A not so subtle campaign is being waged to align the various forms of demi-democracy and plutocracy in the Arab states. It is the sort of campaign that always finds advocates, and perhaps financers, in the Arab world. The long and hard campaign by Arab rulers, aided and abetted by the likes of Mr Dulaimi and Mr. Allawi, to push for a coup of strongmen in Iraq seems to have failed- so far, the Bush administration seems unwilling to bite, and this is one intelligent thing it is doing in Iraq.

Now the campaign has shifted south along the Persian Gulf region, with the goal of cleansing it of any vestiges of 'unstable' participatory democracy. A couple of months ago Saudi Arabia's Interior Minister Prince Nayef (in charge of police, security, etc) publicly expressed his worries about the 'fate of democracy' in Kuwait. The man really seemed worried about its fate, which is admirable! Some local newspapers with close Saudi links (Alseyassah, Alwatan) have been pushing for an unconstitutional dissolution of the Assembly and a crackdown on dissent. In this particular case 'unconstitutional' means that free elections will not be held within two months as required by the constitution- the preference seems to be for free elections never to be held. Now the royal-appointed speaker of Jordan's pushme pullyou, half-elected half-appointed parliament has joined the fray, publicly calling for Kuwait to switch to a bi-cameral legislature, with one half to be appointed by the Emir.

It is not clear yet who put the Jordanian potentate up to it. This would put the Gulf country in line with Jordan and Bahrain, where half the assemblies are appointed by the rulers and the other half are 'sort of' elected. In Kuwait, fifty members of the legislature are elected and the Emir appoints the cabinet ministers, about 14, who are also allowed the same exact voting powers as elected members. The current Speaker of the legislature, Mr. Kharafi, lost the majority of elected members but won his position anyway with support from unelected government ministers. Still, a 20% unelected legislature is more democratic than a 50% unelected one with the other 50% semi-elected.

Any change would still be way out of line with Saudi Arabia which does not have a unicameral, bicameral or any-cameral legislature for that matter.
Then, on the other shore of the Gulf looms Iran, where all members of parliament are elected freely- except that not everybody is free to run for elections. All candidates are vetted by some uber-body that determines their suitability.
No word yet from the other moderate paragons of democracy in the Nouveau Moyen Orient.
Cheers
Mohammed