What's at stake? Social disruption, I suppose. Things cease to be private family matters and become public property. Shameful behaviour is exposed causing loss of face to those concerned and the country as a whole. The political system could fall apart if everybody knows who is getting how much and people start to want a bigger slice for themselves. Ultimately, the ruling family's grip on power could be fatally weakened... so everything is at stake.

I think they recognise that once the cloth of absolute control starts to fray around the edges, it will be eaten away thread by thread until nothing is left.

A few years ago the Emir said in a speech that the Gulf had to move towards democracy because if the rulers didn't give the people more power, the people would eventually take all the power. That struck me as an honest assessment - the democracy issue (associated with the free press issue) is all about keeping control. In a way, any absolute ruler is only the custodian of absolute power; the test of his rule is whether he manages to pass the reality of that power to the next generation of his family.