THE recent call of Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Asheikh, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, for military conscription of young Saudis is a very positive one. This call, in a Friday sermon, came during the ongoing Saudi-led Operation 'Decisive Storm' against the Yemeni outlaw militia — the Houthis. The mufti said, "We must prepare our youth through conscription in order for them to be ready to carry out the missions needed from them. This measure is very important to our youths and makes the country ready to face any threat." The last time there was talk about conscription in the army was back in 1991 when former Iraqi president Saddam invaded Kuwait. In my opinion, military conscription is a must for our Saudi youth now more than ever. Through the military our youth will learn a lot — most importantly, discipline. The political situation around the Kingdom is unstable and we are facing threats from many directions. What we need is to be ready to defend our country and many of us are looking forward for army conscription to become a reality. The youth too throughout the Kingdom have welcomed the call for military conscription by the grand mufti and said they were ready to serve the country. They described the call as timely and said they were ready for military training and would have no problem being called for compulsory service. Our youth is accused mostly of being careless, reckless, irresponsible, without any vision and called all sorts of other negative things. Whether we agree with that or not is another issue, but what I know for a fact is that a large percentage of them need to be enlisted in the army for training and discipline to become a better citizen. The highest honor a citizen may receive is to defend the country where we were born and raised. Now more than 60 percent of our population is young, a high number, and military conscription would do them a world of good. Among them, a good percentage are unemployed. Instead of these youth roaming the streets drifting with their cars or harassing people and being reckless with public utilities, they could be called to enlist in the army and benefit the country and themselves. They could be conscripted after high school or even after the university before they enter the job market. One thing for sure is that the army will teach them a lot. Beside discipline, it will teach them how to be tough and responsible. The army will prepare our youth physically and mentally for major challenges so when the call comes to defend the country, they are ready. It is not necessary that they join the army just to learn how to use weapons. They could join the Civil Defense or learn how to assist at hospitals and learn First Aid. Our engineers could be sent to the military factories for weapon development. When the call comes to defend the country, each citizen knows his position and his role. There is so much good in our youth, males and females, and they also have initiative. We have seen in times of crisis how our youth volunteers to provide aid and help. As an example, during the Jeddah floods crisis it was our youth who rose to the occasion. They were in the forefront of every facet of relief and they were first on the ground providing help in the hot zones. Their energy was evident and really put to its best use during that period. We will see the youth providing similar enthusiasm and energy when they are called to serve in the military. Youths in general are a bundle of energy. Our youth all the more so. But most of the time they do not put their energies into good effect, wasting it away by being idle or burning it away in no good capers that sometimes land them in trouble. What if this energy was directed to be better trained in an additional facet of life that could be put to good use any time during their lifetime. What better place than the military to learn discipline, hard work and special skills that would eventually produce a better generation. I sometimes browse through the YouTube channel to see about conscription in other countries. Some of the clips that highlight the training by a foreign country's army reveal the extent of positivity that gets instilled in their youth by this training. I have seen how the officers build the recruit's personality. The discipline in the units keeps them all in line. The youth learn how to follow orders and better still know the value of time and time management. They learn how to be on time and precise. That and many other important values. Isn't that what most of our youth need! Yes we are with military conscription because this is an opportunity to rehabilitate our youth and teach them how to defend their country. The spinoff of conscription is it teaches youth to be confident and resolute in the face of many challenges and they will be trained to be of the best service to the country. I am sure that the vast majority of our youth will welcome the decision if it was approved. It will protect our youth from going astray and will teach them at this crucial age, when they are brimming with energy, the important values that will help them in real life. A country that we do not know how to defend is a country that we don't deserve to live in.
— The writer can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter:@anajeddawi_eng
