SAG OFFSETS SHI'A STRENGTH IN ITS APPOINTMENTS TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 RIYADH 009402

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DHAHRAN SENDS
PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/18/2015
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM SA
SUBJECT: SAG OFFSETS SHI'A STRENGTH IN ITS APPOINTMENTS TO
EP MUNICIPAL COUNCILS

REF: A. RIYADH 9303

B. RIYADH 8323

C. RIYADH 1436 (NOTAL)

D. RIYADH 1337

E. RIYADH 1336

F. RIYADH 1335

G. RIYADH 1334

Classified by Consul General John Kincannon for reasons 1.4
(b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: The SAG announced its appointments to
municipal councils nationwide, including those of the Eastern
Province (EP),on December 14. As expected by many
observers, the government used the appointments to balance
the Shi'a presence on the councils in Qatif and Al-Hasa:
elected members on these councils are almost entirely Shi'a,
whereas appointed ones are almost all Sunni. The appointees
to the metropolitan Dammam municipal council are generally
well-known and respected professionals; the extensive
commitments of several of them raise questions about their
ability to participate effectively, however. Although
council members are reportedly actively jockeying for the two
elected positions within each council, EP residents appear to
have adopted a "wait and see" approach to the councils'
impact. End summary.

--------------
Background
--------------


2. (C) Municipal councils, a newly revivied institution in
Saudi Arabia, are composed of elected and appointed members
in equal proportion (ref A). There are 16 municipal councils
in the EP, with 118 total members; the number of members per
council ranges from 14 to 4 and varies roughly according to
the population of the area represented. Elections for the 59
contested seats took place on March 3, 2005. Shi'a
candidates took all six of the elected seats in Qatif (ref
F),where Shi'a comprise the overwhelming majority of the
population, and five of six seats in Al-Hasa (ref E),where
Shi'a likely comprise somewhat less than 50 percent of the
population. Winners of the seven contested seats in greater
Dammam (ref G) tended to be well-educated, successful
professionals and included several religious conservatives,
whereas winners in the less urban areas of the EP (refs C and
D) tended to have strong local tribal affiliations.


3. (U) Prince Miteb bin Abdul Aziz, Minister of Municipal
Affairs, announced the SAG's appointments to councils
nationwide on December 14. One of the appointees to each
council holds the senior executive position in the
corresponding municipality and is appointed in that capacity,
rather than as an individual. (For example, the mayor of
Qatif was appointed to the Qatif municipal council; should a
new mayor be appointed, he would then assume the mayor's
position on the council.) The appointed members are listed
in the last paragraph of this cable along with a brief
biographic summary for those individuals with whom post is
familiar. Refs C - G list the elected council members.

--------------
SAG Appointments: A Balancing Act
--------------


4. (C) The most striking feature of the appointments in the
EP is the Sunni/Shi'a breakdown in Qatif and Al-Hasa. Shi'a
candidates took all five of the elected seats in Qatif and
five of six in Al-Hasa, but on each council all but one of
the appointed members are Sunni. Jafar Al-Shayeb, an elected
member of the Qatif municipal council, predicted the outcome
in Qatif to us a week before the official announcement.
"Although almost all Qatifis are Shi'a," he noted, "the
government will appoint Sunnis to the Qatif municipal council
to balance the elected members." He anticipated a good
working relationship with two of the appointed members but a
more difficult relationship with two others. Tayseer
Al-Khunaizi, a liberal activist from Qatif, said he was not
familiar with most of the Sunni appointees to the Qatif
council: "They are not real Qatifis, so they cannot be that
representative of the people."


5. (C) The SAG appointed technocrats from respected
professions and institutions to the metropolitan Dammam
council, including Khalid Al-Falih, a senior vice-president
at Aramco, and Dr. Abdullah Al-Qadi, Secretary General of the
EP Benevolence Society. The appointment of high-powered
businessmen, such as Al-Falih and SABIC Secretary General
Hamad Al-Mahdi (in Jubail),raise questions about the ability
of council members to devote significant time to council
work. A senior Aramco employee expressed surprise to the CG
at Al-Falih's appointment: "He has an exceptionally busy
international travel schedule and has a full slate at Aramco.
I can't see him attending many council meetings."

