At a time when our ministers of information are supposed to speak out and make the Kingdom’s voice heard all over the world, they have preferred to maintain a long silence. This has been the case over the past few years when major developments gripped the world’s attention and threatened to change it for good.
Why then are the ministers not talking? Had Saudi Arabia been a small or insignificant country, no one would bother to ask the question. The Kingdom, however, is a major player on world stage; it is the land of Makkah and Madinah with the Two Holy Mosques which make it the focal point for Muslims everywhere. It is the world’s largest oil producer and exporter. This is reason enough for the ministers to speak out.
The Kingdom’s voice ought to be loud and clear for all to hear — and even more important, it should be credible and convincing. Our country is not located in a remote and trouble-free part of the world. It lies in the heart of a region riddled with conflicts, with armed struggles going on all about it. This too is reason enough for us to speak. If we were living in another era, no one would expect our comments but these are exceptional times in which political rivalries dominate the world stage. This again is reason enough for us to have a powerful media which makes our voices heard.
If it were only one minister who was silent, we might attribute that silence to personal reasons. If that were the situation, it could have been dealt with by finding a competent replacement. The problem, however, is that almost all our information ministers have been silent. They work from within their offices or in closed meetings with their senior staff. It is as if the officials were intelligence officers rather than holders of public posts.
It is amazing to find that even those in charge of intelligence organs tend to be more open than ministers of information. We need loud but rational voices to defend us in these troubled times when accusations are being hurled at us from every direction and for the widest variety of reasons.
We need strong voices to correct the misconceptions spread about us for years, to counter those seeking to harm us and to convey to them and to the world the true picture. The official political voice is of course of great importance but what is even more important and more powerful is the media. The media may be doing its job but the succession of ministers of information have been hesitant indeed about doing theirs.
Arab News From the Local Press 29 April 2003
