The Dead Roo

Like other Greens involved in the current election campaign, I’ve had cause for despair at times. When you think it’s tough being Green, spare a thought for those Greens working in some of the worlds harder political situations.

Ladies, Gents and others, let me introduce you to the Green Party of Saudi Arabia.

The organising environment presents some unique challenges:

“Are you serious?”

Yes, we are a political party in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and have been active since 2001.

Due to the current state of affairs in the kingdom we have been forced to be an underground or clandestine political party.

The environment is a key issue:

We support the protection of our ecosystems and national resources for future generations, and the right of all citizens to live in a clean environment.

But how do they reconcile this with a dependence on oil?

We support the continued development of our nation’s oil resources, but also seek the development of alternative fuel resources such as wind, solar, hydro, and hemp. We believe that that revenues raised from the economic development of our natural resources should be used to find social programs and projects that benefit the entire society.

And what sorts of radical, down right kooky social policies do they support?

We support the right of single adults to cohabitate, and to make their own decisions about their private, adult and consensual sexual conduct. We support laws against child molestation (anyone under 16), sexual harassment, and rape. We support a prohibition on adultery, provided that the law is not invoked during divorce proceedings, and that its has an emphasis on martial counseling.

What about politics? In Australia we’ve been talking about democratic reform and a push to more proportional representation. What’s the issue in Saudi Arabia?

We support the right of citizens to create non-violent political clubs that shall nominate candidates for the national assembly and be allowed to lawfully campaign and operate a political party newspaper and internet homepage.

And considering the party is outlawed, what is their response to the state and the monarchy?

We oppose a violent revolution or the destruction of the Saudi royal family. We support a constitutional monarchy with a bi-cameral national assembly. One house in the national assembly would be a House of Commons whose members shall be elected by party-list proportional representation and the Consultative Council would be the upper house in the national assembly with its members elected by first-past-the-post system.

Whenever I think it’s tough being a Green in Australia, all I have to do is think about the brave souls pushing the Green agenda in Saudi Arabia, and somehow the task doesn’t seem that hard.

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