‘Kuwait greets you, Oh, Amir’

‘Ties with Saudi historical, deep-rooted’

“HIS Royal Highness, the Young Amir the Crown Prince, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense of the sisterly country of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is currently on a visit to our country – his first official visit to the State of Kuwait since becoming the Crown Prince of the Kingdom,” columnist Saud Al-Samaka wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.

“The State of Kuwait, HH the Amir, the Crown Prince, government, welcome this prosperous visit which expresses the depth of the bond between the State of Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia based on deep fraternal relations which have stretched throughout the history.

“These relations are enveloped in a historic position of the Kingdom which put all its human, military, financial, land, skies and seas for the sake of Kuwait to be freed from the heathenish Iraqi aggression.

“Certainly, the attitude of the Kingdom in this connection is unforgettable for the State of Kuwait as people and government. In other words, the memories of this fraternal and valiant attitude will go down in the history of Kuwait for consecutive Kuwaiti generations to go through.

“This young ambitious Amir is eagerly looking forward to shift his country to the horizons of modern sciences and come out of a culture of exploiting the religion to open the vast area of our great religion which calls to follow up the science and the evolution in its various fields and aspects.

“Likewise, the young Amir is economically looking forward to bring his country out of the sole dependence on oil as a source of income and open a new feeder window that shall guarantee the future of the country and constitute an alternative source.

“Apart from the above, the young Amir – as a Crown Prince – has an ambition of doubling the number of graduates as well as the need of these graduates to keep abreast with the contemporary sciences in order to enable the Saudi generations to shoulder their responsibilities to upgrade their homeland towards the global modernization and trace every new scientific aspect to place the same at the service of the Kingdom.

“Not only that, His Royal Highness the young Amir Mohammad Bin Salman is ambitious to see his country joining the nuclear club for peaceful purposes and benefit from this energy to develop the industry and technological advancement.

“We welcome the prominent and distinguished guest of the State of Kuwait in his second country among his people and brothers. We wish him a fruitful visit and hope the outcome of this visit will benefit the Arab nation, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in general and the two fraternal peoples in particular.

“In the meantime, we pray to Almighty Allah to bestow prosperity on all for the sake of meeting His love and satisfaction and keep our Gulf always unified with a unified heart, regimes and people, particularly since we are living today in the midst of inflammable area and as such the responsibility to be shouldered by the regimes and the government of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states will double for the sake of closing their ranks as well as for doubling their cooperation in order to hold our countries united above the tense and burning situations.

“Thank God, we trust in the wisdom of our rulers and their extreme keenness to hold themselves above the tensions and crises in order to make our Gulf always an oasis of security and safety for its peoples and for those who live among us including the expatriates so they can bask in security and peace under the leadership of our rulers as monarchs, sultans and Amirs.

“We pray to Almighty Allah to grant us permanent grace of security, safety and peace for our homelands.

“Oh our guest, His Royal Highness the Amir Mohammad Bin Salman you will find us through your current visit – God willing – as guests and you are the master of the home. You and your accompanying delegation members are welcome on the land of the State of Kuwait, your second homeland.”

Al-Samaka

“The visit of the Saudi Crown Prince, the First Deputy Premier and the Minister of Defense, His Royal Highness Mohammad Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz AlSaud heading a high level delegation to his second home the State of Kuwait, comes during a phase of extreme importance, and as such this visit will inevitably push forward the bilateral relations between the two sisterly countries,” columnist and Lieutenant General (Rtd) Tareq Hamada wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“As a matter of fact, the bilateral relations between the two countries are deep-rooted ingrained in love by virtue of the faith of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed and the faith of the Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz in mutual destiny.

“In this context, we say it would not be possible for anybody to forget the honorable and eternal attitude that was shown by the elder sisterly country during the heathenish Iraqi invasion of the State of Kuwait and how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had opened its doors for all Kuwaitis.

“However, this attitude is not strange for the Saudi brothers, hence, this visit is of special importance, because it comes under exceptional circumstances which currently prevail in both the Arab region and the international arena as well amid a number of challenges currently facing the Middle East region, particularly in terms of security affairs and encountering the terrorist thought which currently threatens both the stability and the development.

“As a matter of fact, the timing of the visit is significant in view of the big challenges which currently face our region, since some parties are currently plotting against this part of the world in view of its political, financial and economic weight.

“Consequently, the meetings to be held on the sidelines on this visit, will be important and shall constitute an opportunity to discuss and debate the situations in the region as well as its complicated dossiers.

“Likewise, the visit coincides with the Gulf crisis as such all peoples of the Gulf are currently hoping that the Gulf relations will return to its previous position and in a way that shall help maintain the might, the robustness and the solidity of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

“It is needless to say a lot of hopes are being attached to the visit of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, because this visit comes during an extreme delicate time, that requires concerted efforts and wisdom of our leaders to reach the safe shore and protect the security and peace in the region.

