THE rule of law is the most profound evidence that a civil society is either in place or, at least, in the works, so it is encouraging that officials responding to complaints from Saudi truck drivers about expat competitors have maintained that the law prevents them from supporting the Saudi drivers' demands. Saudi drivers of goods transport trucks are demanding that the government intervene and ban expatriates from competing with them, particularly in the area of transporting goods from government warehouse. The Saudi drivers deny allegations that they overcharge for their services and allege that many of the drivers hired to drive the transport trucks are illegal workers who drive the price down. They are demanding that the medium-size truck sector be Saudized. While Saudization of the sector may be a desirable process, the fact now is that many, if not most, of the expat drivers are legally licensed to be working in the sector. No matter how angry the local drivers are, there is nothing lawful that can be done to alter the situation right now. If a driver, expat or not, holds a permit from the Ministry of Transport, his documents and his activities are legal. And the officials in charge have vowed to uphold the law. The most important aspect of this story is the recognition that the law as it is written and carried out takes precedence over all else. In this case, it is simple characteristic of nationality alone that it trumps but the same could be said of families, tribes, regions of origin, etc. Civil law is created to apply to everyone who is a member of the civil society, in other words, a civilian. There is no such thing as favoritism, wasta, the old boys' network or nudge-nudge, wink-wink. There is one law for everyone and it is applied equally to everyone regardless of who they are
