I have no connection whatsoever with the recently held elections for the board of directors of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI). I do not belong to any trading or industrial family. Moreover, I am not a resident of Jeddah.

However, I feel sad and disappointed at the JCCI’s elections? My real disappointment is not on account of candidates fistfighting publicly but because of the comments of some readers who, referring to the “boxing match among candidates,” said that “if this is what the elite do, what will be the situation if the door of democracy was opened for rank and file?” One reader concluded by thanking Allah for the bounty of Islam.

You do not need to be extraordinarily intelligent to know that the recent relapses of the democratic experiments were very much welcomed by those who believe in conspiracies. They believe that the JCCI’s experiment with democracy was self-destructive; in other words this happened because the candidates themselves are replete with corruption, nepotism and fraud.

If you are against democracy, alternating the decision-making process and giving the masses the freedom to choose and decide, and have a consummate plan to convince the masses that they are genetically unsuitable for democracy and that the elections are not good for us because we are “special” Muslims, then you will not be able to produce a better scenario than this one in which Jeddawis ruined the democratic process with their own hands.

Jeddah is the Kingdom’s most liberal and open city. If any positive change is to be introduced, then it must inevitably pass through Jeddah. When Jeddah fails, the entire country groans.

The outcome of the JCCI experiment is as follows: Elite traders, industrialists, and cultured and rich people who understand the concepts of openness and change have flatly failed in an election process that can successfully happen in any secondary school.

If this is the fate of the “cream of society,” then what will be the fate of ordinary people who look to them for help and assistance?

The very people who propagate our democratic experiment have slaughtered it. This was a failure, not only for “progressive” people but for everyone. Nobody now has credibility. Neither the civil councils with their golden lists have made a difference nor has the democracy of the chambers of commerce brought happiness.

In the case of the JCCI, the solution is in the hands of the Ministry of Commerce because it has sponsored and supervised the elections. The failure of the experiment is a failure of government sponsorships, which the ministry represents. This sponsorship is needed and is at the heart of development.

The reader who implied that elections were against the spirit of Islam is totally wrong.