There are two terms which cause us many headaches and which may ultimately hamper development. The two terms are “Saudi uniqueness” and “Saudi society’s maturity”.
Let’s look at the first one — Saudi uniqueness. They say do not be swept away by globalization because we are unique; do not look at other people’s experiences because we have our unique ways of doing things and do not listen to what other people say because we have our own characteristic uniqueness. We are not trying to condescend to our genuine Saudi uniqueness because every country has its own unique identity. What we must do is to look at it and use it to our advantage rather than allowing it to become a barrier to change and development.
The strange thing is when it benefits us, we do not hear anyone talking about it. When it includes the commitment to change internally, we suddenly hear people say that we are rejecting it and so we must reject change as well. Joining the WTO is something that has been imposed on us because of international realities.
We cannot talk about giving in to our so-called uniqueness because it would mean our isolation from the world economy. We are presently experiencing Saudization problems and the big gap between what our graduates can do and the needs of the market.
We should be forced to look closely at the examples of other nations and demand not only necessary changes to our educational curriculum but also general reform — but we hear people refusing in the name of our uniqueness.
Saudi uniqueness should be a way to achieve rather than a way not to. We should not use uniqueness to frighten ourselves and keep us from benefiting from other country’s experiences because that is backward.
The other thing to be discussed is the maturity of Saudi society. This is something that prevents our society from advancing because officials here already made a decision on the mentality and the capability of Saudi society to accept change and improvement.
What are the steps that we need to take in order to change people and prepare them for change? Change is possible if there is an improvement plan that specifies how many years will be needed to effect the change. To use the excuse that we are not ready for change in order to prevent improvement is wrong and it indicates that officials want us to stay backward — and it is a frightening possibility.
- Arab News Local Press 15 September 2003
