The talk these days is of a new project under which those with civil complaints will get justice through arbitration.
Unfortunately, I have a tale about the department which will be responsible for administering these complaints — and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. I received a summons from the department which gave no information except the date on which I was to appear.
I asked a friend with connections to stop by and see what he could find out but he returned saying that the employees were unwilling to part with any information.
Thus I went along on the appointed date and found myself before an employee, authoritative and bureaucratic as they all are and also — at least from his appearance — well past the retirement age.
As I waited my turn, I saw him deal with a number of others with various problems; whatever he was, he was not overly patient or helpful.
Finally my turn came and he barked at me: "Where is your sponsor?" I asked him why I needed a sponsor and pointed out that the letter I had from his office told me to come on a certain date — there was nothing in it about needing a sponsor.
He answered curtly: "If you have no sponsor, I can do nothing for you. Come back later and bring one with you. I have no time to deal with your case."
I protested that I didn’t even know what my case was about and seeing how agitated I was, a young employee asked me to have a seat and a cup of tea while he tried to discover what was going on.
He soon located a file with only one piece of paper in it; he turned to the old man and asked: "Why have you summoned this gentleman and why have you asked him to bring a sponsor?"
It seems that the paper was a letter from the Emirate of Makkah thanking me for some volunteer work I had done! The young man apologized and escorted me to the door where a number of people offered to act as witnesses if I wanted to file a complaint.
At that moment, I certainly intended to do so but later, I dropped the matter. I decided the dignity of silence was preferable to the heat of emotion.
