System Failure

The two reports on the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice — “Commission Members Probed for Forced Entry and Murder” (May 27) and “Fair Probe Promised” (May 28) — by Raid Qusti Should mark a turning point for the law-enforcement system in the Kingdom. What the events should draw attention on is not the behavior of individual commission members. We have had a number of reports in the media, including Arab News, complaining about their aggressiveness, authoritarianism and lack of refinement. Nevertheless, it would be unfair to blame them alone for that, because in all their years of service they have not been told differently. Only a few of them have had anything that can be called “education.” This is true of almost everyone in the lower ranks, the ones who come into contact with the people on the street. The officers are well educated and well behaved.

My point is that it is not the men but rather the system. The men do not know any better because the system did not require them to know any better.

Another failure of that system is that there are no detailed rules, regulations and guidelines that set down the duties and responsibilities of the commission and the limits to their powers. There are not punishments for their failures or excesses. When there are punishments, as there may be after the current hullabaloo, the awarding of those punishments too do not follow rules. It is left to the discretion of the “mudir,” not to the specifics of the rules. The end result is what we saw in the incident that ended in murder.

Such incidents will be on the increase unless attended to early, because the Kingdom, becoming part of the global village, will face a variety of challenges. We can no longer afford lawlessness in the arena of law enforcement. There must be specific rules to govern law-enforcement. Law-enforcers — the police, traffic authorities, the Virtue Commission — must be trained in rules, dealing with the public and good manners. Those who cannot learn and change should be replaced with those who can.

Shakir Husain, Riyadh published 2 June 2007

Channel Piracy

This refers to Ghazanfar Ali Khan’s report “Gulf States Urged to Mount Campaigns Against Media Piracy” (May 26). The root cause of pay-channel piracy is the exorbitant rates the operators charge. During the World Cup, ART charged close to SR500 for the World Cup channels. It meant that a huge section of the population was not able to afford to watch the World Cup legally. So, they resorted to getting their receivers modified to view it for free. That explains the existence of channel pirates. If one had a choice, one would obviously take the legal route. But when it is unaffordable, there is no choice but to take a cheaper alternative. A subscription in India costs 1/10th of what it does in the Middle East and prices are controlled by the government. This has, in fact, meant a huge boom for the pay channel market in India. It is affordable even to the very poor.

The lesson is: For an effective reduction in piracy, there should first be a reduction is subscription rates.

Faiz Hussain, Jeddah published 2 June 2007

Job Nationalization

I can understand all too well Tariq Al-Maeena’s frustration with would-be applicants, as he made clear in his article “Why We Fail in Nationalization” (May 26).

Having worked in Saudi Arabia for almost three decades, mostly on job training, I have come to the conclusion that a lot of young Saudis are living on the laurels of their forefathers. Proud to be Saudi, but too proud to work in what they consider is below them.

Saudia has come up with the best idea: give an incentive to employees to advance by hard work and study — not by “wasta.” An effort should be made to make young Saudis proud of being part of a prosperous society by contributing to it with their own hard work.

James McCusker, Jeddah published 2 June 2007

Training Saudis

This has reference to K.S. Ramkumar’s report “Business Houses ‘Have a Duty to Train Young Saudis’” (June 26). I agree. At present, we are working at Khursaniyah, probably the biggest oil and gas field. We have many Saudis employed and we are training and willing to train them in all aspects.

But where is the will and patience from them to stay in this remote area and to carve out a career for themselves? To start with, they have to put aside their attitude that they are Saudis. There is immense ground for improvement. No, not all of them have the same attitude. Most of them really are pleasant to deal with and really surprise me with their talent and behavior.

Rashid Saood, Khursaniyah published 2 June 2007

Training Saudis [2]

Everything depends on the kind of men getting training. Certificates are important, but what happens after obtaining them? The trained young man may want to be a manager; may have even trained for it. But who will give him such a job? Certificates, whether issued by educational institutions or business establishments, will not bring results unless young Saudis reform themselves and get into the mainstream of the world, accepting its norms and realizing that being a Saudi is nothing special and does not entitle him to free jobs or free lunch. They should learn to give up their egoism, arrogance and the “I-am-a-Saudi” mentality. Then they can come up — only then.

