The sultanate suddenly stirs

IT WAS considered a corner of the Arab world least likely to catch the backwash of anger swilling around the region. But even Oman has been splashed. An outburst of anger expressed mainly by jobless or ill-paid youths in the port of Sohar left at least one person dead; some reports put the toll as high as six. Few Omanis think Sultan Qaboos, who recently celebrated 40 years on the throne, is wobbling. Still, even he will have to heed the more disgruntled of his subjects. And calls for giving more power to his majlis al-shura, a partially elected advisory council, may well grow louder.

The protests took place on February 26th and 27th in the port of Sohar, Oman's second city. A police station was torched, a supermarket later trashed. But a few days afterwards thousands of Omanis took to the streets of the capital, Muscat, to show their loyalty to the sultan, albeit with his state apparatus co-ordinating the event. Residents say there was a swell of genuine affection for him, particularly among older Omanis.

Compared with his reactionary father, Said bin Taimur, who was displaced by the present sultan in a British-backed coup in 1970, he has opened up the country and brought previously unimaginable prosperity to his 3m people. He has used the proceeds from 860,000 barrels of oil a day to build roads, schools and hospitals. At last count, the IMF reckoned that the country's GDP per head was $18,000, about seven times higher than Egypt's.

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The protesters' main demand was for more jobs—and welfare for those without them. Sultan Qaboos has hastily declared that this will be done, raising the minimum wage by 40%, to 200 riyals ($520) a month.

The rioters' political demands were more modest than those of their cousins elsewhere in the Arab world. Few called for the monarchy to be replaced or for full-blown democracy. But they want the sultan's advisory council to have more power. They also want the sultan to sack some unpopular ministers, tackle corruption, give the press more freedom, and curb the influence of rich families close to government.

They seem to have gained ground already on all fronts. Newspapers such as the Muscat Daily have begun to cover the protests in a way that would have been unthinkable even a week ago.