-------------- --------------
Members Jockey for Position While the Public Waits
-------------- --------------


6. (C) According to the councils' by-laws, the councils will
elect a president and vice president at their first meeting.
Stories in the EP media suggest that jockeying for these
positions among council members has already begun. For
example, Al-Youm, the EP daily, reported on December 18 that
members of the Qatif council had reached informal consensus
on electing an elected member as president and an appointed
member as vice president. The brother of one of the elected
Qatif council members confirmed to us that the members (minus
the mayor) had already met informally. (Note: Post would
not be surprised if Jafar Al-Shayeb is elected president.
End note.) EP residents outside the councils whose opinion
Post has gauged, on the other hand, have taken more of a
"wait and see" approach to the councils. "The government can
do whatever it wants to do," said a retired local
businessman. "What we need are more schools and more jobs.
Let's see if the councils help with that."

--------------
Comment
--------------


7. (C) In post's opinion, a "wait and see" approach is
certainly justified in gauging the impact of the municipal
councils in the EP. The councils' actual governance role
will only become clear over time, but in a state where the
power is so centralized and the role of municipalities so
circumscribed (ref B),it is unlikely that local municipal
officials will easily yield what little authority they have
to the councils. One possible scenario is that the municipal
councils will play no greater a role than the appointed
consultative councils (ref B). In theory, these councils
advise the province's Emir and local governors, but in
practice, contacts tell us, they do little more than rubber
stamp decisions. A more hopeful scenario for the EP councils
is that they will force a greater degree of accountability on
municipal officials and spread quasi-democratic practices
more broadly in Saudi society. Achieving greater
accountability will likely take active, visible participation
and creative use of the media by the councils' elected
members. End comment.

-------------- --------------
Names or Positions of Appointed EP Council Members
-------------- --------------


8. (SBU) Individuals appointed to EP councils are listed
below by council, with brief biographic information where
available.

Metropolitan Dammam (seven appointed members; includes
Dammam, Khobar, and Dhahran)

--Mayor of Eastern Province (current mayor is HE Dhaifallah
Al-Otaibi, a retired Saudi Aramco executive and a Sunni)
--Abd Al-Jawad, Ehsan Fareed (Sunni; businessman; board
member of the EP Chamber of Commerce & Industry and chair of
its marine committee; U.S. educated)
--Al-Mazyan, Jamal Abdullah (Sunni; prominent lawyer; EP
magnate Ma'an Al-Sanea is one of his clients)
--Al-Faleh, Khalid Abdul Aziz (Sunni; Senior VP for
Industrial Relations, Saudi Aramco)
--Al-Bayat, Dr. Sameer Alwan (Shi'ite; faculty member at King
Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM))
--Al-Ashban, Dr. Aref Abdullah (Sunni; faculty member at
KFUPM)
--Al-Qadhi, Dr. Abdullah Husein (Sunni; Secretary General of
the EP Benevolence Society, Al-Bir; faculty member, King
Faisal University (KFU); U.S. educated with a degree in urban
planning)

Al-Hasa Governorate (six appointed members)

--Mayor of Al-Ahsa Governorate (current mayor is Eng. Fahd
Mohammad al-Jubair, a Sunni)
--Al-Afaleq, Saleh Hasan Abdullah (Sunni; businessman; nephew
of leading businessman and Al-Ahsa chamber founding member
and president Abdul Aziz Al-Afaleq; family is major
shareholder in Al-Ahsa Intercontinental Hotel)
--Al Al-Shaikh, Abd Al-Baqi Mohammad Ibrahim (Sunni; judge;
from the well-known Al-Mubarak family in al-Ahsa, whose
members follow the Malaki school of Islamic jurisprudence
rather than the Hanbali/Wahhabi school)
--Al-Ayyaf, Abdul Aziz Khalid Othman (Sunni; formerly
Secretary General of Al-Hasa Chamber of Commerce & Industry;

SIPDIS
recently appointed Secretary General of EP Chamber of
Commerce & Industry)
--Al-Bahrani, Abdul Aziz Matouq Ahmad (Shi'ite; faculty
member, KFU - Al-Ahsa)
--Al-Arfaj, Dr. Abd Al-Mohsin bin Husein Mohammad (Sunni;
Director-General, Al-Ahsa Benevolence Society; faculty
member, KFU - Al-Ahsa)

Qatif Governorate (five appointed members)

