twitter users have congratulated major-general mansour al-awadhi, assistant undersecretary for ports affairs for preventing the russian embassy in kuwait to take possession of cargo ‘uninspected’ when it arrived at the kuwait international airport aboard a chartered flight.
this happened after the embassy officials refused to divulge details of the contents and subsequently the plane was forced to leave and land at another airport in the region.
we join the good people in thanking major general mansour for his position while respecting the position of the embassy and secrecy of its work as a superpower.
about two months ago, i contacted major-general al-awadhi to complain about a particular situation at the airport when i was receiving a foreign guest.
i was surprised to see the staff at the visit visas receiving desk missing. some people had been waiting for almost quarter of an hour. when the plane, carrying my guest arrived, i went to the arrivals gate and almost pleaded with a policeman to take my visa and hand it over to the authorities at the counter where visas are received in the immigration area.
when i did not succeed, i went back to the visas receiving desk but to my surprise the employee had yet to show up and the queue had become bigger.
i asked those who were waiting like me to follow me and went to the arrivals gate and made a noise. an officer arrived and i explained to him the situation and told him the reputation of the country is damaged because of the negligent and unfaithful employees.
the officer understood my point, collected all the visas from everyone and handed them over to the concerned desk. i left the airport after the arrival of my guest without knowing the fate of those who came after me for the same purpose.
the next morning i called major general al-awadhi and explained to him the problem. he did not believe what i said and invited me to visit him to see how he handles the situation so that similar incidents do not occur.
i explained the problem to him and he put a radical solution to it, and as a responsible officer in the entire land — at sea and air ports of the country — he accompanied me to the training center for cadres who will be responsible for the security of ports with the highest level of competence in the field of airport security, armed with the latest technology to perform the tasks entrusted to them to the fullest, and improve the efficiency of search and inspection so as to provide maximum safety for aircraft and passengers.
what i was told about was really good and praiseworthy, and i was planning to write about the subject, but i forgot about it for some reason, and i remembered it only yesterday with the spread of a video clip showing young people assaulting policemen who were seated inside a police patrol and those who had got out of the police car.
i wondered what i would do if they were my men, while i doubted these youngsters would be punished for their crime, a crime which is frequently repeated. will i remain silent in the face of such grievances of my men and the failure of all state institutions — in the state of institutions — to punish those who assaulted them?
how can a senior officer, who is responsible for thousands of officers and low ranks, remain silent while he sees those who attack his men publicly escape punishment time and time again?
how can all these crimes occur? over the past 20 years we have seen similar scenarios but nothing has been done to deter these aggressors. why? is it because we live in a ‘state of wasta’?
the government must restore the prestige of the men in uniform and ascertain they are respected by all, without exception otherwise disrespect will be the order of the day and the entire society will be valueless.