‘Gulf, Arabs must emulate S. Arabia’

“BOTH the historians and political observers can divide the modern history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into three eras, the first as the appearance of the Kingdom and its unity in addition to its steadfastness before the then challenges and storms when the Kingdom during this era was ruled by monarchs King Abdulaziz Bin Abdurrahman Al-Saud, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz and King Faisal Bin Abdulaziz respectively,” columnist, former Minister of Information and former Chairman of Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) wrote for Al-Anba daily Wednesday.

“The above era was followed by the second one — the era of modernization during the reign of monarchs King Khaled Bin Abdulaziz, King Fahd Bin Abdulaziz and King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz respectively when the Kingdom during these reigns witnessed a significant renaissance in the fields of education, agriculture and industrialization.

“During this time, the two holy mosques in the Kingdom namely — the Grand Holy Mosque of Makkah and the Prophet’s (PBUH) Holy Mosque of Al-Madina Al-Munawara — saw a huge expansion that can be deemed the first of its kind throughout the history of the two holy mosques.

“While the third era is represented by the current era or the era of blanket renaissance and the emergence of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a military, political and economic might which began during the reign of the current monarch King Salman Bin Abdulaziz. We pray to Almighty Allah that he may live longer.

“However, this comprehensive renaissance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will continue with the existence of King Salman’s Heir Apparent Prince Mohammad Bin Nayef and the Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman who has recently unfolded the Kingdom’s vision over the coming decades in a smart manner that has won the admiration of all.

“It is indeed nice to see any State having a political leadership with a specific vision, but the most applaudable thing in this connection is to see the seriousness of this vision and this is exactly what has been said by Prince Mohammad Bin Salam during the rare televised interview given to our colleague Turki Al-Dakheel of the Arab TV Satellite Channel.

“During this interview Al-Dakheel has addressed a lot of serious and direct questions to the young prince and the Deputy Heir Apparent Prince Salman void of any type of courtesies.

“Meanwhile, we say at the beginning of the last century, the late King Abdulaziz Bin Abdurrahman Al-Saud had translated his difficult visions into a reality and this was represented by uniting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. His campaign in this connection was launched from Kuwait to the Northern Eastern part of the Arab Peninsula to Al-Khobar City and from there he launched it to Western-Southern part of the Arab Peninsula, the Assir Province.

“However, his brave sons, King Saud, King Faisal and King Khaled insisted to complete the march of their father in terms of protecting the security and stability of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“In this context, we cite how the Kingdom proved to be adamant in its steadfastness when dealing with the challenges lashing the Middle East during the 1950s and 1960s that toppled many moderate royal regimes, but these storms failed to shake the steadfastness of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Al-Nesf

“Following the above era, the Kingdom witnessed the beginning of the second era and the reigns of the monarchs of the King Khaled Bin Abdulaziz, King Fahd Bin Abdulaziz and King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz respectively.

“During this era, the project to modernize the Kingdom began and hundreds of thousands of Saudi students were sent for higher studies in various Western universities. In addition to this, this era witnessed the huge expansion of the two holy mosques and the building of huge plants throughout the Kingdom to such an extent the Kingdom was transformed into a hard and prominent place on the world map where it joined the club of the 20 great powers in the world namely or the so-called ‘G20’.

“Not just that, the Kingdom throughout the reigns of these three monarchs surmounted and uprooted the seeds of terrorism and their objectives before the Kingdom was destabilized.

“But with the beginning of the reign of King Salman, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in a very smart manner filled the vacuum left by the ‘withdrawal’ of the United States of America from the Middle East and this was represented by King Salman’s initiative to found the Arab-Islamic Coalition.

“Not just that, the Kingdom in the wake of the dreadful drop in the oil price, accepted the challenge and introduced the huge economic project that could be deemed as the biggest of its kind in the world which has been declared recently by the young Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.

