Saudi Arabia: Time for the old men to give way FOR all the attention Egypt's stricken Hosni Mubarak received this week, the death of another antediluvian hardliner in the Arab world's other great power is more significant. Prince Nayef, heir apparent to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, epitomised the ruling family's resistance to change. The interior ministry, which he ran for the past 37 years, has been the bane of reformers. So far there has been no sign that his death will free the forces of change. But time is no longer on the side of the House of Saud. If it wants to survive, the ageing royal family needs to get moving. By far the biggest and richest country in the Arabian peninsula, Saudi Arabia is the font of Islam and the producer that does most to set the global oil price. For Prince Nayef and his fellow princes, the kingdom has been an oasis of stability and common sense in a sea of chaos and revolutionary excess. The Arab spring is anathema to them. They hate and fear both the secular revolutionaries and the Muslim Brotherhood. Although they discreetly backed the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi in Libya because his regime seemed even more dangerous than the alternative, they viewed the fall of Mr Mubarak as a disaster. The 89-year-old king has sought consensus at home, tiptoeing cautiously towards reform. But the pace has been too slow and the ruling princes too timid in the face of the ultra-reactionary religious authorities. The regime continues to rely on bribery and repression to keep the country's 30m people quiet. At the height of the region's democratic surge a year ago, the king spent $130 billion on a welfare package. At the same time the regime still whacks the religious fanatics who look to the late Osama bin Laden, the Saudi who sought to overthrow the monarchy for its corruption and collaboration with the infidel, especially the American one. The royal family has kept a close watch on the tenth of the Saudi population who are Shia Muslims, regarded by the ruling Sunnis as heretics in league with Iran. And it has swatted a small but growing band of reformers, both secular and Islamist, who have sought wider political participation for ordinary people, including women. However, even if the country is quiescent, it is not stable (see article). Despite the colossal wealth of the ruling class, the number of poor is surprisingly large. A third of Saudi young people are jobless. The 140,000 or so Saudis studying abroad will want a say when they return. Irreverent social media, including Facebook and YouTube, are fizzing through the ether. A rising middle class will not lie back indefinitely on a cushion of handouts in lieu of a real voice in running the show. The old and the still older This brew is being stirred by a worsening succession crisis. The crown has been passed down from the founding king, Abdel Aziz bin Saud, to five (so far) of his 35-plus legitimate sons, a dozen of whom survive, the youngest in his late 60s. This system is now ludicrous. The new crown prince, Salman, anointed on June 18th, is 76 and poorly. If he were to die before King Abdullah, the Allegiance Council, a club of three dozen chief princes, should pick one of the half dozen or so able men from the next generation. A relatively young pragmatist (probably well into his 50s or even older) could then set about real reform, giving more teeth to the king's advisory shura council and providing for elected representation, perhaps at humbler local levels to begin with. Anywhere else such reforms would look puny. But if the ruling Saudis continue to rely on bribery and repression, they will surely be blown away in the end - perhaps not in this bout of Arab turmoil, but certainly during another one.