A recent incident in which shots were fired at a bus carrying the staff of a private hospital in Hail has raised many questions about people’s abilities to identify a possible criminal. The nurses in the bus were able to describe the type and color of the car from which the shots were fired. None, however, was able to write down the number of the license plate.
The reason, of course, is a simple one: License plates in this country are exclusively in Arabic. And thus it is often impossible for many of the estimated six million foreigners living here to read a license plate, let alone provide any other help that requires reading knowledge.
That is not the first time a non-Arabic speaker has been unable to provide crucial information that might have led to the arrest of a suspect involved in a crime. Many expatriates witness these incidents but because of their inability to read Arabic, they can only provide very little information. Their help would surely be much greater if they were able to read.
The existing license plate system is based on three letter and three numbers with the name of the country appearing across the top of the plate. Everything that is written on the plate is in Arabic, including the locally-used numbers which are not the ones used internationally.
Because the three letters may actually form a word, some bizarre ideas come up. It is common to see motorists at traffic lights looking at the letters on the plate in front of them and trying to come up something amusing. Making a link between the driver and the word on his plate has become a pastime for many.
A motorist whose three-letter plate reads “skt” — which in Arabic means “silent” — may be shouting on his mobile phone. Another whose plate reads “itr” which means “perfume” leaves those behind him choking with the clouds of smoke from his car’s exhaust.
The license plate system should take into consideration the presence among us of large numbers of foreign workers who often do not speak Arabic. Why not use both Arabic and English? Wouldn’t that make things much easier for everybody? We might even mention the region in which the plate was issued.
Arab News From the Local Press 26 February 2003
