THE ongoing controversy surrounding Batelco's new Internet packages is just one example of a much larger issue in Bahrain; we have a consumer society that only knows how to consume. Most people don't even know that there is such a thing as consumer rights. Few organisations exist to look out for the consumer, giving the media a heavy responsibility to fill that void. In developed countries, consumers are powerful. There are pressure groups, lobbyists, publications, TV shows dedicated exclusively to exposing companies that exploit them. By contrast, Bahrainis are generally very simple people. They think a Big Mac is a luxury. Bahrain's Press laws make it very difficult for private companies to be named, with the GDN letters page is pretty much the only place where consumers have a say.

I took a second hand car to the exclusive dealer to get it inspected. They wanted BD50. Just to look at it. My mobile phone stopped working ten months into a two-year warranty but the agent told me that it was void because apparently I had dropped it.

"How do you know I dropped it? Did you see me drop it?”

I paid to fix it because I didn't have the patience to argue, but the same company gave in to a friend in the same situation after he pestered the sweet life out of them.

Consumers are fooled all over the world but maybe I wouldn't mind it as much if it were done in ways that didn't insult my intelligence. Warranties aren't worth the paper they're printed on, if companies don't honour them. They can get their money back from whoever supplied them, but are often too lazy to go through the paperwork. Prices stay high because of exclusive distribution agreements with manufacturers and regional distributors or, in other words, virtual monopolies. We pay ‘labour' and ‘service' charges to businesses that exploit their workers, paying them a fraction of these amounts. Products on sale are marked up a thousand per cent or more.

In the telecommunications industry, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) was established to protect the consumer. They twice complained to the GDN editor-in-chief about my coverage of their activities, the second time requesting for me to be removed from the story because they didn't have ‘confidence' in me. In the TRA's view my coverage of a public review of the regulator's activities, though factually accurate, gave too much publicity to Batelco at the expense of other market players. But I can hardly ignore it when a company of that size suggests that the TRA's regulation could jeopardize jobs and millions in planned investments. And strangely enough, Batelco staff have also politely suggested at other times that I've been too hard on their company. Batelco's was heavily criticised at a Press conference designed to launch a BD5 Internet product and the GDN was the only paper which published any dissenting voices. I've suggested to the editor-in-chief that since two parties at the centre of this issue don't trust me, then it may be for the best for it to be assigned to someone else for now. However I still insist that it is the role of journalists to protect the underdog, in this case, the consumer (and smaller service providers). The public has a right to be kept informed about potentially unfair business practices, misrepresentation and other consumer/business interactions. In order to do this properly, sometimes the media needs to be aggressive. All parties involved, including the authorities, business and consumers, need to understand this.

tariqk1976@hotmail.com 

tkhonji@yahoo.com

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