What brought on this draconian shift in the oil-rich desert kingdom?
Portents of things to come were first noticed when Saudi Arabian authorities lifted nearly a century ban on women drivers. The sudden policy shift was of course welcomed by Saudi women whose role was mostly confined to house-keeping chores like cooking, cleaning, bearing and raising children.
Then came the reports of the great purge of some 200 princes who were arrested and jailed for corruption. This development in Saudi Arabia could be more than a power struggle within the Royal family. The once unthinkable action of social change and purge of corrupt princes is actually happening in The Kingdom.
Why is this sweeping change happening? Observers of events in Saudi Arabia see this inner upheaval as a need for the Royals to clean house lest the populace do it for them. An uprising by Saudis would be bloody and could result in the decimation of the Royal family. The local population has seen how members of the Royal family particularly the princes squander oil revenues and leaving nothing much to improve the lot of the locals.
I have personally seen how wealthy Arabs live it up in London where I used to be posted with the Philippine embassy. Away from the Saudi public’s prying eyes , these moneyed Arabs frequent raunchy bars and casinos where they drink and gamble contrary to Islamic rules.
What was I doing in those places myself? I was a young man then and a non-Muslim unconstrained by Islamic tradition of no alcoholic drinks and intoxicating women. So there.
Change also comes to Zimbabwe
From the Zimbabwean capital of Harare also comes the news that long time ruler Robert Mugabe has been taken into custody by the army. The country once known as Rhodesia and ruled by a minority government headed by white Rhodesian Ian Smith was officially granted independence by Great Britain. The document of independence was signed in April 1980 at historic Lancaster House and witnessed by the late Foreign Secretary Carlos P. Romulo who asked me to join him as his press officer. From Salisbury, Rhodesia the capital’s name was changed to Harare and the country renamed Zimbabwe. Only Robert Mugabe who led the army against Smith remained as Zimbabwe’s first black ruler for 37 years until last week’s military putsch.
Mugabe’s downfall, however, was long overdue and the only wonder of it all was why it took so long to happen. The people of Zimbabwe, for years, suffered deterioration of education and the economy under Mugabe, now 93 years old. Seen as the cause of Mugabe’s downfall was the emergence of his wife who is 41 years younger. Known as “Gucci Grace,” she became the frontrunner to succeed her husband after he fired his wife’s rival Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa. This did not sit well with the military who didn’t want to see a Mugabe political dynasty perpetuate itself in power.
With Mugabe under house arrest, the army has clearly taken control of the country. Military coups, however, have their cycle. Those who staged coups d’etat are also consumed by the same powerful force.
Rape as weapon of war
Myanmar’s military has been accused of mass sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls. This is a serious accusation that will long be a stigma against the military in Myanmar. The ethnic cleansing being committed against the minority Muslim Rohingya population came at a time when the international community was sanguine that Myanmar was well on the way to becoming an open democratic society. Even the United States which led worldwide economic sanctions on Myanmar opened its embassy after years of diplomatic absence.
Rohingya women who survived the sexual violence said they came out in the open because silence would perpetuate their suffering and humiliation. There are now an estimated one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who managed to flee the persecution of minorities in Myanma’s Rakhine state.
These atrocities were reminiscent of the mass rape of Muslim women by Serbian soldiers during the ethnic cleansing war in the Balkans in the late 90s. Bosnian women of the Islamic faith, while being raped, were told by Serb soldiers to be pregnant and bear Serbian children.
Serbia is the last remaining country of the former Yugoslavia under Marshal Broz Tito. Its leaders after Tito—Slobodan Milosevic, Ratko Mladic, el al were captured and tried by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity.
There are other instances when rape was used as a weapon by men in uniform. In the case of the Rohingyas in Myanmar, there is no war that threatens the Yangon government. This is a blatant case of persecution of ethnic minorities. The Philippines is among several countries that did not sign a United Nations draft resolution condemning the persecution of the Rohingyas. Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanamar’s foremost freedom fighter, didn’t speak up against the persecution of the Rohingyas when she was in Manila for the Asean Summit of leaders
Tedoro Locsin, Jr., the country’s ambassador to the UN s, who was also in Manila for the Summit, said the Philippines should have abstained in deference “to our Muslim brothers in Indonesia and Malaysia.” Apparently the “no” vote instruction came from Malacanang to the DFA which cabled the Philippine Mission in New York.
It is a tribute to the Cuban revolution that women were held in high esteem by Fidel Castro who toppled the much hated regime of Fulgencio Batista. Succeeding his brother, Raul Castro is mending relations with their neighbor up north, the US.