Khaled Al-Wabel
Okaz
THE authorities are trying to provide acceptable levels of service quality. It seems, however, that they are not doing very well. They should, therefore, promote self-service systems. This involves organizing the relationship between citizens, and exhibiting some flexibility in interactions between members of the public and the government. For example, expatriates have overrun the majority of unregulated commercial activities in the Kingdom, resulting in chaos as well as a manipulation of the prices of commodities.
I can give some examples of the ways that citizens could enhance and improve services. We have families that make and sell their own food and other perishable goods. They could diversify and run a daycare center that would be supervised by the government and manned by housewives who meet the relevant governmental standards. Initiatives like this would create more jobs and reduce the costs of putting children in daycare centers.
We could also establish cooperatives. Some 70 percent of the retail market is monopolized by expatriates who are using tasattur (the illegal practice of non-Saudis operating businesses in the name of Saudis who receive a portion of the profits) to control the market, which is something that the authorities are unable to eliminate. Having cooperatives would be a good way to resolve this problem, improve services, develop job opportunities, etc. Cooperatives could help create many different activities and introduce them into different neighborhoods.
Then there are gas stations. Studies show that some 10 percent of gas stations are run by Saudis whereas 90 percent are operated by expatriates who illegally run them in the name of Saudis. If we were to make gas stations self-service then we could ultimately get rid of around 90,000 expatriates from 9,000 service stations and provide jobs for Saudis.
To find the best solutions to issues, we have to engage the people who suffer from them, as they are the most knowledgeable about them. It is important that people think outside the box to find suitable and logical solutions to problems.
