Khalaf Al-Harbi Okaz newspaper For reasons I do not know of, we seem to be living outside this planet. We deal with crises as if they are unique issues which were not experienced by others. We display amazing reactions to the issues of public opinion but this reaction is only verbal. We become angry, announce our total rejection of mistakes, form investigation committees, write angry articles in newspapers, tweet the issue, then everyone goes home and the matter is forgotten as if nothing has happened. We often ask ourselves when there is a crisis: Should we become angry? Should we really be extremely angry? Are we willing to be yet angrier if we are asked to be? With the passage of time, the anger dissolves and the crisis evaporates from the minds of people until a new issue crops up and we are asked to embrace new anger and shock. Our issues do not need all this. All countries of the world face similar problems. It is human to err. However, the golden and trusted solution lies in the resignation of the official responsible for the mistakes. He will be replaced by a new official to correct the mistakes and set a new path forward. We will not be adding anything new when we say the changing or rotating of officials will ensure vitality in the work place, correct many of the accumulated mistakes and settle pending issues. Maintaining the status quo will create a general feeling that mistakes have become part of our customs and traditions. For these reasons we explain away all the odd things we encounter as unique to our culture and our being “special.” We are ready to fight fiercely to protect this “specialty”. This strong adherence to our own private specialty has resulted in one thing. The countries which were far behind us 20 years ago have moved ahead to the point that we would be ashamed to be compared to them. Mistakes in some ministries could only be solved by the minister resigning from his position. Mayors should also quit when there are the mistakes and corruption in their municipalities. Many officials take incorrect decisions because they depend on unqualified staff. These responsible ministers and officials should immediately resign or be relieved from their posts but nothing of this has happened except in very rare cases. Left unchecked, the mistakes will mushroom, people will become demoralized, the employees will lose the spirit of initiation and the citizens will become totally desperate. The resigning or relieving of an official is not a personal insult to him. It is rather a message with the title that the interest of the citizens and the homeland is more important than any individual, whoever it may be. We now live in a much different situation from the time when we used to believe that this or that sector could only be managed by this or that individual. This erroneous belief made us bystanders while the trains of other countries were running at the speed of lightning. What makes things worse is that sometimes the official himself may wish to resign but his “specialty” prevents him from doing that. Thus he continues in his position only to make more mistakes and add to the growing incompetence.
