The mountains here are solid rock, flint-colored, jagged peaks slicing through the haze and dust of intensely hot days. The old Dhori family home is at the top of one unforgiving peak, a single room made of stone. No electricity, no water, a doorway as small as a window, one narrow dark room and a dirt floor.
That was what the Dhoris knew for generations. Then the present ruler of Oman, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, staged a coup against his father, and the Dhori family came down to the valley. Sultan Qaboos provided water and electricity, and over the next 39 years transformed a country that had been hermetically sealed into a modern state.
For the older generations that is more than enough. But like the rest of the Middle East, Oman has a very young population, a generation that did not experience the deprivations of the not-too-distant past. They are generally educated and aware. They want political change, rule of law, freedom of speech, institutions, a voice.
As a whole, Oman is a rare success story in the modern Middle East, a nation that has managed to navigate the shoals of modernity while holding on to its traditional identity. It has oil wealth, but its people still know the value of work.
But it is also an example of why authoritarian systems, no matter how benevolent and right-minded, eventually rub up against the human desire for freedom and justice and self-determination.
“For me, for my generation, there are a lot of ambitions,” said Said al-Hashmi, 32, the information and research manager for the State Council, one of two advisory bodies that were formed in place of a real parliament.
“My father, my grandfather, grandmother, they really appreciate this life. For me, I don’t appreciate it like that. We need civil life, we need more democracy or real democracy,” he said.
Oman is experiencing the stirrings of discontent. It is not with Sultan Qaboos, at least not publicly, but with the government (whose officials declined to be interviewed for this article).
“The challenge now is to open the system and be more transparent and more accountable,” said Salim Al Mahruqi, a former Omani diplomat who runs the Culture Club, an arm of the Ministry of Culture.
AUTHORITARIAN
There is virtually no civil society in Oman; citizen organizations are all affiliated with the government. The university does not even have a political science department. Only the sultan has the power to approve laws.
As the quiet calls for change spread, there are some signs that Oman is taking the familiar approach of authoritarian states in the Middle East, relying on security services and restrictive laws to silence and frighten the people. A recently amended law allows the government to prosecute anyone associated with a Web site or blog that posts anything objectionable, not just the writer.
A blogger was sentenced last month to 10 days in jail after posting on a public forum a confidential government document that called for secretly forcing a call-in radio show to stop live broadcasts and to record the show, so the government could censor the comments.
Perhaps more ominously, one political analyst said that top government positions, once filled with academics and prominent members of society, are increasingly being filled by former security officials.
“They’re putting brakes now on all development,” said Ahmed Al Mukhaini, a former adviser and researcher for the State Council. “I think it is natural for them to do this because they have power and no one is willing to give up power unless there is a civil struggle. And Omanis are not willing to have a civil struggle.”
There are also some positive signs, glimmers of hope that Oman will find a way to satisfy the desire for greater political freedom. Last month there was a two-day workshop to discuss freedom of speech. It was organized by a writers association and was seen as a monumental achievement.
“Things will change,” said Basmah Said, 24, the lawyer who represented the blogger charged with posting the government document. “It is bound to happen. The government might interfere with a stick to slow the wheel but things will change.”
MODEL STATE?
Oman, a nation of about 3 million people, has survived in a turbulent neighborhood in part because it has adopted a keep-your-head down approach, shunning the kind of attention many of its regional neighbors have craved. This differentiates Oman from Dubai, which is right next door and before the global financial crisis was often touted as the model modern Arab state.
Oman, however, may ultimately emerge as the model modern Arab state, at least in terms of development. It started from nearly zero when the sultan took power. At the time, the gates to the capital city of Muscat were still being closed at night. Sunglasses were banned, along with bicycles and radios, as western conventions. There was essentially no national infrastructure. Infant mortality was so high that families held celebrations when a baby survived to its first birthday.
But when the sultan came to power, he offered a chance for change and he called on Omanis to work with him to build a new state. Oman had oil, and the money helped a great deal.
But there was no pressure to come out of the hills. For at least another 14 years, Saed al-Dhori was reluctant to leave a life that centered on the daily donkey ride along narrow paths to fetch water from a well. In the valley below, his extended family built homes and had children, and those children went to school and bought cars. He finally came down in 1984, when he was ready. That was part of the sultan’s plan, to let people move at their own pace.
“Before, people moved everywhere on donkeys,” said Dhori, a diminutive man in his 80s with hands and feet as rough as the rocks around him. “You could stop them and talk to them. Now everyone is zooming around in cars.”
He marvels at the changes.
But Oman has also discovered that it is difficult to open the doors to modernity, especially to education, without also fostering a degree of cynicism about authority and a desire for more freedom. That, and the reality that its oil may soon run out, is what Oman is wrestling with today.
“This is our life; we have to talk about freedom of speech and about public freedoms,” said Hashmi, the information and research manager of the State Council. “These are not accessories. These are necessities for Omanis in the 21st century.”
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