The empowering of national cadres, enhancing their role in the private sector, accepting them in various companies and making them indispensable in any equation are not to be done by the decisions and decrees of the Labour Ministry or through applying more pressure on private sector companies and establishments. This issue has not been shaping up according to the government directions. Our young people should be empowered through the support of the society as a whole. In the private sector business deals should be carried out by Omanis in specific fields of trade.

Thus, private sector companies and establishments cannot marginalise our youth or strip them of responsibilities and rewards. We, as an integrated society, have to be the first to give a helping hand to the young without waiting for others to help our sons. If we do not take the task of empowering the young seriously we have no right to blame others for not doing that.

There is no doubt that the will power of a society can be more influential than that of any other power or entity. When a society wants to do something nothing can block their way or inhibit their determination. When the same society simply blames the government for not doing enough to empower and support the young job seekers, one must pause and think about it.

When an Omani customer wants to buy a car, he or she prefers an expat working for the agency. When an Omani customer wants to book a flight, he or she prefers to speak to an expat and not to the Omani boy or girl whose desk is next to the expat’s.
Finally, when an Omani customer wants to buy luxury services, electronics or food stuff, he or she feels embarrassed to buy from an Omani seller. I don’t underestimate the value of expat labour. Also, that doesn’t mean that our national cadres are not qualified. But when Omanis do that with the young local labour do they really think that the youth can have an opportunity to gain more knowledge and experience in whichever field they are working and build a sound career? The top ranks at private sector companies and establishments have the right not to depend much on national cadres if we, as customers, don’t do that. It is not reasonable to blame foreigners for not helping our sons if we ourselves, do not help our sons in the first place.

Shortcomings in the society are many like the lack of encouragement and stimulation to build careers and jobs. Our sons have no one to support their efforts at work and encourage them to do more. The expat worker finds his or her job through a friend or a fellow of his race or from his country or even a family member who provides him or her with the required job and help at work. At the same time, the citizen who works for a company finds that Omani customers don’t prefer to buy from him and prefer instead to deal with his expat work colleague.

If we want companies and establishments to recruit our sons; if we want to enhance and support our youth at work places we have to change our philosophy by preferring to give and take with the Omanis and not the expat. We have to do that as part of our responsibility to support our youth in the private sector to sustain the efforts done by the government to provide job seekers with suitable jobs.

The society has the power to nationalise a percentage of available jobs overnight. In this the government agencies and authorities have an important role to play. They should give preference for dealing with Omanis only in the fields where Omanis can handle their job requirements properly without any damage to the competitive market or other parts of the economy in general.

There are many fields where preference can be given to the Omanis, such as travel agencies, office equipment, advertising, public relation and many other fields. All government agencies, authorities and ministries should not refrain from dealing with Omanis whenever possible if there is true desire to empower and support our youth, otherwise we will remain revolving in a vicious circle.