Word: shah
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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UNFORTUNATELY--or perhaps, inevitably, because of its encouragement of rapid economic development--the United States has become associated with the political elites that have fostered inequitable growth. The most notable recipients of U.S. support in recent years have been the Shah of Iran and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. Often, police and military equipment supplied to these and other leaders by the United States to combat Communism have been employed to maintain domestic inequities by political repression...
...sick man of the Middle East. Its chain of adversity began with the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty that divided the Arab world, in whose spirited leadership, at least, the Saudis, keepers of Mecca, have always felt a special role. Then came the Islamic revolution that toppled the Shah of Iran, and by implication threatened conservative Muslim regimes everywhere. At home, a fanatical band of orthodox Muslims seized the Sacred Mosque at Mecca and occupied it for two weeks before Saudi armed forces could dislodge them. It was an act of rebellion and sacrilege unparalleled in the nation...
Concludes Hisham Nazer, the Minister of Planning, confidently: "It was the lack of development in Iran that was the problem, not rapid development. The Shah built a navy, but he didn't build houses. In Saudi Arabia we have built 200,000 houses. Development here concentrates on wealth filtering down...
Mindful of the spreading Islamic disgust at the sort of corruption that helped topple the Shah of Iran two years ago, the Saudi regime has recently begun a well-publicized clean-up drive. The campaign, though, is largely cosmetic; payoffs continue unchecked. One method is fifty-fifty partnership arrangements between foreign companies and Saudi locals. Complains a Dutch industrialist: "It's all very well arranged, with profit-sharing arrangements set up for this purpose. But it is still bribery...
Corruption exists, and probably always will, in this obviously imperfect world. But should the U.S. participate in it? Bribery on the global scale that is now occurring is costly, saps political vitality and can eventually undermine a people's trust in government. The regimes of the Shah in Iran or General Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua are testimonies to the problem...