Though the coronavirus pandemic has created a historic state of isolation, it has revealed what had been hidden from the sight of many. In other words, it has unmasked many countries and exposed them by showing how they deal with their people during the crisis that has both embarrassed and silenced the world. Of course, some have succeeded brilliantly in confronting it, while others have failed miserably.
According to the testimony of objective witnesses, Saudi Arabia was one of the countries whose actions on the ground have been extremely successful. It left its mark with its noteworthy performance and has been widely commended on media outlets and social media. Saudi Arabia addressed the crisis realistically, transparently and directly, starting with the King’s honest paternal speeches and continuing with the transparency and accuracy of official statements. The message that the Saudi leadership was keen to deliver early on to everyone was the importance of the safety and health of citizens and residents and that it will provide them with a dignified life. If we want to be honest, the government implemented this pledge both professionally and transparently through a system of agencies, arrangements, and precautionary measures. It made free treatment available, raised awareness, and published statements and figures daily. It also repatriated its citizens from abroad, returned them to their country and quarantined them without burdening them with any expenses. It also supported the private sector and imposed health measures on everyone, despite the heavy costs, to limit the spread of the pandemic. It maintained its science-based measures, with total cautiousness and balance, until it announced its plan to gradually return to normalcy and ease the restrictions.
The Saudi government made tireless efforts and provided distinguished services while confronting the pandemic, and despite all this transparency and clarity, external parties whose positions are well known were not pleased and did not hesitate to undermine every single Saudi achievement.
We do not need a magic crystal to tell us that there is a systematic politicized campaign against Saudi Arabia. The propaganda is clear: Fabrications, rumors, and cheap shots that all fall under the category of pressure and extortion, conveniently in line with the interests of those sides, people, and groups whose positions toward Saudi Arabia are no longer hidden. Iran and its proxies in the area, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Qatari regime and its western media that serves the global left, all sparing no effort to achieve the same goal, spreading misinformation and fabricating crises to weaken the Kingdom and keep it occupied with marginal issues. History, however, has always made sure that those who have anti-Saudi sentiments are exposed. These are the same sides who praise Saudi Arabia in public while secretly antagonizing it. Saudi Arabia is neither a fleeting state nor one of the banana republics, with all due respect to the latter. It is a central state that has political weight and has taken upon itself to protect Arab causes and confront expansionist projects in the region.
Saudi Arabia has a variety of reserves and capacities. It has a substantial influence over and substantial interests in many countries that it could utilize whenever it wishes. After confronting the Iranian project and putting it in its place in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, exposing the actions of the Qatari regime and its proxies, frustrating the Brotherhood’s ambitions, and exposing the neo-Ottoman project, the animosity toward Saudi Arabia and the cheap and hostile media campaigns and discourses come as no surprise. There have been successive monochromatic campaigns against our country on both traditional and social media. These campaigns have been funded by the same sides that try to undermine the Saudi reformist and developmental project by bringing up old issues and fabricating new ones, providing cheap pens with platforms to defame.
They aim to demonize Saudi Arabia and distort its image, as evidenced by their attempts to add fuel to the fire by playing up divergences in political perspective with major countries or inflating criminal cases to make them seem like they have something to do with human rights, or conjuring up lies about Saudi authority and fabricating scenarios from their imagination despite that these constitutional issues are clear and have been resolved according to the system of governance and the Allegiance Council and are not disputed or open to interpretation.
All of these desperate attempts to destabilize the Kingdom only reflect their political bankruptcy. Despite this, the Kingdom will not succumb to extortion. What is common to all of their propositions is that they are not objective criticisms, but lowly ad-hominines, insults, and ridicule. They have not understood the reality of what is happening, that there is both a political will and popular desire to blow away the dust of the past and embrace the future, take the country into a new phase. What the so-called Axis of Resistance would not like to see, our country remains moderate and continues to yield regional and international influence.
These are challenges that we are facing, which means that we need to create a media discourse that can convince the receiver and objectively refute the content of these systematic campaigns, exposing this hostile media machine. There are components, tools, and a cadre capable of carrying out this confrontation if they are strategically employed. While there are influential individual initiatives, they are not enough; consequently, given the availability of large media institutions inside and outside the country, we need to find a mechanism to synchronize them, turning them into connected islands.
The internal Saudi front is solid and has always stood behind its leadership against that toxic movement, media foolery, and machinations, exposing them to the world. The Saudi people can see that those sides are in crisis and are overly opportunistic and hostile, and that they have sold their conscience.
