‘Fraud fuels population rise’

‘Bring cheat MPs to book’

“THE normal percentage of population increase in any country in the world is estimated at as much as ten percent every fifteen years,” columnist, the Dean of the College of the Technological Studies at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) and the Deputy Chairman of the Islamic Heritage Revival Society (IHRS)

wrote for daily Thursday. “In Kuwait, the number of the Kuwaitis in 1965 was 186,000 and in 2015 it jumped to 1.3 million. This means the number of the Kuwaitis has increased by as much as fifty percent every ten years.

“In other words, the number of Kuwaitis in 2015 should have been only 550,000. This means 750,000 of these Kuwaitis have no roots in the country. They became citizens through naturalization and by forging documents.

“According to official statistics more than 42,000 people have been naturalized in the recent past years, most of them because their mothers are Kuwaitis and a logical inference shows a high proportion of them got the citizenship on the strength of forged documents.

“In this context, the Al-Rai daily recently published a report issued by the Central Department for Statistics according to which there is a surplus number of Kuwaitis totaling 51,403 from 2005 to 2011, while the number of Kuwaitis born during the same period did not exceed 200,000.

“Such being the case, while we feel ‘proud’ that Kuwait is the biggest theatre for financial corruption in terms of the volume of thefts which are being committed estimated to be in billions of dollars including the penalty Kuwait paid worth $2 billion for nullifying a successful oil deal.

“Not just that, the country witnessed the distribution of agricultural land and industrial plots to a group of corrupt people and this has resulted in us sympathizing with the Anti-Corruption Committee in view of the prospective problems that shall face its members if the committee insists to punish the corrupt people because the number of these people is too high.

“This is Kuwait, where cheating and fraud is not confined to just embezzling money, rather it has even seeped into the issue of naturalization. Kuwait is now a country which has citizens from almost every ‘nook and corner’ because they have acquired the citizenship by falsifying documents with the help of the citizens.

“However, the cases of forgeries in naturalization have begun to show the ugly faces and many people in the country have vehemently reacted to this phenomenon. However, we hope these people will bring about reforms to straighten what has gone haywire – the handiwork of money mafias and forgers.

“We have read about many Kuwaitis who have found strange names added to their nationality files but until now they have been unable to bring these people to book or delete the names of these ‘strangers’ from their nationality files.

“Such being the case, we suggest it is the duty of the concerned authorities to summon those who were in charge of the issue of naturalization during that period to know from them on what grounds these people were randomly naturalized and then refer the senior officials to the Public Prosecution and bring to book those who do not deserve to be Kuwaitis.

“Likewise, duty entails that the MPs who compete for naturalizing their relatives and friends and receive large sums of money in the form of bribe must be brought to book because we are fed up of cheats in our community – cheats in whose hands we have put our trust to manage the affairs of our country.

“In conclusion, we wonder when the hand of justice will rescue our country from a state of an overwhelming turmoil created by those who manipulate the potential of our country.”

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Al-Hassawi

“Many people believe defending and protecting national identity and preventing the incorporation any amendment into the Nationality Law or into the law governing the Administrative Court that is looking into the issue of revoking the nationalities or waiving the same, is a defence for the government and its attitudes,” columnist and police majorgeneral (ret) wrote for daily Thursday.

“Just for elucidation, we would like to point out here that it is the government which is responsible for manipulations in the nationality issue, because it was involved in naturalizing many people without any control to such an extent we found some senior officials in the Ministry of Interior were involved in naturalizing even some of their tea and office boys just because they happened to have mastered the Kuwaiti dialect.

“Such being the case, the abnormal inflation of the naturalization issue and the unnatural increase in the number of the Kuwaitis during the recent years embodies the extent of manipulation in the naturalization process by the government.

“In this context, I would like to point out that through previous articles I had written that the citizenship as per the terms and conditions of the Kuwait Nationality Law was the right of the people who are classified as Kuwaitis by origin but those who had got the Kuwaiti citizenship by naturalization, the government shall reserve the right to revoke or even waive their nationality if they are found to hold the nationality of another country or if he/she got the nationality through fraud or forgery.

“I have rejected and still reject to grant the Kuwaiti nationality to anybody, even to those who are known to have given significant services to the country, because many people have extended excellent services to the country including some physicians, whose names I would not like to mention but there are the others who may not deserve the Kuwaiti nationality but have been actually naturalized.

“In this context, I would like to cite here what was attributed to the Speaker of the National Assembly and to some of the MPs during a Parliament session that was dedicated to discuss the revision of the law of the Administrative Court to empower this judicial institution to deal with the cases related to revoking the Kuwaiti nationality when some MPs claimed many Kuwaitis were holding dual nationalities while others had obtained it through forgery.