“As a matter of fact these aspirations are tied to the wisdom of the leaderships of both countries in the face of the crises currently facing the region, particularly in light of the positions adopted by both nations at various levels – political and economic.

“Oh Your Royal Highness, the reform measures that have been adopted by you are historical and they represent an area of appreciation, a welcome sign for all Kuwaitis.”

“Welcome Your Royal Highness.”

“We are lumbered with the load of chronic racism, which was instilled in us and nurtured deliberately or by chance under the auspices of the government,” columnist Muhammad Al-Motny wrote for Annahar daily.

“Racism has been exploited over the years by governments in different eras to resolve political problems and to guarantee the continuity of regimes. It has been used as a weapon by some politicians to fight opponents to the point that issues such as ‘Who came to Kuwait first and family origins’ became more important than professionalism and proficiency.

“Sadly, we have extended the racial discrimination against each other to expatriates and become keen on digging out every mistake they commit in order to blame them for the shortcomings in our day to day affairs in the country. Demographic imbalance is an existing issue that can be resolved through unruffled and long-term procedures by simply replacing expatriates with Kuwaitis without causing the former any harm or exposing them to injustices.

“People use flimsy excuses to justify their bigotry and accuse expatriates of taking over the jobs of citizens and constituting burdens on different services. In reality, expatriates are innocent of all accusations, seeing the problem is rather related to the poor performance of the government.

“Let’s imagine a scenario where we finally manage get rid of the expatriate population to boost the Kuwaiti population without developing the services! Racism has devastating effects on economy. It cannot be confronted by mere decisions or temporary actions. The solution is to adopt the culture of awareness on how to deal with fellow humans who come to the country through legal channels and with approval of our government for greener pastures.

“Dear reader, we do not expect the politicians to fight racism while they use it as a weapon in their disputes. We, as individuals, have an obligation to confront the menace, and remember always that God Almighty created us different so that we may know each other and have relationship for the development of the world.”

“When a government is formed, it is usually based on quota whereby consideration is given to all components of the Kuwaiti society including tribes, families and political blocs,” Mubarak Fahad Al-Duwailah wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“However, the moderate Islamic bloc called Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) was neglected from being part of most of the governments. Two of the assigned ministers were dismissed from ICM after they were appointed as ministers. The enemies of this bloc did not find anything to cover their lies, which claim that the Islamic current is the pampered child of the government, except to consider any religious or conservative minister as a member of ICM.

“What is really strange is that an entire bloc was dismissed in the level of state institutions or even in specialized committees despite the fact that this bloc is the largest and most widespread in the entire country. The number of MPs in this bloc is more than the number of MPs in other blocs or even those representing big tribes.

“Some might argue that ICM has changed its attitude. We must say we did not do so. We always adapt to situations that are in favor of the society but the basic principles are always upheld. Ironically, the enemies of ICM direct contradictory accusations at us. Sometimes they say we are the pampered children of the government, and other times they describe us as extremists and even terrorists.

“Recently, the government established an institution for human rights. This is very good and even desired by most people. However, most of the members allocated to this institution are not suitable for the position. It is true that very few members are really efficient but most of them have no experience in this field. Furthermore, one of the members proved to have failed while he was part of a human rights organization.

“What we need is that determination of members of such bodies should be based on impartial considerations. Capability and honesty must be the top criteria without any form of favoritism and personal relations.”

“We will not repeat what has been said for the last twenty years about the ban on circulation and publication of books in this era of internet, and we will not discuss such silly decisions,” Fahad Dawood Al-Sabah wrote for Al-Nahar daily.

“We just want to ask if the ban of books meet the provisions of the Constitution of Kuwait which stresses the importance of knowledge and research. Is this censorship really in line with the law? Do the decisions issued by the relevant censorship committee, which is re-formed every year, agree with the law?

“When we read the relevant law concerning printing and publishing that was amended in 2006, we realize that the decisions on the ban exceed all limits. They do not meet the principles stated in the Constitution of Kuwait. The 4,000 banned books include those which were banned from the time of the Iraq-Iran war because those books offended Saddam Hussain. Other books are banned because they are related to communism. It is not logical to continue the ban for many years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“The list of banned books includes some related to Arab Heritage which were allowed until recently. Some books have been banned based on directives issued by the minister and the censorship committee.

“In short, the ban of books enforced these days can be considered as an act in a comedy drama that has nothing to do with logic or reality.

“Censorship should be practiced against some MPs who do their best to provoke tribal and sectarian slogans, appointing themselves as guards of the doctrine of their parties’ ideologies.

“Do not ban a book that will sell no more than 200 copies; of course, the buyers will not include those who are afraid of discovering the fun of reading. We call for a debate to be held between the members of censorship committee and the relevant minister on one side and the publishers and writers on the other side in order to identify what is really required to be done.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb