In Search Of Electoral Data
Saudi Voters Centre chief sees changes
By Our Staff Repoter
Bahrain Tribune – 24 November 2006
He is s a v v y. He is erudite. Smart as a whip and says is like he sees it.
Turki Faisal Al Rasheed is the founder president of the Saudi Voters Centre, an operation that carefully inputs information on voting system in the region with special emphasis on Saudi Arabia.
He says he gets over 40,000 hits a day from around the world and was in Bahrain to view the elections from the inside so to speak but since the laws do not allow for outside participating he has to return to his country without getting a ringside seat.
His main aim at present is to create a GCC election observer committee where everyone’s experience in the exercise of franchise from the municipalities upwards can be co-related and a vat of data be formed.
“We can learn from each other,” he say, “and see to evolve and make things work for the best and take the best from each other.”
Rasheed is outspoken when he refers to the changes in the region.
“They are happening, things that were not even spoken about are now being implemented, the world is moving fast and nations have to get up and get proactive.”
He points to his moblie and explains how he beleives that this instrument is the most important information tool of the future. “The mobile phone will be the newspaper, the TV, the radio, the whole data tool in your hands very soon.” He says: “You cannot stop that happening. Yes, people will still read newspapers, but the numbers will be less all round the world, news and information will be in this little machine.”
He speaks eloquently of the stereotyping by media that has become a detriment to ethnic groups. “Everyone is not the same,” he says’
“This is colonial trick and it is still being played, we tend to see traits of specific ethnic groups collectively. That is wrong and colours your mind. Open your mind instead.”
He believes that the GCC nations are moving fast into the new world and opening up doors to let in fresh winds. Asked how he perceives his mission to create a collective database, he smiles and says, “By taking the tough route. I don’t go through the windows, I go through the front door.”