Skirting the Issue

The Saudi women who had recently announced their candidacy for the upcoming municipal elections were not unlike fresh breeze wafting through a very stale room. In a society where previously such participation by women was virtually nonexistent, the very fact that these women had taken the bold steps to go public with their intentions for office is very refreshing.

And it seems from their public declarations that all the three women who have registered their names have a definite agenda if elected. Their intentions are to be commended as they have raised all the issues that concern the majority of us folks. Better and safer schooling, care for the sick and aged, healthier outlets for our children, environmental concerns, accountability of public services, and so on.

Now to some males, such intentions would definitely raise some red flags. But pause and ponder for a moment? Are you happy with the current state of your children’s schools? Buildings that are run-down and dilapidated and at best a firetrap waiting to go ablaze. And textbooks that have yet to prove their effectivity in the real world.

Our roads are run down, our drainage system still waiting for a miracle to come into being. Never mind that billions had been previously earmarked for such projects. We are the epitome of the consummate bureaucrats, investigating and dwelling in problems, forming one committee after another, or finding reasons not to get anything moving forward instead of actively seeking and implementing solutions.

Our public servants may be more affluent today, more eager to get their names and photographs on the front pages of the news, but the service provided from the institutions they head is pathetically meager. One just has to take a look at cities and towns in neighboring states and wonder why progress seems to have bypassed us. It is certainly not been because of women.

After years and years of shoddy municipal maneuvers, it is their time. What do we men have to lose if there has been nothing substantial in our efforts in civic affairs to begin with anyway? Our positions, our wealth? Hmmm. We have definitely made a cock-up of things, taken our society backward at practically every step, a stone throw closer to the fourth world.

Since I wrote this article some times back, there have been tidings in the press that the participation of women in the upcoming elections was not to be. The reasons were unclear to me and perhaps we need to form a committee and conduct a study. And thus the status quo shall remain unchanged.

Ramadan Greetings to all peace loving people all around the world.