Budget 2009: Collossal figure, lost dreams, cruel reality

Saudi pledges to inject half of ‘historic budget’ in major developments projects amid low public expectations.

By Habib Trabelsi

Despite the global financial crisis, oil-superpower Saudi Arabia has pledged to inject 60 billion dollars, almost half of its 2009 budget, in major development projects from its huge reserves estimated at 450 billion dollars.

Since the announcement on December 22 of the "largest budget in the history of the kingdom", many voices have praised the government for its willingness to move forward in its strategic projects, despite the drastic fall in the price of crude while the world is gripped by the financial turmoil.

Other discordant voices said that many Saudis were struggling in the real daily difficulties and did not care about the astronomical numbers. "Yahia Al-Khassafi is one of these Saudis," wrote Hamoud Abu Taleb on December 27, a prominent columnist of the daily Al-Madina.
Yahia, the "inventor" in spite of himself

Indeed, Yahia is indigent. He feeds eight mouths, including a disabled child who he has to take almost daily to the hospital which is one kilometer away from his home perched in the high mountains of the southern province of Jizan. So Yahia invented a family "cable" of wealth, reported the daily Al-Watan on December 25 with a photo as a back-up.

The photo shows him suspended between sky and earth, a third of the body buried in a vulgar metallic case rolling on a cable with a disproportionate pulley. Yahia is clinging to the case with one hand and holding his son with the other: a high-risk exercise of a tightrope walker.

"What do all these billions, which are dedicated to health, education, transport and social welfare, bring to Yahia who nibbles a meager allocation for each consultation?” asks Abu Taleb.
Numbers and achievements

The day before, the same columnist acknowledged that "the figures of the ‘budget of prosperity’ are enormous," referring to 475 billion riyals (127 billion USD) allocated to public expenditure, including SR 225 billion (over 60 billion USD ) for social services, up 36% compared to the previous fiscal year.

"The main thing for citizens is to turn these figures into achievements, to fulfill promises on the field (...). However, many projects of previous years have not yet started to emerge. They either stalled or did not give the expected improvement of vital services such as health, education or others," he wrote in the headline "the figures and the reality."

Two days earlier, Ali Moussa Al-Saadi of Al-Watan, kickstarted a series of vitriolic articles in the local press. He emphasized that "the colossal figures of the budget will remain ink on paper, like the multi-billion projects in previous years unless accompanied by concrete achievements."

"My children always live in rented homes turned into schools of fortune. I always struggle to buy a bottle of drinking water. We still dream of the clinic which is slow to materialise. The streets of our neighborhood have been waiting for fifteen years to be paved, while the neighborhood is located in the most beautiful avenue of Jeddah. When the night falls, the street plunges into total darkness, in the absence of light," wrote the editorialist.

Daydreams of deprived Saudis
Several other journalists and analysts followed suit.
"Despite the record surplus of about SR 590 billion (157 billion USD) and revenue of about SR 1.100 billion (293 billion USD), generated from oil sales, the majority of Saudi citizens can rely on their modest salaries, while the whole world sees a Saudi as a traveling oil barrel," said Saud Al-Balwi in Al-Watan.

The writer reviewed Saudis’ main "daydreams": "They dream of hospitals where they are unlikely to have problems" such as medical errors due to negligence or the poor state of medical and health infrastructure and in some institutions. They dream of decent housing, because a homeless citizen is like a stateless person."
"We should also count the nightmares of water and electricity cuts,” added Balwi, deploring "the existence of numerous and large holes through which infiltrates the endemic corruption" in state institutions.

Other Saudis speaking on websites complain of poverty in one of the richest countries but "where more than a quarter of the population (estimated at some 17 million people) is below the poverty line."

Since King Abdullah ascended to the throne in August 2005, poverty is no longer a taboo: the local press has spoken of Saudis forced to sell a kidney to treat a relative, discharge debts or continue studies. It is not shameful anymore to mention the thousands of families living in squalid housing in corrugated iron.

Enough of convenience! Of transparency!
The economist and journalist of Al-Riyadh, Mohammed Rashid Al-Fawzan, asked on December 27 about the achievements of fiscal year of 2008, which had foreseen even more colossal expenditure (136 billion USD), announced many projects and raised great hopes."

"But we still see endless queues of people in search of drinking water. As for hospitals, that's another story! Budget follows budget and our problems on the ground are always the same," wrote Fawzan, before recommending "observers and analysts avoid saying that ‘everything is perfect', but require ministries to be fully transparent about their current achievements."
2009 budget: The most "intelligent"

Fawzan eyed tens of analysts, who took it in turns in the press and on television to talk about their support of “the budget of prosperity in this crunch time," the "budget of development and challenge "or, better still, the "intelligent budget.”

"Intelligent, because it distorted all expectations" of analysts and study centers. Intelligent, because it kept the momentum of development in force in the Kingdom for nearly five years. Of highest intelligence, because it instilled into Saudis optimism marred by caution," wrote on Issa Al-Halyane on December 25, a columnist in Okaz.

King Abdullah, the main sponsor of the "historic budget", was paid a huge respect. The Saudi grand mufti, Sheikh Abdel Aziz Al-Sheikh, who chairs the Council of Senior Ulema, the highest religious authority in the country, urged ministers and officials to implement the recommendations of King Abdullah in order to "protect the nation’s wealth."

The opposition pours out its everlasting criticism of the regime
The Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA, opposition in exile in London), took the opportunity to attack the regime.
In a lengthy press release, MIRA said that the figures announced by the government were "null and void." It denounced "the lack of transparency, while any verification (by an independent party) of these numbers is impossible, and the authorities who are imposing the greatest secrecy on economic data, including those related to income, expenditure and investments."

After engaging in complicated calculations on the basis of data obtained from its sources, MIRA concluded that government revenues in 2008 were of "at least 1650 SR billion - of which 1300 billion from oil sales - 550 billion more than the 1100 SR billion announced by the government."
"But the huge revenues recognized by the state will neither reduce unemployment, nor provide citizens a better standard of living and housing," stressed MIRA according to which "the problem is the lack of political participation, transparency and control (of the management of public Treasury). It is not enough to announce the figures."

Translated by Dr. Saad Guerraoui, a senior editor at Middle East Online
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/saudi/?id=29454