Is it hard to respect rules?

Mahmoud Ahmad Last Friday, I attended the final match in the Saudi Professional League between Al-Ahli and Al-Fateh at King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah. This match was special because Ahli was to be crowned with the league title after 32 years and therefore a large crowd was expected to attend. In fact, 60,000 tickets were sold out in few hours on the Internet website ‘Makani’, an e-ticket system that was introduced this year for the first time where tickets and seats are bought and chosen in advance. Buying and choosing seats for a football match through a website is a concept that’s new to people here. Many, however, do not approve of this step or believe in it. The vast majority of fans still hold on to the belief that whoever comes first should be allowed to choose any seat. As a diehard football fan, I find this new step a good method to teach people to respect order in any place. Just like in an airplane where I can choose my seat, now I can do the same in a stadium. When I went to the stadium with my friends, I saw a group of people sitting on seats that we had chosen online, and I would like to call such people “seat hijackers”. I gently told them that they were sitting on seats reserved by us, and they looked at me as if I was speaking Chinese to them. One of them, after a brief while, deigned to reply and just told us to sit elsewhere as they had arrived first and occupied these seats. As a codicil, he added: “There are many seats available, just take any.” Apparently they too must have bought tickets and must have been assigned seats elsewhere. But, invariably, they felt that they could sit anywhere as long as they had gained entry into the stadium. I insisted on my friends and I sitting on our designated seats saying that these are the new rules of the stadium. They got up from our seats with bad grace, while accusing me of being ‘addicted to following stupid rules.’ They even laughed at us and joked about our straightjacketed thinking. This phenomenon not only affected my friends and I, but many others. Even before the match there was lots of shouting and arguing as I noticed I was not the only one seeking to get the reserved seat. Around me there were many seat hijackers on seats they had not reserved. There were arguments and fistfights between people over seats, though in many cases, situations were resolved when organizers at the stadium and sometimes police interfered to resolve the situation by giving the seat back to the reserved person. Amid all this hoopla, I did like what a man told one of the seat hijackers. “How good is our nation going to be if we are not going to follow rules and obey orders in silly situations like this one.” On reflection, I feel he was absolutely right. In the West the vast majority of people tend to follow rules and regulations in a civilized manner even if there is no police or authority around. A sign in a public place is enough. If we take a look at their stadiums as an example, I don’t think that it is a big or small problem there. If we just think, we would notice that what just happened at the stadium can be applied elsewhere, for sure as there are large number of people, be it Saudis or expats, who find it difficult to follow rules in public places or in private and government buildings. If we just see the number of smokers in no-smoking areas, I am sure most of us have their own examples of violators. If we look at driving, I am sure many of us again would have their many examples of people who intentionally violate traffic rules on the streets. If we look at the rules specifying the need to keep public places clean, I am sure many people have their many examples of violations committed. If we just take a step back and gauge how many people are out there who think that following rules and regulations of any place is being ‘addicted to following stupid rules’? Then their numbers will give us an idea of what kind of society we are. If their number is big, then we have a serious problem. Why do we as a society have many people who love to violate or just go against the rules? As if this is not enough the worst is yet to come. These people invariable wear a badge of honor by being proud of the wrongdoing. Why does a person, who is violating the no-parking sign and parks there regardless, gets angry if he is caught flouting rules and fined? His anger reaches a level that he will publicly protest the rule of the place. Rarely do people admit their guilt. The problem is that the same person who intentionally commits a violation in this country takes the opposite tack by commending the tough laws created by a country he is visiting, while being fascinated by the people who are orderly in every walk of life by following the rules. How do you explain this duality where he willfully breaks rules in his own country and respects them outside. If this is not Schizophrenia, then I do not know what to call it. If I walk to a person who is smoking in a no-smoking area and ask him to put out his cigarette, the answers most likely I would get is ‘it is none of my business’ and ‘I am not a police officer to tell him that’. The irony is that when he violates the rules, he shows no signs of remorse or guilt by what he is doing. Is it because we are not applying strictly the fines or punishment? Maybe. But I think the problem is way deeper than that. The writer can be reached at mahmad@saudig azette.com.sa Twitter: @anajeddawi_eng