Young Saudis’ thumbs up: Deputy crown prince has done us proud

THE PRINCE OF CHANGE: Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tries his hand at new technology at the Facebook headquarters in Silicon Valley, US.

JEDDAH: Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Silicon Valley has bolstered his image as the champion of the Kingdom’s plugged-in youth.
He has pitched his Vision 2030 reforms at the 70 percent of the Kingdom’s people younger than him, promising to unlock their “talent, potential and dedication.”
He has also tried to overcome Western stereotypes of Saudis, meeting foreign media to sell his vision of market-oriented reforms and a transformation of the Saudi society, according to Reuters.
Pictures of the denim-clad deputy crown prince in Silicon Valley served both purposes. His modernizing message has strongly resonated on social media with younger Saudis.
“The Saudi youth and the government are finally speaking the same language,” said Manal Al-Sharif, a banker and mother of two teenage girls in Jeddah.
Photos of the deputy crown prince meeting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and trying out a virtual reality headset, were widely published in newspapers on Thursday.
The social media barons of Silicon Valley are more relevant to many of the younger Saudis than Western political leaders.
“The prince of youth,” accompanied by excitable emojis showing a purple heart, clapping hands and raised thumbs, was a typical Tweet on Thursday in response to the deputy crown prince’s trip. Another tweeted: “All hopes are with the prince of youth.”
The deputy crown prince’s choice of Western attire — jeans, jacket and open-neck shirt in California, suit and tie in Washington to meet some political leaders in Washington — sent a clear signal.
It is one he has already pushed at home, choosing to appear often without the fine cloak that distinguishes important Saudis, and sometimes even with his head bare — something unthinkable for the previous generation.
“His visit had a double effect — on the one hand it is showing a side of Saudi Arabia that has never before been seen in the West, on the other hand he is leveraging his age in a positive way,” said Dina Suleiman, a 30-year-old Saudi woman in Jeddah.
Her younger sister Randa, 16, was enthusiastic: “I think the deputy crown prince is really cool and the way he is representing the country in a positive way makes me very proud,” she said.
During his trip to the US, the deputy crown prince pitched Saudi Arabia as an investment destination for US companies, securing some unbinding agreements from major corporates to look into projects in the Kingdom.
The idea is to promote Saudi Arabia as a dynamic economy whose reforms are unshackling it from the statist model of its past with the ultimate goal of creating new private sector jobs for younger people in the country.
“Prince Mohammed is bringing a refreshing change, and this may not go down well with some people,” said Mohammed bin Atef, 28, a manager at a supermarket chain. “But, InshaAllah, this prince of youth will come to be known as ‘the prince of change.”