Two recently published articles caught my attention. The first said that government ministries and senior officials owe Saudi Telecom Company (STC) more than SR9 billion. For years, the company has been struggling to get what was owed to it but in the end, all it has managed to get is less than a tenth of the figure. Assuming that SR9 billion was spent by senior officials in making business calls and chatting here and there, what was the result of all that talk in terms of actual achievements as required under work laws?
While we are on the subject, what exactly is meant by the term “senior officials”? And is there any way that ordinary people like me can join this group and so be excused from paying phone bills? What is the difference between senior officials and ordinary people that makes STC rush to disconnect my telephone — even if my bill is a paltry SR323 — while refusing to disconnect those whose bills are calculated in billions of riyals?
The company fixes a deadline for ordinary subscribers by which time they must pay their bills or lose the service but it fails to do the same when dealing with senior officials. Does this mean that STC considers paying the few hundred riyals as being more important than paying billions?
One last question: Why do subscribers have to line up in long queues at bank counters to pay their bills of a few hundred riyals when STC collectors fail to show up at the offices of those senior officials to ask them to pay their bills?
The other item that caught my attention was a report suggesting some bold steps needed in order to achieve economic reforms. They call for accountability and transparency and the closing of the local job market to foreign workers. I consider the latter suggestion to be more important than any steps taken so far. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said it should take precedence over national dialogue, reform, the fight against corruption and even the fight against terrorism.
It is the presence of foreign workers that keeps employment doors closed to the youth of this country. One would like to ask who is benefiting from the freezing of Saudization laws and who is responsible for violating work laws? Search for all answers from those senior officials. It is time we sat down and seriously considered this matter before the bills and the problems grow even bigger.
— Arab News Local Press 8 January 2004