--Mayor of Qatif Governorate (current mayor of Qatif is
Khalid Al-Dossari, a Sunni and KFUPM graduate with extensive
travel experience and favorable views toward the U.S.)
--Al-Khaldi, Khalid Abdul Aziz bin Aql (Sunni; employee of
Saudi Electric Company)
--Al-Sikairi, Dr. Abdullah Naji Eisa (Shi'ite; faculty
member, KFUPM)
--Al-Mulaihi, Faleh bin Zaid Nasser (Sunni; Dammam-based
businessman with real estate investments in Qatif)
--Al-Awad, Eng. Murshid Saleh Murshid (Sunni; engineer at
Saudi Aramco)

Hafr Al-Batn Governorate (five appointed members)

--Mayor of Hafr Al-Batn Governorate
--Al-Khilaiwi, Khalid Saleh Nasser (from prominent business
family in Hafr Al-Batn)
--Al-Mutairi, Dr. Adi Husein Adi
--Al-Turki, Abdul Aziz Abd Al-Rahman Ahmad (owns shopping
mall in Hafr Al-Batn)
--Al-Mas'ar, Eng. Nasser Ali Shay'ea

Abqaiq Governorate (four appointed members)

--Mayor of Abqaiq Governorate
--Al-Shammari, Saud Ghudayr Faraj
--Al-Otaibi, Fayhan Hamoud bin Naqa
--Al-Hajri, Eng. Mohammad 'Aloush Mohammad

Jubail Governorate (four appointed members)

--Mayor of Jubail Governorate
--Al-Madhi, Hamad Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Aziz (Director General
of SABIC)
--Al-Saloum, Khalid Hasan Abdullah
--Al-Bouainain, Abdul Aziz Yousef Al-Ahmad (from a well-known
local fishing family)

Khafji Governorate (four appointed members)

--Mayor of Khafji Governorate
--Hilal, Khalid Mohammad Husein
--Al-Qahtani, Odays Khushain Nasser
--Al-Dawi, Munaikher Jabber Munaikher

Malija Municipality (three appointed members)

--Mayor of Malija Municipality
--Al-'Ablan, Saud Saad Mubarak
--Al-Dosari, Mubarak Fayhan Mubarak

Nouairiya Governorate (three appointed members)

--Mayor of Nouairiya Governorate
--Hathlain, Mish'al bin Abdullah Mohammad
--Al-Mari, Nasser Fuhaid Nasser

Rafi'a Municipality (three appointed members)

--Mayor of Al-Rafiya Municipality
--Al-Duwaish, Abdul Aziz Sa'afaq Hakem
--Al-Duwaish, Nawaf Sultan Al-Hamidi

Ras Tanura Governorate (three appointed members)

--Mayor of Ras Tanura Governorate
--Al-Zou'abi, Abdul Aziz Abd Al-Rahman Abdul Aziz Al-Zuhairan
--Al-Ansari, Nasser Husein Ahmad

Yibreen Municipality (three appointed members)

--Mayor of Yibreen Municipality
--Al-'Iraq, Jaber Saleh 'Amr
--Al-Mari, Zaid Rashed Hiza

Qarya Al-Ulya Governorate (three appointed members)

--Mayor of Qarya Al-Ulya Governorate
--Al-Mutairi, Abdullah Hamoud Iqab Al-Shitaili
--Al-Duwaish, Faisal Nughaimish Iqab
--Al-Duwaish, Fawaz Majid Mohammad
(Note: One of the latter three individuals was elected, not
appointed, but we did not report his name in ref D. We
believe it was Fawaz Al-Duwaish but are not certain. End
note.)

Al-Lahaba Rural Complex (two appointed members)

--Mayor of Al-Lahaba Rural Complex
--Al-Duwaish, Badr Mohammad Mutlaq

Sa'eera Rural Complex (two appointed members)

--Mayor of Al-Saeera Rural Complex
--Al-Mutairi, Khalid Haza'a Mohammad

Sarar Rural Complex (two appointed members)

--Mayor of Al-Sarar Rural Complex
--Al-Ajmi, Aloush Qamdan Abdullah

(Note: Post translated this list from a newspaper report.
Post followed the designations of the geographical units
given in the newspaper report rather than the designations
given in refs C - G. For example, the "rural complexes" were
designated as "administrative posts" in reftels. End note.)

(APPROVED: KINCANNON)
GFOELLER