Military Officer Critiques Government Policies

I am Salem. More than 23 years ago, I was like any other

child.

A child who ran and played with his peers and the children of his village.

I grew up in the southwest of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in a small village called

Arrab, located among a group of villages in one of the suburbs of Hafar Al-Batin Governorate.

There, I spent all my childhood and the bloom of my youth in my country's land, where

I ate from its bounty, drank from its water, and studied in its schools.

More than all that, praise be to God, I completed memorizing the Book of God in full in

its mosques and centers. I grew up, and so did my dreams. I came to see the

military sector as closer to me than any other sector. Thank God, my dream came true,

and I pinned on one star, then two, and began advancing in my career.

My service lasted nearly six years, four of them were in

Khamis Mushait, and the final two were at the Religious Affairs Institute for the Armed Forces in Riyadh.

For years now, I have watched the country undergo rapid change,

and every day we hear about huge, unique projects,

Every project will be the biggest in the world, and bring in billions annually

to the country's economy. Years and years passed, and we saw nothing on the

ground. What we see is exactly the opposite.

Poverty and unemployment are widespread and growing among the nation's youth.

People's homes were destroyed and they were displaced, and even now many of them

have not been provided with any alternative by the government. Insulting religion and God and disparaging

symbols has become normal and doesn't move us at all, but merely

criticizing an official or even asking for a job on Twitter

They put you behind bars for long years. Even in my line of work,

Religious Affairs largely does not do the job it is supposed to do,

as anyone who hears “Religious Affairs” would imagine.

Rather than Religious Affairs, tasked with protecting the soldier’s mindset

and devoting it to every Islamic cause, I found that

much of its work is devoted to protecting those in power under the cover of

Quranic verses and hadiths, selecting whatever suits those in power

and disregards whatever contradicts it. As for the military and their conditions, it is painful.

It pleases neither enemy nor friend, especially the retirees whose backs have been broken

by financial hardship, marginalization, and no respect for their years of service

and sacrifices for this country, not to mention waging war on the pay and livelihoods of those

on the front line at the southern border.

Meanwhile, we see hundreds of millions and billions being burned on parties

and things that offer neither the country nor the people any real value.

Before I end my message, my dear viewer, it is only natural that you will hear smear campaigns

against Salem. Salem fell into the mire of drugs and decided to flee,

but believe me, it is hard to keep up with me physically. They may say Salem was

tempted by money, but I left a job that is a dream for most people

and a large salary that any young man in the country dreams of. I would not be surprised if tomorrow

a rumor comes out that I fought with Ruba at the rest house, or even

they say I stole two or three tires. What matters is that smears

and accusations will happen no matter what. A message to everyone watching

and listening to me. The price of silence is high. While many preferred

Silence, they say, is wisdom. Today we see that we

are painfully paying the price for that silence, year after year, in

our values, morals, and principles, even in

our livelihoods. I am First Lieutenant Salem bin Nasser Al-Qahtani. I do not

declare my defection, rather, I declare that I will continue performing my duties as an officer

loyal to my country, a country I wish to reform and elevate,

rather than be a legitimizer of injustice and corruption and a tool

of the authoritarian regime. This is my military identity.