Okaz newspaper

I WAS giving this piece of advice to everyone who asked for it.

I advised students of an academy who were given false promises that were not achieved. I gave the same advice to graduates of a health diploma course, who were also assured of jobs after graduation.

These students studied at their own expense and spent all their savings hoping that they would get employed after they graduate, but again in vain.

I gave the same advice also to a Saudi woman investor in a kindergarten. This woman claimed that officials at the Education Ministry stood as an obstacle on her way and forced her to shut down the institution.

I will continue to give the same advice to anyone who comes to me complaining of injustice from an official, a government department or a ministry.

Although I am a journalist who had spent a long time in the business of journalism — more than the time I spent in government jobs, my advice to anyone complaining of injustice was not to publish their grievances in the media, print or visual. Keep the media as your last card to use when you reach a dead end after all other means of finding a solution to your problem get exhausted.

I insisted on not resorting to the media as a first option to solve your problem, not matter how attractive the media is and no matter what promises the TV presenter gave your to raise the issue.

The TV presenter or the journalist will of course highlight the issue through their respective platforms but they will spice it up. As a result, 90 percent of the time the matter will rebound and turn against the complainant.

This of course excludes those who call for help to get medical assistance or raise other humanitarian cases.

The reason why I advise against resorting to the media to complain about a problem is that many government departments and institutions are oversensitive against any complaint or criticism raised in the media. This will lead to unnecessary counterattacks from the staff of that government institution or department, even if they are not connected directly to the said problem.