The Camel That Came in Second

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It is difficult because a great many Saudis, including prominent members of the royal family like Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, may not want to. These are the sort of people who don't sip cardamom tea with delegations from the Council on Foreign Relations. Their influence is seen not only in the schools--which don't produce many employable workers, according to business leaders--but also in the streets, where local traditions are mistaken for Islamic law. "I don't mind that I'm not allowed to drive here," a Saudi woman with a valid American license told me. "What I really mind is that I need my husband's written approval for everything, even if I want to go to Bahrain. I am not considered the legal guardian of my children. They need my husband's signature to go on a school trip."

The agony of the élites appears to be real, even if it is usually accompanied by the reflexive blaming of Israel for everything, including the recent assassination of Lebanese leader Rafiq Hariri. There is anger at President Bush's attempts to unilaterally impose reform from afar, but it is followed by grudging acknowledgment of the problem. "We know we have to change," a businessman said in one of our meetings. "Please keep pushing us."

All right, I'll push. A year ago, a dozen prominent intellectuals who signed a petition calling for a constitutional monarchy were arrested for trying to hold a public meeting. All but three were released after pledging not to organize an opposition movement. The three who refused--a poet, an Islamist scholar and a political-science professor--are still in jail. Last week I visited their lawyer, a cautious young man named Khalid Farah al-Mutairy, who joined the case because the political scientist had been his mentor. "I was surprised when he decided not to sign the pledge," al-Mutairy said with some dismay.

A government official privately dismissed the three academics as an ex-communist, a radical Islamist and an extreme Arab nationalist. "What nonsense," said Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, spokesman for Human Rights First Saudi Arabia. "How extremist can they be if they're willing to work together? When these people submitted their petition, the Crown Prince said, 'Your project is my project.' But nothing happened. If the government really wants to say no to terrorism, it must say yes to greater democracy."