The Religious Policeman

.....I see something that makes me feel slightly optimistic. It shows that the good guys, for the moment at least, are in the ascendency over the bad guys. In this case, it's a very slight example of the Arab News and the arabic-language Eqtisadiah actually reporting some minor corruption.

Traffic Chief’s Son Arrested for Driving Without License

MADINAH, 20 April 2004 — The son of traffic director Col. Siraj Abdul Rahman Kamal was arrested here last week during a security check on charges of driving a Traffic Department car without a license.

The inspection team took the boy to the police station to complete the report and impounded the car. A source claimed that the boy was released 10 minutes after his arrest because of his father’s position, something that upset several citizens and other officials.

It's basically the story of an official telling a string of lies in order to get his son off a criminal charge, but being "found out". Mild stuff, you may think. But in Saudi Arabia it's "pushing the envelope" just that little bit. Why?

- because in the normal course of events, the Traffic Chief father would have got away with it, the officials would have closed ranks.
- the newspapers would not normally report such a story of official corruption.

So maybe there's hope. On the other hand, it could just be someone settling a score.

It also illustrates the nature of corruption in our country. Of course we have financial corruption, but probably less than in most arab countries. Our main corruption is the favor shown to family, extended family, and tribe.When you want some government approval or licence, choose your official carefully, make sure he's "one of yours", then go and see him personally, it'll sail thru, regardless of merit. But if it ends up with a guy from the wrong tribe, forget it. You'll wait months and years.