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The prince risking his life to change Saudi society

Prince Mohammed bin Salman is behind the arrest of up to 500 identities in Saudi Arabia.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman is behind the arrest of up to 500 identities in Saudi Arabia. Photo: Getty

Brash, ostentatious and aggressive, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may rank as one of the world’s most courageous – and endangered – political gamblers.

The architect of a widespread and brazen dismantling of Saudi society, including allowing women to drive, increasing popular entertainment and putting a powerful Islamic clergy on notice, the 32-year-old prince is fast making enemies in a country where political assassination is not unknown, according to one commentator.

Bin Salman was this week the key figure behind the arrest of 11 members of the royal family, four ministers, several former ministers, top advisers and business figures in what was touted as a crackdown on corruption and money laundering.

Variously described as a ‘purge’, a ‘soft coup’ and even dramatically as ‘The Night of the Long Knives’, around 500 identities were detained, with up to 50 being held in what must rank as the world’s most luxurious prison – the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh.

While corruption is clearly a factor in Saudi, what really lies behind the purge is bin Salman’s unwavering determination to reform the Saudi economy and society – tearing apart the political and religious establishment to create a new Saudi Arabia, according to Saudi expert Dr Ben Rich.

Dr Rich, a lecturer in international relations and Middle Eastern politics at Curtin University, told The New Daily that bin Salman (known as MBS) has recognised the fragility of the Saudi economy in a world of falling oil prices, growth of other sources of oil and a boom in alternative energy types.

The necessity for reform was highlighted when Saudi Arabia’s attorney general on Friday (AEST) revealed says at least $US100 billion has been misused through systemic corruption and embezzlement in recent decades.

“The evidence for this wrongdoing is very strong,” Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said.

In an attempt to diversify the economy and attract foreign investment to the country, bin Salman has also called for an improvement to the status of women and promoted a more “moderate Islam open to the world and all religions”, setting the country’s powerful Islamic clergy against him.

But why the arrests?

Dr Rich says in a country that has traditionally been a “status quo power that doesn’t try to shake things up that much”, bin Salman has had to be ruthless, getting rid of anyone or anything that may stand in his way.

Among those arrested, for example, are several high-ranking military officials with the potential wherewithal to remove him, Dr Rich said.

When Prince Mansour bin Muqrin, the son of the former Crown Prince, died in an aircraft crash around the time of the arrests on Sunday, it fuelled speculation about the cause and a sense the powerful prince meant business.

Dr Rich described bin Salman as “aggressive”, “assertive” and “brash” in his methods. Certainly, his rise since he was named deputy crown prince in 2015 has been astronomical. He was made defence minister, put in charge of a large economic council and made head of the state oil monopoly, Saudi Aramco.

He visited China, Russia and the United States, where he met Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and President Donald Trump.

Prince bin Salman arrests

Prince Mohammed bin Salman meeting Donald Trump in March 2017. Photo: AAP

But Dr Rich said bin Salman’s power grab and rush to reform is a high-stakes game. Similar to King Faisal, who tried to modernise and reform Saudi society in the 1960s and 1970s, bin Salman is making powerful enemies in a nation traditionally uncomfortable with change. King Faisal was assassinated by his nephew in 1975.

“There’s a threat to MBS from both the grassroots, by declaring women can drive, for example, but there’s also a danger from from the elite because he has gone so far,” said Dr Rich, the author of Securitising Identity: The Case of Saudi Arabia.

“That [his rapid reforms] may stimulate a radical response.”

The question for bin Salman will be whether his overwhelming popularity among Saudi youth (two-thirds of the population is under 30) can outweigh the outrage of the establishment.

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