The march of democracy in the New Middle East has been stymied:

In Egypt, the ruling party conference has renewed for somnolent president Mubarak as its leader, and is poised to select his son, Jamal (Gamal) as the second man, in the tradition of the Assad, Hussein, Kim, and other Arab monarchical families. Mr. Mubarak has been in power since 1981, and the only man ever to run against him has been in prison ever since the rigged election. Egypt has been in an official state of emergency since the day Mr. Mubarak became president- it has also been in a state of political-economic-moral stagnation ever since.

In Pakistan, Generalissimo Parvez Musharraf has flushed the constitution, such as it is, down the toilet. A state of emergency, the ultimate tools of dictators, has been declared. This emergency comes loaded with nuclear warheads, which the neocons do not consider dangerous in a country half of which is ruled by al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies.

In Saudi Arabia, an Egyptian man was beheaded in a public square last Friday for 'sorcery', among other things. The official Saudi Press Agency stated that the man had also confessed to adultery and desecrating the Holy Quran as well- it seems this guy really wanted to be beheaded. Apparently Saudi investigators always obtain confessions when the accused are poor Third World types. Many Arab, Asian, and Africans have been beheaded over the years, but oddly not a single Westerner- perhaps because they have higher moral standards.

In Lebanon, the expected showpiece of the New New Middle East is still in limbo, torn evenly between two visions (if one can call them that): the vision of the Hariri-Saniora cabinet with its Western and Saudi backers and the vision of Hezbollah-Amal-Oun opposition and its backers, including Iran.

Is this relevant? CNBC reports that its own superstar and cat's meow, Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal has lost about $4 billion from his holdings in Citibank, courtesy of his friends Sandy Weill and Charly Prince. Easy come, easy go- hey, it may even come again.

On a brighter note: in Kuwait, the legislature has won another battle with the government, and perhaps put an end to a nasty habit by the government of recycling old ministers to new jobs in a game of silly political musical chairs. Whenever a minister faces a no-confidence vote, he resigns and is often given a new portfolio. Parliament does not confirm or approve cabinet appointments, but it can hold hearings and withdraw confidence- so far, not one minister has chosen to face no-confidence hearings (istijuab), which says something about the quality of the government cabinet.

Not even the speaker, Mr. al-Kharafi, who was largely chosen by the government and is basically its mouthpiece in the assembly, could save the former minister of finance B. al-Humaidhi. The minister was switched to the Oil portfolio in a silly political game, but the angry legislators threatened to hold no-confidence hearings on the prime minister himself, and His Highness was forced to relent. The minister had to resign within a few days, he did not even have the chance to appoint a bunch of his cronies in high positions in the oil ministry and its corporations, as recent national tradition requires. Now the poor man can't claim any achievement for his tenure- not even enough time for a major screw-up.

BTW: Mr. al-Kharafi himself was minister of finance during the corrupt and unconstitutional 1980s, when he appointed many of his cronies to top positions in public corporations, which they proceeded to screw up real good, as recent national tradition seems to expect and require.
The legislature is dominated by Islamist fundamentalists, and the Salafis, in alliance with the tribals, are probably the strongest and most conservative bloc.

Meanwhile Mckenzie International has prepared a proposal on suggestions for developing Kuwait into a financial and commercial center. A high committee of grandees and recycled potentates is holding meetings on the issue- actually a couple of them are quite good professionals, but a few others belong to the dum and dummer (or is it dumb and dumber?) school of economic thought. Over the past two decades, several international consulting firms have been commissioned to prepare proposals on 'making' the country a financial and commercial center, and several local committees have dealt with the matter. But alas, all to no avail. Now with oil prices so high, it is extremely unlikely that the matter will get anywhere beyond where it has been for years.
There is a good and succinct American (East Coast) term which summarizes what I expressed some years ago in a paper at a symposium on this very subject: fohgetaboutit.
Cheers
Mohammed