How safe are SA critics of Saudi Arabia?
WHAT certainty do South African critics of Saudi Arabia have that they will not face the same tragic fate that befell Jamal Khashoggi?
Hitmen’s assassination and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate has underlined the danger faced by critics and opponents of the Saudi oligarchy.
The Saudi regime might not enjoy the psychological pressure that Israel usually applies. To slander opponents of its occupation and apartheid policies, the settler colonial power resorts to branding them as “antisemites”.
This defamatory tool is applied by Israel to intimidate and silence external critics. In the case of Saudi Arabia, its unelected leaders have traditionally whipped up sectarian divisions, much like George W Bush: “You’re either with us or against us.” In a religious context, the divisive strategy has served Saudi geopolitical interests well for “with us” equates to “Sunni Islam” while “against us” means being in bed with “Shia Islam”.
Saudi dependency on keeping America’s discredited “war on terror” alive explains a great deal about the royal family’s use of it as a defensive shield and offensive wars.
Bombing Yemen and stoking intra-Muslim strife are some of the despicable policies that define it.
Critics are probably aware of Saudi intelligence ties to Israel’s notorious Mossad. They’d also be mindful of the long reach of Saudi Mokhabarat (security forces), as the wilful murder of Khashoggi demonstrates.
A one-time adviser to the Saudi kingdom with close ties to the establishment, Khashoggi’s critical views of the ruler Mohamed bin Salman, (MbS) turned him into an enemy.
The threat he posed as an active dissident derived from the fact that, having interacted with Saudi and Arab intelligence services for more than 30 years, he was privy to many secrets. In addition, his position as a columnist for The Washington Post and access to influential platforms in America and Europe amplified his power to undermine MbS and his fake “reforms”.
Khashoggi’s exile in Washington was evidently a choice he made to avoid being a victim of the harsh crackdown on independent voices. Despite his profile as a renowned political analyst-cum-journalist, with close to 2 million Twitter followers, it did not render him immune from state-sponsored harm.
It is known too from credible reports that the folly, arrogance and brutality associated with MbS seems limitless. It might be his reasoning that if close allies and patrons such as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump can get away with murder, surely their protection would be sufficient for him to continue liquidating opponents under the guise of eliminating “terrorists”?
MbS has been lauded in the West as a “great reformer” and harbinger of friendship with the colonial entity that has occupied Palestine for more than seven decades. The Khashoggi affair exposed Saudi Arabia as a ruthless dictatorship that uses brutal methods to dispose of enemies.
Though global outrage against the killing has been as loud as the media coverage, South Africa’s government has yet to make its stance known.
Justifiably, critics will question whether the controversial yet lucrative arms trade and the pledge of billions of dollars made to President Cyril Ramaphosa will hold us hostage to a rogue regime’s contempt for human rights.