Groups of Omanis gathered to protest against unemployment in at least two cities on Monday, authorities and activists said, the first show of discontent since the new sultan acceded the throne.
Videos and photos posted on social media showed protesters gathering in Salalah, in the
Protests over unemployment now occurring in Salalah, #Oman
— Dr Jessie Moritz (@JessieMoritz) May 25, 2021
Earlier protests occurred in Sohar too - follow @Turki_albalushi for updates https://t.co/Buw4VbkuFb
south, and Sohar in the north.
A heavy presence of security forces, with convoys of military and police vehicles, could be seen on the videos, including where police forces fired tear gas and arrested demonstrators.
The protests are the first to take place under Sultan Haitham, who took power in January 2020 after the death of long-ruling Sultan Qaboos.
The coronavirus crisis and low oil prices have battered state coffers. Oman has long had plans to reform its economy, diversify revenues and introduces sensitive tax and subsidies reform, but these dragged under the late Sultan Qaboos. His successor, Sultan Haitham, has introduced a series of reforms to try and make government finances sustainable.
He has been credited with a modernising vision that takes into consideration the aspirations of young people and the need for economic transformation. Under his rule, Oman has maintained its mediator role in regional conflicts.
Oman has seen demonstrations in early 2011 following the outbreak of revolts in the region. But unlike in Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain, protests in the sultanate focused on jobs and alleged corruption, rather than political change.
State media reported on the protests on Monday, saying university graduates were calling on the government to provide jobs.
The labor issue is “one of the most important priorities” for the country’s ruler, state-run Oman News said.
In Sohar, protesters could be seen outside a regional office of the Labour Ministry and in the surrounding areas, holding up signs calling for civil rights and chanting.
Small protests also took place in Sohar on Sunday, which also drew a large police response. In a tweet, the country’s labour ministry acknowledged Sunday’s protests and said the protesters’ demands of employment and complaints of layoffs “were heard”.
It said that it was aware of people gathering there to try to “find new job vacancies and to solve the problems of those who were fired.”
It was not immediately clear if there had been a major layoff in Sohar, which is home to a key port, as well as plants producing aluminum and steel.
Omani analyst Ahmed al-Shizawi rules out that the protests are political in nature.
Shizawi, who hails from Sohar, told The Arab Weekly that the mass presence of anti-riot police “provoked demonstrators looking for jobs. This raised the number of the demonstratros Monday although they were chanting ‘peaceful, peaceful'”.
"Your majesty Sultan Haitham, who the unemployed and fired citizens would look at, after God, if it's not you ?" - rare protests in Oman https://t.co/CEuUBidbP2
— Davide Barbuscia (@DBarbuscia) May 24, 2021
He deplored the absence of dialogue in the official narrative, the silence of government officials and the marginsalisation of civil society in addressing the crisis as well as the inability of official media to deal with the events.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
