Saudi Arabia’s announcement to appoint German-American Klaus Kleinfeld as an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman sparked questions as well as concerns among Saudis.
Beyond the point that a foreign executive is appointed in a position to be the advisor of the de-facto power of the kingdom, Kleinfeld has a history of corruption scandals: the last one ended his work at Siemens involving bribe payments to secure overseas infrastructure contracts and support an employee organization.
According to an official statement, Kleinfeld is going to leave his position as chief executive of NEOM yet he will retain a position on its board, to take up his new post on August 1, 2018. He "will take over wider responsibilities to enhance the economic, technological and financial development of Saudi Arabia".
Many believed this is part of the crown prince’s vision, that includes reforms to help the economy wean off reliance on oil exports and generate sufficient jobs for Saudis.
Meanwhile, one of Vision 2030 reforms, that was announced since 2016, is reducing the number of unemployed Saudi nationals, giving priority to Saudis to fill the position of the crown prince’s advisor, it was called: Saudization.
Saudis opinion online has been divided, between people highlighting the irony between the Saudization plan and the news,
Translation: “As part of Saudization: former chief executive of Siemens is appointed as MBS advisor. It is worth to mention that the company [Siemens] reported its biggest losses while he was in his position, in addition to corruption scandals, bribes and layoffs.”
Others condemned the choice of appointing a foreigner while there are several qualified Saudis who can fill the position.
Translation: “There are 30 million Saudi nationals and a foreigner is appointed.”
Surprisingly, some Saudis went to dismiss accusations against Kleinfeld saying it is only part of a conspiracy against MBS.
Translation: “Those are some fake stories, if your allegations are true then he should have been in jail now.”
In fact, what really concerns Saudis is not the choice of Kleinfeld itself, but MBS’ latest policies and claimed-reforms in the Kingdom. As he wants to give the impression of reforms, he had been carrying out several crackdowns on businessmen and human rights activists. The latest in which he arrested more than eight women rights activists who were known for demanding to lift the ban on women driving.
In the meantime, Saudis are complaining the rise in costs of living in the Kingdom since the beginning of 2018. The last was the increase in electricity taxes for June by more than 200% for some cases in addition to food prices without any justification from the authorities.
