Below is a translation from the pro-Islamist London-based newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, on the municipal elections in Saudi Arabia. I was thinking about translating some articles from Saudi papers and their reports on the political success of the process, but what I read sounded too much like something from Pravda on the economic rejuvenation of the Ukraine in the 1920s. I have a few comments below. Keep in mind that the interviewee is considered an ally of Osama bin Laden; see links at bottom in this regard (and keep in mind that the writing style was clumsy in the original, the bad writing was incurable without doing more than translating):

Saad Faqih: The municipal elections are form only and only five percent of Saudis particpated

The Saudi dissident Saad Faqih stated that the percentage of participation in the first local elections of their kind which took place yesterday, Thursday, in Saudi Arabia did not exceed five percent, and that those registered in them were only a tenth of the voters. The chairman of the opposition Saudi Reform Movement stated on an Algerian government broadcast yesterday that the reason for this small attendance was the realization of the people that the elections were laughable, and that they did not have any value because they were only electing half the seats of the municipalities, a reference to the fact that the Saudi authorities were appointing the other half.

Faqih, who makes the base for his movement in the British capital, London, a movement which has recently been accused of being affiliated with Al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, said that the municipal councils in Saudi Arabia do not have any authority in the sense of having local decision-making authority over affairs of the region, that their authority is advisory only, and that they do not have any say. He continued saying that the elections took place in an environment where there was not any kind of freedom of expression or transparency or freedom of association, and this means, conveniently, that those selected by the authorities will take their places in these seats.

He clarified that these elections are a first step in an electoral process ending in the election of a Consultative Assembly, and he said that they do not result in anything but might give the impression that those elected now might continue to the Consultative Assembly.

And he expressed his belief that the elections yesterday were in form only without any value because true reform does not begin with elections, noting that there are Arab countries well-known to be oppressive which have had parliamentary elections and they do not advance anything and are never removed. He emphasized that true reform begins with freedom of expression and freedom of association, saying “this is true reform, not elections, and I prefer that there be in my country freedom of expression and association and transparency than there be elections.”

It is not that uncommon these days for Islamist movements to advocate freedom of expression and political transparency, values normally associated with liberal democracy. This is certainly essential given that in recent decades Islamist movements have fought Arab governments violently and have lost brutally every single time. Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad before the merger of their organizations, and Zawahiri’s fight against the Egyptian government in the 1990s mainly got a lot of Islamists killed. The question even for more moderate Islamists is, what do they do when they do gain power? Is it one-man, one-vote, one-time? Note how much Faqih went out of his way to emphasize the minimal importance of elections.

It does seem that the U.S. government considers Faqih to be associated with bin Laden, including the use of his web board to transmit Al-Qaeda messages. See this Treasury Department report. See this BBC report for more detail on some of Faqih’s anti-Saudi activities from London.

Contributed by Kirk H. Sowell at Window on the Arab World, and More!