Here's What Saudis Want

Sabria S. Jawhar
The Saudi Gazette
ON Thursday King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz announced that the Saudi Cabinet would be retained unchanged. He also extended the tenures of various advisers and heads of government departments.

The announcement came as a surprise for local and international media especially following much speculation of major changes. Some people misread the speculation as a sign of reluctance in some quarters of Saudi society to pursue the comprehensive reforms encouraged by the King since he was crown prince.

The decision to retain all the ministers in their posts was a smart move by the King. Most of the ministers were appointed at a time when the region was suffering the consequences of the two Gulf wars, including a long period of low oil prices in the 1990s that froze most of the development projects in the country.

It was a time when the parameter for success was assessed according to the ability of ministries to work at full potential while keeping infrastructure development plans to a minimum. Ministerial performance during this period varied dramatically. Some carried out the job successfully and maximized performance with whatever was available to them – Ali Al-Naimi, Minister of Petroleum, for instance, who has emerged over the past 12 years as the most influential minister in OPEC. Some others lost control of their ministries, which gave rise to bribery and corruption. More recent appointees found insufficient time to prove themselves and to implement their long-term plans.

Today, Saudi Arabia is at the peak of both economic and prosperity and political stability. By retaining the Cabinet, King Abdullah is giving the ministers a real chance to take action and prove themselves.

The recently approved bill on a national strategy to promote honesty and combat corruption will be the framework that governs ministerial performance in the coming term. The anti-graft law, recommended by the Shoura Council, calls for enhancing cooperation among government authorities to combat corruption in all its forms.

The new law allows the government to hold accountable those who have shown carelessness or dishonesty in carrying out their duties of office. At the same time, it protects those who are honest to their country.

The King’s trust in his ministers should be met by gratitude and sincerity. Their reappointment should trigger implementation of a larger number of social and economic projects across the country. It should lead to an end to bureaucratic red tape and prompt action on pending projects, especially considering that the world is fast moving ahead.

From now on, officials and citizens should work hand in hand to accomplish the King’s dream of taking our country to progress with transparency and accountability as its guidelines. At the social level, ministers should do more to strengthen the community’s fabric so that no one breaks through and hijacks our peaceful country to turn it into a breeding nest for terrorism.

More job opportunities should be created for male and female graduates, with no differences whatsoever because society is like a bird that cannot fly with one wing. More emphasis should be placed on women’s empowerment even if it means introducing the quota system in our establishments.

The country’s economy should also be protected from those who have been playing with the nation’s treasure under the umbrella of the so-called “stock market.” The market should be closely watched and monitored in order to control prices. Our society has become a huge experimental laboratory for international companies.

We should improve our education system to match the developed countries instead of wasting our money on schools that have produced nothing but failures. Our students are not good even for our local labor market, not to speak of the international one.

We want a good infrastructure in all of our cities, the big and small ones. We want wide, clean and safe streets. We want a good comprehensive health system that protects us from being victims of health brokers.

We want an independent and codified legal system that protects the weak from the strong, a system that respects women and gives them their rights. We want a citizen, whether man or woman, who can speak freely without being harassed or misjudged.

Simply, we want our real Saudi country back as was set by the constitution based on the Islamic Sharia, but which was unfortunately hijacked.