“This project actually aims at creating alternative income instead of looking at the oil revenues as the only source of revenue for over the years by establishing the investment fund because the Kingdom is the Qibla of the entire Arabs and Muslims.

“Apart from the above, this project includes floating of some of the Aramco assets for public subscription, building military industries, supporting transparency, rationalization of government decision by concentrating on sustainable development, developing human resources, encouraging tourism, investments, entertainment and building the biggest Islamic museum in the world in addition to granting of ‘green cards’ for expatriates who have been staying in the Kingdom for a long time.

“This is a unique and a pioneering idea and we hope all Gulf and Arab countries follow the example of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in this connection.”

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“It is needless to say the Saudis reserve the right to be delighted following the declaration of the promising project, ‘Saudi Vision 2030’ which has been endorsed by the Saudi Cabinet during a session which was presided by the Custodian of the Two Holly Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz,” columnist wrote for Al-Sabah daily Wednesday.

“We too, as brothers of the Saudis, reserve the right to be delighted and share in their joy in the wake of the adoption of this ambitious sustainable development plan which was declared recently by the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and the Minister of Defence Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.

“This plan covers all development and economic objectives of the Kingdom during the next fifteen years as Prince Mohammad Bin Salman said.

“Likewise, this plan means the Kingdom will no longer depend on oil as the only source of income, rather based on this plan, the kingdom shall invest all potentials of the country which Prince Salman has referred to enjoyed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to such an extent no other country can compete with the Kingdom in this connection — its Arab and Islamic depth — its investment might and its distinguished geographic location.

“This is in addition to building the King Salman Bridge that shall constitute the most significant passage in the world, given the fact this project shall provide a lot of investment opportunities in the field of trading and transit believed to be hundreds of billions of dollars.

“Given the above, we suggest this prospective success shall open the door before the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to constitute an example to be followed by all countries of the region, because the success of the Saudi vision, shall mean the era during which the Kingdom was depending on oil as the sole source of income will end.

“Moreover, this era shall constitute a new reign during which the Kingdom will basically depend on its human resources because the latter represents the essence of any development process everywhere.”

“I feel seriously worried when I watch some officers or personnel of traffic, rescue or public security patrol teams stopping vehicles for whatever reasons while sitting inside their cars and using a loud speaker to shout orders without showing any respect for the people involved, whether young or old”, ret Major General

wrote for Al-Anba daily. “Some of them, after alighting from their vehicles when the motorist pulls over, address the concerned motorist in an arrogant manner and use expressions to command the latter in an illogical way. This is the reason why frictions occur between securitymen and some motorists and sometimes result in fights.

I am not only blaming some securitymen who exonerate some reckless drivers after the latter provoke the police to the extent of making mistakes and complaining about them later. An officer should be in charge of the situation without necessarily shouting, but in a logical manner.

The idea of exerting pressure and exhibiting arrogance during inspections or minor violations should stop. Police and traffic officers must learn to respect motorists. The officers should differentiate between reckless or uncultured motorists and normal people who are peaceful and respectful of the police, even when they are issued citations.

I hope Ministry of Interior will organize regular training courses to train securitymen and traffic officers on how to deal with people and remain calm to avoid fights due to arrogance while addressing people.”

“Undoubtedly, an airport is the first place that people see when they arrive at a country and they determine the performance of the airport from its work, discipline and speed. However, this is missing in our airport as only mess and chaos is experienced upon arrival in Kuwait,” wrote for Annahar daily.

“The passengers who complete a long journey are shocked to find chaos in Kuwait International Airport due to lack of discipline and organization which is because of insufficient employees. In addition, the airport is unable to contain the large number of passengers due to which it often experiences congestion. This is particularly prevalent when a large number of flights land at the airport at the same time during emergencies.

Such a situation is definitely shameful for our country, as the airport is supposed to present a brilliant image of Kuwait particularly for passengers of different nationalities who arrive from all over the world. However, the services and capabilities of our airport are unfortunately humble and are not in line with the current international status of Kuwait.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb