The story goes like this. During an official function in Baha attended by the minister of education, a man in the audience stood up and asked the minister a question. He asked how a ministry employee doing modest secretarial work had become the director-general for girl’s education in the region. The man was asking about the mechanism and process of selecting people to fill senior positions.
An educational supervisor attending the meeting sprang up to defend the minister and spare him any possible embarrassment. The supervisor volunteered not only to speak on behalf of the minister but also demanded that the man who dared to ask the question be expelled from the meeting. The story, however, does not end here.
The minister proved himself to be more courageous than the others and more capable of fulfilling his responsibility as an official who occupies a primary position. Before leaving the meeting, the minister resolved the issue and ordered the appointment of a more qualified individual to replace the director.
Several conclusions must be drawn from this story. We are faced here with four examples of individuals who raised an issue pointing to an old wound. The first example is that of an ordinary citizen who asked a difficult question, a kind of question usually asked on the floor of parliament. It is unfortunate that we have so few people like this citizen.
The second was the supervisor who demanded the expulsion of the questioner for venturing into an area where, it was felt, he should never have gone and raising an issue that should never have been raised. With his hypocritical words echoing throughout the room, the supervisor should have known that it was he who deserved to be expelled and replaced. It is unfortunate that we have so many like him in so many establishments; if we were to expel all of them, we would risk facing a severe shortage of government employees and an excess of former officials roaming the streets.
The third example is the secretary who suddenly found himself elevated from a modest clerical job to that of director-general of education. It is unfortunate that the likes of him are numerous and uncountable — to the extent that the rules governing public service have become so complicated that putting the right person in the right job is now the exception rather than the rule.
The fourth and last example is the minister who must be thanked and commended for acting courageously and promptly and for correcting an erroneous decision by ordering the replacement of the director-general. We would have blamed him had he joined the chorus and failed to act when he knew that something was wrong. He discovered and corrected a mistake in the ministry that includes half of all government employees, while others keep their eyes closed to mistakes that are obvious to everyone.
— Arab News Local Press 29 September 2003
