Saudi activists decry state for forcing nation under poverty line

Saudi activists share footage of poverty-stricken and garbage-rummaging Saudi citizens, decrying Riyadh for impoverishing the country and introducing even harsher economic measures despite the already pressing circumstances.

A storm kicked up across Twitter after the kingdom announced on Monday that it was to suspend a 1000-riyal ($266) cost-of-living allowance for state employees and increase value added tax from five to 15 percent as if the people were already not under much economic pressure.

Ghanem Almasarir, a well-known critic of the state, posted a video showing people begging money or other instances of assistance from passing cars at crossroads, others scavenging for food in garbage containers and bin liners, a Saudi citizen displaying his empty fridge, and several people showing how they were living in ramshackle houses and squalid conditions.

Saudi Arabia to impose austerity measures amid coronavirus crisis, oil collapse

Saudi Arabia is to suspend a cost-of-living allowance for state employees and increase value added tax (VAT).

‘Revolution of the Hungry’

Activists warned about what they described as a “Revolution of the Hungry,” with Almasarir cautioning that the state could go as far as shooting the VAT up to 50 percent.

Ahmad Khaled Abdul-Rahman, another activist, retweeted a critical post that said the authorities had taken on the people’s pockets that were already “basically empty.”

In another retweet, he said instead of taking away the allowance “upon which thousands of Saudi families live,” the state should decide against potential takeover of the British football club Newcastle. A group headed up by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is reportedly closing in on a £300-million ($375-million) deal to take over the Premier League club.

Khat al-Balda, a famous Saudi-run Twitter page, meanwhile, warned of pending occurrence of “the Crisis of Truth,” saying there would come a day when ordinary Saudis would not be able to take care of their daily needs and their salaries would only last 10 days from their receipt.

Bin Salman, it added, would take his expenses and those of his close ally US President Donald Trump out of “the Saudi citizens’ pockets.”

The page also urged the royal to stop plundering the kingdom’s wealth and end the 2015-present Saudi-led war on Yemen to make up for shortages in the country’s budget.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis have died since the kingdom launched the war that has fallen short of all of its objectives, including returning power to Yemen’s former Riyadh-aligned officials.

Bin Salman’s appointment as the crown prince has witnessed Riyadh’s exponential gravitation towards Washington as seen by Trump’s making his first foreign visit to the kingdom as president, the US president’s singing a $110-billion arms deal with the kingdom, and notable increase in the US’s support for the Saudi-led war.

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