The residents of the Western Province are being flooded with posters, flyers, SMS, and an occasional phone call from some of the candidates running for the municipal elections, which take place very soon. To take this matter seriously, I called upon a few candidates to find out more about their agenda, and what exactly they intended on getting done if elected.

My first call to Candidate 1 was met with a very effusive reply. He stated his intention on making Jeddah a better place for its residents. And how was he going to do that, I inquired. Well, he had experience running a chain of bakeries and felt that running the affairs of Jeddah was not much unlike a bakery operation. You forecast, purchased, prepared, executed, and then stuck everything in the oven. Presto, the final product comes out smelling delectable. After promising to visit one of his bakery outlets to assess his skills, I hung up.

Candidate 2 was not very forthcoming on what he intended to do, except to plead for me to give him a chance at the ballot. “But what would my vote be cast on? Give me something solid,” I pressed. “Jeddah should be a better place to live,” he countered. “But how do you intend to make it better”, I persisted. “Vote for me and you will be pleasantly surprised”, was his smooth reply. I am not fond of surprises, good or bad.

Candidate No. 3 hails from a well-known tribe. At least that is what the underlining message was when I called him. And he was keen on my understanding the importance. “But Jeddah is not tribal, and we are hoping to move our municipality into the 21st century. May Allah grant more bounties to your tribe, but I have more urgent problems I am facing here that need a serious change. Are you aware of some of them?” I demanded. “Yes, we are aware and rest assured that we will fix them all”, was his confident reply. Why was I not sharing his surge of confidence then?

Candidate 4 appeared more promising. A graduate from one of the reputable schools in the USA, with extensive business and management experience, he was very direct and focused. And on a couple of issues I brought up, he was very literate in his reply. It helped that he came from an old Jeddah business family, and had lived in the USA and Canada for quite some time. He had a keen understanding, and was one of the few candidates who were willing to admit that a municipal issue I had raised wasn’t thought of before. I am going to look him over carefully before voting day.

Candidate No. 5 is a civil servant. He wanted to be elected to change things the way they are. He was sick and tired of all the incompetence and corruption in the municipal sector, and his first priority was to ferret out all modes of nepotism and brown-nosing within this bureau. He was short on details as to how he was going to achieve all of that, but insisted that he could get very stubborn when he had to. I would like to conquer Mount Everest one day, I thought. And I could get very stubborn. But would I be able to do it?

There were other candidates I talked to as well, and some with very focused agendas. But somehow they all seemed to be missing a factor I kept bringing up. No matter what their agendas, they would be one voice among many in this club of bureaucrats. Do they have the skills to overcome this ingrained malady within the municipality for the good of the rest of us?

We will know once the votes are turned in and tabulated.