There is nothing better than adding new information to already confusing information that would lead a person to believe something positive about a controversial issue. Our information about the activities of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is already confused. The information is limited to what is published in local newspapers every now and then.
The commission’s head, Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ghaith, once said he was afraid of the emergence of a new generation that hates the commission. We all know that such a generation exists. The commission is now suffering as a result of what its agents have done. The commission members who make mistakes are not senior employees, nor are they qualified. But the effects of their mistakes are far reaching. Information about the commission must be corrected. The commission should also play a role by not dealing with people with aggression. Those who say that the role of commission is not needed in our society are wrong. The Kingdom is targeted by criminal elements, such as drug smugglers. The commission has played an important role in fighting drugs and tackling terrorism.
The idea that the commission is not needed is something that has been raised in the past few years when volunteers, whose presence is not really needed, joined the commission.
Many of these “volunteers” that have joined the commission remind us of the people back in the old days who used to go around berating others for smoking. But today we don’t need these kinds of folks in the commission. The commission needs to address modern problems, such as drug trafficking and production of alcohol, and terrorism. It is wrong to say that the commission is a Saudi product. In other countries the work that the commission undertakes is done under a different name and in different ways, but to the same ends: dealing with certain social crimes.
If I was to mention one negative aspect about the commission I would say that the commission causes Saudis to leave the country for vacation — so they can eat in restaurants or interact in shopping malls like everyone else does. Imagine the millions of riyals we lose each summer as Saudis head off to neighboring countries to spend their leisure time.
I was happy with the recent visit of the head of the research department at the commission. The man promised more accomplishment by the commission and said that it would not happen in one day but it will also not take a long time to achieve. Hatred toward the commission, he said, would decline.
