Brutal repression sometimes works

Telegraph: Saudi Arabia continues to crush the political community that could provide them a level of immunity to a bloody coup d'etat. Fifteen anti-monarchy demonstrators, including a woman, have been sentenced to public lashings and jail terms in Saudi Arabia. The sentences are a signal that the government will not tolerate open opposition despite undertakings to liberalise.

I can't decide on which side of the fence I sit. Crush everything that resembles opposition, or let it have a voice? In any other country I'd say let them have a voice, but in Saudi perhaps things are different? Nah! Throughout history, repression loses—eventually.