Countering anti-Saudi propaganda

It is incredible how much bad press Saudi Arabia has been getting in the past six to eight months. International human rights groups launched a massive campaign against the Kingdom over its use of the death penalty, and at the same time practically ignored Iran’s much higher rate of executions. If I were paranoid, I would think that Iran was being given the kid-glove treatment because of the nuclear deal it signed with the world powers.
There is so much hate directed at the Kingdom that it becomes alarming and tiring at the same time to have to constantly defend our country from the criticisms that come mostly from those who hate and envy us for our blessings of wealth which come from our natural resources. And it’s not only western countries that constantly lash out and denigrate our culture and us. It is also our “brotherly” Arab neighbors who gleefully accept our generous offers of financial aid and then stab us in the back, saying that we are mere bumbling fools with more money than sense.
The latest barrage of over-the-top and alarmist criticism came from India when Indian Foreign Ministry officials started tweeting about “thousands” of laid-off Indian construction workers in Riyadh and Jeddah allegedly starving after not being paid for several months. The Indian press quickly picked up the story and ran screaming headlines saying that the workers were destitute, hungry and too broke to come home. Reading these stories from outside the Arab world would make anyone believe that Saudi Arabia was the Kingdom of wickedness and cruelty and not the Kingdom of magnanimity. Indian news sites said that hundreds of thousands of tons of foodstuffs were going to be airlifted to Saudi Arabia to feed these 8,000 stranded workers. Reading this misinformation, one would think that the Kingdom was like an African wasteland, with no food to feed anyone.
Thankfully, at a joint press conference in Riyadh given by Saudi Labor Minister Mufrej Al-Haqabani and Indian External Affairs Minister V.K. Singh, it was announced that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman had ordered Saudia to fly home any stranded Indian worker free of charge.
Labor Minister Mufrej Al-Haqabani announced that food and provisions were being given to all of the stranded workers and that lawyers were being appointed to follow up their claims to unpaid salaries and end-of-service benefits, which the Indian Embassy in Riyadh would follow up for workers that opt to return home.
But the damage to the Kingdom’s reputation was already done. The truth is rarely sensational, and I didn’t see this news being reported with much fanfare by the international press. After all, there was no more scandal so the press lost interest in the story.
The truth is that these stranded workers were left high and dry by the Saudi Oger construction company, which apparently went bankrupt. For months now the Saudi government has accused the company of not being able to handle its own finances, while the company has blamed long delays in payments from the government for its financial woes. No matter where blame is to be apportioned, those who have suffered through all of this have been the stranded workers, far from home, and not allowed to transfer to other jobs. The Saudi government has now allowed them to do so, which is great news as most of these workers want to switch jobs rather than return home to India empty-handed and mostly likely in debt too.
This is why we have an urgent need for rapid-response information teams to defend the Kingdom’s reputation when stories such as this one explode on the international scene. They should be composed of savvy, young, English-speaking Saudis who would constantly monitor the international press and social media such as Facebook and Twitter in order to spot developing stories that could damage the Kingdom and warn the appropriate ministries and high officials about them. They would also investigate negative coverage of the Kingdom and respond with true facts about each incident.
We Saudis for too long have either kept silent or taken too long to respond to vicious attacks against the Kingdom coming from abroad. In this age of instantaneous communication we cannot afford to remain silent any longer. We must fight outright lies, correct misconceptions and project positive news and facts about the Kingdom. No one else is going to do this for us, and we are the best people to do it. Paying expensive public relation experts abroad works to a certain degree, but that will never beat intelligent, moderate and compassionate Saudis rebutting lies and setting the record straight.

• The writer is a Saudi journalist based in Brazil.