“Given the above, we should ask ourselves and ask all people in the country, who is responsible for this fiasco – sifting through the applications for the Kuwaiti nationality. Isn’t this the task of the government and should it not be held responsible for this mistake?

“Referring to the attempts that have been exerted by some MPs to revise the law of the Administrative Court and allowing the latter to deal with the cases of revoking the nationality, the aim is to ‘mix with honey’ because they know that that the cases of forgery can be waived by precedence and after 10 years since the occurrence of the incident.

“In other words, those who at the moment strive to adjust the law of the Administrative Court and empower the latter to deal with the cases related to revoking the nationality seemingly don’t know the background of the decision of revoking the nationalities of some people.

“We hope the issue related to the manipulation in the nationality issue should be wide open to enable us to know who are still holding dual nationalities and those who obtained the Kuwaiti nationality through forgery and punish them accordingly.

“Meanwhile, we say authorizing the Interior and Defence Committee of the National Assembly to discuss the data related to the forged nationalities is against the Constitution of the country, because nobody is authorized to reveal the names of those are involved in forgery unless they are found guilty by the court.

“Hence the National Assembly will not be in a position to issue any recommendation to the Cabinet in this regard, or to the Ministry of Interior unless necessary legal action has been taken against the forgers.”

“Terrorism is an act of frightening an individual, a group or nation so as to accomplish illegitimate objectives contrary to local or international laws,”

wrote for daily. “The act of terrorism frightens people because of its barbaric nature, which contradicts social norms and creates an avenue to usurp human dignity. Terrorism can be an organized, unorganized, international, individual or a collective act. Individual or collective terrorists perpetrate their deeds to create psychological pressure, suppression, degradation and physical violence by declaring others as unfaithful and legalizing the blood of other people through assassination and physical, ethnic or sectarian cleansing.

“Talking about international terrorism — an act perpetrated by one or more countries that dedicate diplomatic or military capabilities to achieve political objectives, and take over possessions or wealth of other countries — it’s possible through political pressure, economic sanction, military forces, target of infrastructure or organized killing of innocent civilians.

“Series of terrorist activities are happening in many countries, including Somalia, Syria and Egypt. The heinous acts have claimed several innocent lives and destabilized families, while many people have lost security and tranquility.”

“The draft law presented by a group of MPs for the amendment of law No. 81 concerned with the Administration Court has been rejected. This bill had called for extension of the judicial authority’s jurisdiction to cover the citizenship revocation issue,” wrote for daily.

“Only 27 MPs approved the bill while 36 MPs had rejected it. Many people were optimistic about government’s cooperation over this issue especially after the recent understanding between the government and some opposition MPs, but the government’s solidarity in opposing the bill dashed people’s hopes. The government opposed the bill, considering the matter as an issue of sovereign authority and wants to hold the cards under its control.

“Some MPs opposed the bill based on racial grounds while others voted against it due to influential constituent pressure.

“However, what was strange was that MP Adnan Abdulsamad was among those who voted against the bill, given that he had presented a similar bill in 1994 and 1997. His colleague MP Saleh Ashour presented a similar bill in 2010. We are also surprised when MP Hamoud Al-Khudair, who is one of the signatories to have called for the subjection of citizenship issues to judiciary, voted against the amendment! Very strange!

“We are surprised by the MPs of fourth and fifth constituencies, who form the majority to have dismissed the bill.

“I want to ask our readers to help untie this. Why did the MPs of the fourth and fifth constituencies vote against the bill? Why did the conviction of MPs Abdulsamad, Ashour and Al-Khudair change?”

“Those who are aware about the generation of our founding fathers know well that Kuwait was built on clear-sighted vision, strong foundations and honest intentions. That is the secret behind the unity and prosperity of Kuwait since the generation of our founding fathers until the 80’s. That generation was known for its honesty, sincerity, loyalty to the nation, as our founding father gave their all without waiting for rewards or favors. We still have among us the elite of the generation of the founding fathers such as His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Sabah,” Prof

wrote for daily. “The towering constitutional state which was established by our founding fathers with complete freedom and democratic oasis has its roots planted with a balanced constitution and a fair share between the ruler and the ruled. They made sure they protected public funds, public rights and freedoms.

“But all that have been built is being eaten up by the greediness of some among us who are seeking to serve their narrow interests, thereby making us feeble and weak. The country is moving in the wrong direction because of their actions. It is sad that, after we inherited a strong nation with all development and success factors, we have become so frail and backward. Corruption is rampant in all sectors; not a single institution is excluded.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb