At times I have the feeling that some people in the Kingdom are working against our country. They may be doing this for reasons only known to God. They may be acting unintentionally or driven by ignorance, carelessness or indifference.
The recent announcement of the creation of a body to oversee Saudi charity activities abroad has come far too late. The establishment of the Saudi National Commission for Relief and Charity Work abroad is several years behind the times. It missed the ultimate timing for a launch; immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States and their aftermath.
One can only feel sorry for the time lost. Now it has been revealed that the creation has been under study for eight full years and yet it took all this time to turn it into reality. It could have been operating five years before the attacks on New York and Washington.
Eight long years were wasted before the step was finally taken while the world continued to witness events of every nature and magnitude. How do the experts and researchers who prepared that study feel now that their project has at last seen the light after a delay of eight years, five of them were before the Sept. 11 attacks? Do they feel frustrated, disappointed, or angry at seeing their effort being buried all this time?
The experts know what happened to our country’s reputation and the suffering this country has been through since Sept. 11. They know that it is all because of chaos and inconsistency that characterized charity work in the past.
Suddenly we discovered that some donations had been manipulated, misused or directed to areas that have nothing to do with the declared intentions. The money found its way to suspicious quarters suspected of supporting terrorism. We discovered that some donations collected from mosques, schools, societies and individuals were used to destabilize our security. What we discovered, belatedly, was the cause of the great damage done to the reputation of charity and relief work, both at institutional and individual levels. Now, shouldn’t we feel outraged over all those lost years when something like this would have taken no more than a few weeks or months to materialize?
