Those who follow closely the important decisions that have been made throughout the country’s development process — especially those meant to correct past mistakes — must have noticed that the initiative always comes from the top leadership, namely the king and the crown prince.
Ministries and other senior officials suddenly find themselves face to face with mistakes they may have never been aware of. And because they have not acted to correct those mistakes, the top leadership had to move in and take action. We have more than 20 ministers — I don’t know the exact number — but I feel sure that every one of them has at some time or another received a certain kind of letter from the king or the crown prince. This “certain kind of letter” normally inquires why intervention is necessary in order to correct a situation that neither the minister nor his bureaucrats seems to have noticed.
A good illustration of this intervention was the letter earlier this year sent by Custodian of the Two Mosques King Fahd to Crown Prince Abdullah. The letter instructed government departments to protect citizens’ rights and to expedite completing their business. It directed that individuals who fail to comply — and others who misuse their authority — should be punished. It was a blunt message exposing shortcomings and calling for accountability.
Having made its way from one department to another, the letter ended up in the official archives and was soon forgotten. Ask any man on the street what changes they have seen since that letter was made public and the answer will be, “None.” Only last month the highest authority had to intervene again and issue a decision about the Saudization of taxi drivers. Are we to expect the same thing to happen if we Saudize groceries, electrical appliance shops, car accessory shops, health care, education and other businesses?
Decisions are no doubt lying unimplemented in the offices of senior officials, waiting for the king or the crown prince to propel them into reality. This leads us to the simple question of whether we indeed possess an institutional mechanism — by which I mean a system or package of regulations that enables us to identify and confront our present and future problems head-on.
A few days ago, the crown prince, after an unscheduled visit to a Riyadh slum, reminded us all that there is poverty in the country. Where were the relevant government departments? What answers will they give if, three years from now, the king or the crown prince makes a similar visit to poor areas in Jeddah, Madinah, Hofuf or Jizan?
What we need is a comprehensive strategy for identifying and solving our problems, especially those that seem to be lying in wait for discovery by the king or the crown prince. Officials suddenly wake up to the fact that there are indeed problems on their doorsteps but cannot solve them simply because there is no suggested solution at hand. How can a country which employs millions of foreign workers not find jobs for a few hundred thousand of its young people? Let us initiate a thorough and thoughtful debate on all issues facing us, beginning with population growth and ending with the files clutched closely by each of our young people as they go from place to place in fruitless search of work.
Arab News From the Local Press 1 December 2002
