A few weeks ago after much pleasant discussion and enjoyable decision-making, I went shopping for a car for my mother. I went around and looked at several and after further consultation, I finally chose a car for her. I told her it would be ready the next day and that we would all go to Madinah to visit the Prophet’s Mosque. She was delighted and was eagerly looking forward to the trip.
The next day when I went back to collect the car, I was most unpleasantly surprised to hear what may be the most dreaded and despised words in Saudi Arabia, “Sorry, we cannot get the istimara — car registration — because you have a traffic violation and the fine must be paid before anything can be done.” To say the least, I was dumbfounded. When was this violation committed? Where?
Many questions but no answers at all. I went directly to the traffic police and was told to come the next day. Disappointment was increasing. The next day I had a very important meeting which it was out of the question for me to miss. All I could do was to entrust the task to someone who went in my place and was told he needed the original of my identification card. Another day lost.
In addition to my annoyance and frustration, I was upset for my mother who had to postpone her long-anticipated trip. We stayed at home that weekend and felt sorry for ourselves since we had planned to be in Madinah and were not. At the beginning of the next week, I had to leave for the United States and sadly, I got stuck there because of — as they say — circumstances beyond my control. The most annoying thing was my inability to be with my mother in Madinah. And the reason for my original failure.
The questions kept coming back to me. Who gave me the ticket? What was the violation? When did it happen? Why does such a phenomenon exist? I expect most of us have heard of the woman who had never even sat behind the wheel of a car who ended up with a traffic ticket for some alleged violation. And the nurse who had the same problem. It seems well-known everywhere in the world that women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. Can this state of affairs have escaped the notice of the traffic police? This very paper in which you are reading this article earlier carried a story about an official who was punished for giving out tickets for non-existent traffic violations. This is enough to make any Saudi and most expatriates very suspicious indeed. Who decided that people should be given tickets and then told nothing about the alleged violations? Surely within a day or two of any violation, the violator should be informed. Surely anyone alleged to be a violator has the right to be told of the violation. We should not be at the mercy of phantoms who hand out traffic tickets. We should at the very least know who the phantom is and why the ticket is being given. It is completely unjustifiable for a person to learn of his violation only when he tries to do something — board a flight or process some papers for example — and then be told why the thing cannot be done. This is too much.
I have been trying to calculate the value of the time that is lost and wasted in trying to solve such meaningless and pointless problems. To say nothing of how productivity is negatively affected! Other nations move ahead, trying and discarding ideas and innovations. We, on the other hand, seem to fear new ideas and innovations. We continue to do things in the same bureaucratic way which served our ancestors well but which has no place in the modern world. The government has issued a number of directives that citizens’ affairs be handled promptly and efficiently. Not only have the directives not been followed, they might as well not exist. I was kept in the dark about my traffic violation which is, by no stretch of the imagination, handling affairs with promptness or efficiency.
To add insult to injury, I had completed two interviews — one with CNN and the other with the BBC — explaining our viewpoint and ideas about the present world situation. My mind was reeling from discussions on a wide variety of subjects but I was quickly brought back to reality. I got a call from home saying that as I had not paid the bill for eight months, the electricity had been cut off! Now on this point, I knew perfectly well that I had indeed paid the bills. Eight hours later after sending a number of faxes and making what seemed like scores of phone calls — all a waste of time and energy of course — the mystery was solved. A computer error! Who operates the computer? I really feel it is a pity that I cannot file a lawsuit against a computer. What about against a computer operator? — [email protected]