We keep concerning ourselves with minor issues while ignoring major ones, especially those relating to our immediate and future concerns. A football referee is suspended from work and the story dominates the papers for days as if there were nothing more significant. Much column space is given to such matters as possible threats caused by certain trees, protecting lizards from extinction, divorce, family disputes and regulating taxi services.
When it comes to crucial matters of deep concern that should spark thoughtful debate, however, we too often neglect them as if they were of no consequence. Either someone feels these matters are not newsworthy — or perhaps the subject is a guarded secret not to be mentioned outside a small circle. A glaring example is the recent cancellation of the giant gas initiative which would have involved an initial investment of $25 billion. The initiative centered on three major projects and signaled the opening of the Saudi gas sector to foreign companies.
The news of the cancellation was reported in detail by almost every news agency and newspaper in the world — with the exception of our national news agency. Four years ago, local papers trumpeted the news of the initiative which, it was confidently stated, would win the Kingdom billions of dollars in foreign investment over a period of 10 years. New power generating plants were to be built and the whole project would have generated all kinds of support services and created 30,000 jobs for Saudis.
It is indeed unbelievable that such a major event has been treated so casually. A giant project was simply canceled and years of extensive and grueling negotiations came to an end with no press conference held to explain anything. No official went public by holding even the shortest press conference to explain, reveal secrets of the unfinished deal and talk about the alternatives.
Is it not possible for members of the Saudi negotiating team to spare some time to tell an eager public what exactly went wrong and why the deal was not concluded? Don’t the observers — and all those who have closely followed the project — deserve to know what happened in the various stages of the negotiations, what the position of the Saudi team was and how they managed the talks?
It would have been much better if the complications surrounding the deal and the position of each party involved had been explained in the Kingdom, the place where the entire project was to be centered, rather than abroad. People hear about unsuccessful negotiations and the cancellation of a project of this magnitude and also of the desire to engage in new talks but they are unable to find answers to the simple questions of how, when and why.
- Arab News From the Local Press 26 June 2003
