The concept of harassment in the Arab mind has been associated with physical harassment. But the term has several layers of meanings and stirs up different feelings and emotions and pushes us towards pity and disgust. Harassment is always an act against expectations and against common sense.
A person, regardless of his position or designation, is expected to act within a specific moral range recognized by the society. Harassment begins when the exact opposite occurs, and the worst form of harassment is when it’s committed against the opposite sex. But harassment doesn’t happen only among people, but from the government too. How does the government harass?
The citizen has high expectations and expects the government to perform in a certain way. If the government fails to perform up to their expectations, it falls within the realm of citizen harassment.
When the government puts up slogans and posters urging citizens to fulfill their role in society, and then does not live up to its own slogans, the citizen becomes the victim of a certain harassment, and then he must defend himself, raise his voice and express his astonishment.
Some institutions put the slogan “Qatar deserves the best”, and then we find that their own performance does not rise to the level of the best.
I wish the government would apply this beautiful slogan in the best possible way. When it uses this slogan on its large projects, including streets, roads and buildings, and then these projects and roads cannot tolerate even one hour of pouring rain until it becomes ‘free swimming pools’ instead of streets, then the slogan becomes ‘The citizen deserves harassment.’ Not ‘the best’.
When the Traffic Department instals hidden mobile radars, it’s actually fishing in murky waters to increase its revenues. Here too the government is harassing the citizen.
In the absence of transparency, harassment begins to appear. Citizens are honest and always believe what their government says, but they often end up falling prey to harassment rather than being the target of development.
Where is the slogan Qatar deserves the best not implemented correctly and hopefully? Is not the lack of a room for a sick citizen at Hamad Hospital a harassment of the citizen? Isn’t the lack of car parking space in front of a busy government corporation harassment of the citizen?
When a citizen leaves his home in the morning, the journey of “Qatar deserves the best” begins with him and along the way, the level of harassment also begins to rise gradually until he returns home. This is another story that deserves another slogan. The citizen too deserves the best from his government.