Imagine what would happen if regional governors decided to imprison all negligent officials found to have contributed to a deterioration in services. The idea came to me as I read about the mayor of a Damascus suburb who, following an inspection tour in the area, ordered the imprisonment of all officials in charge of garbage removal.
The outraged mayor could not bear the sight of garbage littering the streets as well as other signs of negligence and he immediately ordered the punishment of the negligent officials for failing to keep the suburb clean, a job they are paid for.
The mayor had just returned from a visit to Iran where he was impressed by the standard of cleanliness of Iranian cities which use the slogan: “Your city is your home.” He saw the residents cooperating with the municipality in cleaning their neighborhoods.
The Syrian mayor’s argument was that if negligent municipality officials were left without punishment, nothing would be done and the suburb would sink further into filth. The old guard will cling to power at any cost, resisting any attempt to challenge their authority and deny the majority the very privileges they have long enjoyed. With the old guard in that Syrian suburb sent to jail or ordered to stay at home, I imagine the mayor’s strategy will produce results.
The standard of cleanliness in Saudi cities is not that bad, but we still cannot say it has reached the standard we aspire to. The same applies to other municipality services. The standard of services ranges from good to bad, depending on what area you are talking about, but generally speaking, it can be said the overall standard is low. This may have to do with the qualifications municipality heads have as well as the resources available to them — although this last is too often used as an excuse for failures.
Negligent officials here do not usually receive the punishment they deserve. I ask you to go back to the beginning of this article and try to imagine what would happen if the officials responsible for keeping our cities clean were aware of the punishment that awaited them if they failed.
