Okaz

FOR the ninth consecutive year, winter comes to Jeddah with worries about rain. Jeddah gets drowned as soon as it rains. Its tunnels will be filled with water and its streets become impassable. Cars will float and roofs will collapse. The old structures will laugh at the new ones and vice versa.

However, there is a corner that the floodwaters have never touched. This is the corner where large bundles of stolen money were piled on each other.

People›s confidence has shaken to the point that the city cannot stand on its own feet. The rules and regulations gather dust in shelves and have become valueless.

We can safely say that the floods of Jeddah have become an icon of corruption and a symbol of open theft that challenges the dreams of the entire nation.

With the repetition of investigations, trials, plans to resist the floods and the plots to embezzle public funds, we had almost lost hope of going out of our miserable present.

Accordingly, we began to advise fellow journalists not to go out to cover the rain but, instead, use the pictures and statements from previous years because they are all the same. The photos are similar and the statements are identical.

But today we live in different circumstances. The anti-graft commission under Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman has dealt a blow to corruption, which was unprecedented in the history of Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. This serious blow had its repercussions throughout the world.

We place high hopes in the courage of this daring commander to get rid of this icon of corruption, which ridicules all our previous successes against corruption and the corrupt.

The advocates of corruption will say to us that we are still here and Jeddah will drown every winter. It is true that the problems had stockpiled over the years. The new thefts placed themselves on top of the old ones. The list of thieves had become bigger and bigger. This list is as long as the list of the people who were hurt by the rain.

However, the past few months proved to us that Prince Muhammad Bin Salman is a man of his word. He goes directly to his goal. He never bargains or hesitates. His sword of justice never spares anyone how big he might be.

For him, no one, no matter who he is, is above the law. His attitude will definitely get rid of corruption, which has become too big to keep Jeddah far from a bright future.

Jeddah today is calling Prince Muhammad Bin Salman to end its tragedy, which has almost become an annual fair at the arrival of the rainy season.

Jeddah, Your Highness, needs a hot night of urgent news.