A Brief Q&A with Thomas Lippman

Starting today, I will occasionally be running Brief Question-and-Answer interviews with academics, diplomats, journalists, and others on their perceptions of Saudi Arabia. The purpose is not to publish scholarly dissertations, but to provide an overview of what’s going on in the country, what Saudis are thinking about, and what the future looks to hold.

I welcome both your suggestions about to whom I should be posing the questions and what, specifically, you’d like me to ask.

Thomas Lippman, formerly a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post, is the author of Inside the Mirage: America’s Fragile Relationship with Saudi Arabia (reviewed here) is currently an Adjunct Scholar at the Middle East Institute.

1. How long have you been visiting Saudi Arabia?

I first went to SA in late 1976 or early 1977.

2. Have you noticed any stark changes between your first and most recent visits? Infrastructure? Social behavior/norms?

The physical changes of course are staggering. I went there in the days when there were no good hotels and foreign businessmen were sleeping in the back of taxis.

There were still small community mosques without air conditioning. In Riyadh and Jeddah, they were still using the oil airports.

But the great social changes are more recent–the most important being the education of women and the urbanization of Saudi society. The full implications of these trends are not yet fully understood.

3. What about Saudi privately owned media (i.e., not government-controlled TV & radio)? Any changes there? Any reasons you can think of?

On the media, the biggest change by far is the development of the Arab satellite TV stations. These have liberated the people from the controlled print and broadcast media.

4. How would you rate Saudi media freedom on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being equivalent to US press freedom and 10 being like that where media is entirely state-controlled (e.g., Syria, N. Korea)?

Maybe a 6 or 7. There is no serious reporting about the royal family or high-level corruption.

5. What sorts of Saudis do you meet with when you travel there now?

6. What sorts of things do they raise first in the conversation? Is it still belaboring the US about its policies toward Israel/Palestine (and now Iraq), or is it more domestic-related issues?

I’m very conscious of the fact that visitors such as myself don’t encounter the full range of Saudi opinion — I have never been to Buraida, for example, or met anyone from the religious establishment. But on my most recent visits, 2002 & 2004, I met a lot of people–professional women, media editors, several members of the Majlis Ash-Shoura, Aramco officials, scholars, architects, businessmen, staff executives of Prince Sultan’s charities, librarians. The first and most urgent topic of conversation is always the same: why does the US turn against all Saudis because of the actions of a few? We want to be your friends, why won’t you let us.

Of course the Saudis hate what we’ve done in Iraq (and they wish the Palestine issue would go away) but domestic reform and the modernization of Saudi society are much more important.

7. Have Saudis-on either side of the equation-told you their concerns about the Saudi education system?

Absolutely. They raise two major points: the education system needs to be cleaned up because it teaches a hateful, narrow-minded vision of the world; and the education system needs to be cleaned up because its graduates aren’t fit for the modern workplace and no one wants to hire them. Many people I met see more hope in the fast-growing private school system.

8. How about the Saudi dawa or proselytizing mission? Do any see a problem with that?

9. If they do see a problem, what sort of solution do they suggest?

I didn’t hear much about that.

10. Have any of the Saudis you meet with expressed concern about the stability of the Al-Saud?

No. Even those who don’t admire the Al-Saud say the monarchy is necessary to hold the country together.