Nauna, Riyadh published 2 June 2007

Middle East Peace

A recent survey shows that the rating of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is almost zero. Only 14 percent of Israelis approve of his performance. Defense Minister Amir Peretz fared even worse, with a rating of just 10 percent. The way the two pushed Israel to a destructive war in Lebanon in search of security, but gained nothing except the death of 120 Israeli soldiers and 39 civilians, is the immediate cause of the unpopularity. That is an oft-repeated scenario for the country and also for the region: mass murders in search of security.

The only way for the Israelis to ensure peace and security for them is to ensure them for the Palestinians also. A free and independent Palestinian state as soon as possible will be in the interest of all, including Israel. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke for the whole world when he made the same point a few days ago. But statements are not enough. He should use the authority and prestige of his office to bring an end to the atrocities and human rights violations by Israeli government on Palestinians. Freedom for Palestine will ensure peace and security for Israel and the region.

US Role in Mideast

Zahi H. Masri

United States

There is one missing item in Ray Hanania’s article “Gaza Burns as Palestine’s Neros Fiddle” (May 28): the US role in solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. President Truman recognized the state of Israel because of the Jewish and Evangelical political constituencies in the US that supported Israel and because there was no constituency that supported Palestine, which is true to this day. So, the reasons that made Truman back Israel are still valid.

The US decision-making process is held hostage to the political bias of those two US constituencies. Any US candidate that contests for a political position has to get the blessings of the two before he/she can run. Otherwise, he/she commits political suicide. Palestinian-Americans are too small in numbers and also too confused and fragmented to form a political constituency. However, there is a great number of individuals and organizations in the US that can be rallied and unified to form a proactive public American constituency to counterbalance the two hard-line constituencies mentioned above. There is grass-root US organizations like the American Palestine Public Affairs Forun (APPAF) that attempt to carry out that rallying and unifying task. Backed by the massive Arab investment in the US, their task, together with what the author stressed in his timely article, an equitable two-state solution is not beyond realization.

Zafar Iqbal Mohsin, Najran published 2 June 2007

Middle East Peace

A recent survey shows that the rating of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is almost zero. Only 14 percent of Israelis approve of his performance. Defense Minister Amir Peretz fared even worse, with a rating of just 10 percent. The way the two pushed Israel to a destructive war in Lebanon in search of security, but gained nothing except the death of 120 Israeli soldiers and 39 civilians, is the immediate cause of the unpopularity. That is an oft-repeated scenario for the country and also for the region: mass murders in search of security.

The only way for the Israelis to ensure peace and security for them is to ensure them for the Palestinians also. A free and independent Palestinian state as soon as possible will be in the interest of all, including Israel. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke for the whole world when he made the same point a few days ago. But statements are not enough. He should use the authority and prestige of his office to bring an end to the atrocities and human rights violations by Israeli government on Palestinians. Freedom for Palestine will ensure peace and security for Israel and the region.

Zafar Iqbal Mohsin, Najran published 2 June 2007

US Role in Mideast

There is one missing item in Ray Hanania’s article “Gaza Burns as Palestine’s Neros Fiddle” (May 28): the US role in solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. President Truman recognized the state of Israel because of the Jewish and Evangelical political constituencies in the US that supported Israel and because there was no constituency that supported Palestine, which is true to this day. So, the reasons that made Truman back Israel are still valid.

The US decision-making process is held hostage to the political bias of those two US constituencies. Any US candidate that contests for a political position has to get the blessings of the two before he/she can run. Otherwise, he/she commits political suicide. Palestinian-Americans are too small in numbers and also too confused and fragmented to form a political constituency. However, there is a great number of individuals and organizations in the US that can be rallied and unified to form a proactive public American constituency to counterbalance the two hard-line constituencies mentioned above. There is grass-root US organizations like the American Palestine Public Affairs Forun (APPAF) that attempt to carry out that rallying and unifying task. Backed by the massive Arab investment in the US, their task, together with what the author stressed in his timely article, an equitable two-state solution is not beyond realization.

Zahi H. Masri, United States published 2 June 2007