A recommendation by the Manpower Council resulted in the scrapping of an interesting proposal. It was proposed that unemployed Saudis be paid either SR1,000 or SR1,500 per month — the first amount to a single person and the second to the head of a family.
The Manpower Council said it considered the dole system impractical in a country like the Kingdom, where employment conditions are different from those in countries which use the dole. The council said the payments could backfire, resulting in additional complications at a time when efforts are focused on training of Saudis.
I fail to see how being on the dole could block providing training for Saudis. Nor do I understand how the Manpower Council was able to foresee the negative effects that the dole system might have while, at the same time, failing to realize the problems that will surely result if things are left as they are with no compensation made for the unemployed.
Imagine the adverse effects that grow out of a situation in which 30 percent of the country’s young are without work. These young people live in a society where men draw their dignity and honor from their ability to earn and support themselves and their families. This is not even to mention the right of women to work and secure a decent living for themselves and those who might be dependent upon them.
In fact, the Manpower Council blocked a proposal that did not come from the unemployed but one that was submitted to the Council of Ministers by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the body which oversees the plight of the poor and needy.
The council also ignored the social effects that implementing the proposal could have on the country. Large numbers of youth are to be left unemployed and without the means of preventing them from turning to crime — with the least troublesome crime being begging. For a long time, the ministry denied there were any Saudi beggars, but it has at last admitted that almost 37 percent of those who beg are Saudis.
The leaders of the terrorists who are behind the recent bombings and killings use these adverse conditions and circumstances to lure the unemployed into joining them.
How can we refuse to provide an unemployed person with a small amount of money when our religion calls for compassion and solidarity? The Kingdom gives help to the needy all over the world. Why not do the same for its own people?
In many other countries the unemployed are paid money to protect them from turning to crime. These are the same countries that we say encourage individualism and social disintegration.
