‘Is no opposition to blame?’
Kuwait slips on economy, education index
“WHAT can we say after Kuwait has been ranked 54th place globally on the economic competitiveness index, down 14 among the world’s countries in just two years, and at the bottom within the Gulf House? And what after Kuwait is ranked 79th globally on the quality and standard of education and its outputs? What after we reached the 103rd place globally in the innovative capacity index?,” columnist, Professor at Kuwait University’s Political Science Department and former MP Dr Hassan Jowhar wrote for Al-Jaridah daily.
“These indicators, published by the Kuwait National Competitiveness Committee chaired by a distinguished and dedicated pesonality such as Dr Fahad Al-Rashed based on the annual report of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland are in line with numerous reports issued by the national and international institutions to measure human development trends according to precise and standard criteria.
“The problem lies in the persistence of these weak indicators and their alarming decline over the past few years, despite pumping tens of billions of dinars through the development plans portal under the slogan of development of the services, foremost of which is education.
“The government has always taken the National Assembly, especially after the rise of the parliamentary opposition force, as an excuse for its failures and marketing that the Parliament is the reason for the disruption of development and delays in achievements and justified this by saying Ministers are repeatedly grilled and the MPs interfere in appointments in senior positions and their impact on the government decision.
“However, since 2013, the government has controlled all joints of the state including its media, institutions, and even the National Assembly. Kuwait’s political history has not witnessed a more obedient and more conciliatory Parliament such as the 2013 Assembly. However the current Assembly has taken the initiative alone in protecting the government from accountability since the first session and the evidence is that the grilling requests that were submitted during the last five years were either sham or arranged with the government.
“Serious grilling did not exceed the limits of the debate without reaching a confidence vote, and the vote process did not exceed the votes of those who have submitted the grilling request. This means that the government was not politically secure as it enjoyed in the recent period, while the disturbing opposition has completely disappeared from the scene either because of imprisonment or because of the presence of some MPs outside the country or are deprived of political participation.
“There are no longer demonstrations or speeches and seminars not even presence in the social media, and the rest of the opposition members who could be counted on finger tips have become a spearhead in the investigation to immunize the government.
“The indicators of underdevelopment, decline in development and services and the loss of future visions reflects only one painful fact: ‘The country has turned into a system of corruption of all kinds’ and this is confirmed by financial scandals and suspicions of embezzlements on public money under the eyes of senior officials, recent of which was the scandal of what is known as the theft in the Hospitality Department of the Ministry of Interior, it’s probably just the tip of the iceberg, all because of the absence of opposition.”
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“We have talked in previous articles about the importance of the return of the civil state project and the need to consolidate the concepts of the Kuwaiti civil state, which are based on the principles of democracy, the constitution, the regulatory laws and the institutions of civil society,” columnist Waleed Al-Rujaib wrote for Al-Rai daily.
“The definition of the civil state is a state that protects and secures all members of society regardless of their national or religious or intellectual affiliation and the state is the supreme authority that has no authority over it.
“When the forefathers set the foundations of modern Kuwait, they decided that it is not a religious, sectarian or clan state. It is a democratic civil state whose system is based on constitutional principles regulated by laws to apply these principles on the ground, principles that do not deny, or conflict or contradict with the system of the State.
“Article (7) on Fundamental Constituents of the Kuwait Society stipulates: ‘Justice, Liberty and Equality are the pillars of Society; co-operation and mutual help are the firmest bonds between citizens’.
“Article (35) of the Constitution on the Freedom of belief is absolute states that ‘The State projects the freedom of practicing religion in accordance with established customs, provided that it does not conflict with public policy or morals’ while Article 36 of the Constitution also affirms freedom of opinion and scientific research and the right to express opinion by all means.
“The principles of the Constitution, even deficient, are noble and compatible with the constituents of the civil state according to the founding fathers, so where is the problem? The problem lies in the regulatory laws which, rather than reflecting the articles and spirit of the constitution are too narrow in a manner that the constitution is emptied of its civil content.
“Even such regulatory and arbitrary laws that reflected hostility of the basics of the civil state have been bypassed by groups and people, depending on their ideological and mood affiliations, which represent their narrow culture and partisan interests until they abolished the fundamentals and principles on which Kuwait built its independence, and the country is governed not by law, but by the plot and coup against the Constitution which has turned to be just ink on paper and democracy remained an electoral weapon exploited by the influential and political Islamic groups.
“This is evidenced only by the imposition of a culture that has nothing to do with the civil state, one of the most important elements of which is peace, tolerance, acceptance of the other, equality of rights and duties, and on the other side the culture of anti-civilization which restricts public and personal freedoms by arbitrary laws in favor of the influential forces and Islamist political groups which exploit religion in politics.”
“Our Arab nation is the only nation prevented from being loyal to its origins and people,” columnist Talal Abdulkareem Al-Arab wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“Arabs have learned that loyalty to the nation contradicts religion. This led to division of Arab people into sects. Since loyalty to the nation is prohibited, there is nothing to be loyal to except the sect.
“For centuries, Arabs have been living in peace and harmony with the followers of other religions. Sunnis and Shiites used to live without boundaries and without hurling the accusation of atheism until the plot and series of crises were ushered in by the Arab-Iranian War.
“The scheme could not succeed without a sectarian regime that depends on the passion of crowds. On the other hand, a dictatorial regime in Iraq dreamed of becoming the leader of the Arab nation.
“This blend of regimes destroyed historic relations between two nations which led the long era of mutual interests and good relations. The evil sectarianism and racism separated them, hence, the emergence of disputing groups of Sunnis and Shiites who hate each other. Each of them believes one is 100 percent right and the other is 100 percent wrong. The situation escalated into armed struggles that ended the lives of thousands of youths and destroyed many Arab cities.
“I have a number of important questions: Why was the Arab land chosen to be the ground for such wars? Why the sectarian struggles are not severe as in the Arab countries despite the fact that Sunnis and Shiites exist in many other countries? Why Iran is the only one that has been protected from revolutions or sectarian and racist armed disputes although the regime in Iran is fragile? Why the Iranian regime was allowed to expand and interfere in Arab countries and instigate disputes while the Arab countries are not allowed to reply?
“The inauguration of Khomeini in Iran and Saddam Hussein in Iraq resulted in the long war. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait divided the Arabs while the fall of Saddam paved way for Iran to implement its extension plan, which includes changing the loyalty of people in some Arab countries – from being loyal to their nation to being loyal their sect.”
“In the coming few weeks, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will hold its summit, an event that has been occurring for the past 30 years since its inception in the early 1980s. These summits have represented a fortress for the Gulf countries in the face of dangerous events that occurred in the region such as the first and the second Gulf wars,” Abdulmohsen Jumaa wrote for Al-Jarida daily.
“Today, the Gulf scene is miserable and sad. Some of the information media in the Gulf region has been landing heavy punches on the event. This has caused mutual losses for the Gulf nationals and led to the weakening and destabilization of our countries in a manner that serves the interests of our antagonists and forces that are executing their projects in the region. For these projects to succeed, they need to face us as individuals and not as a group.
“The efforts of His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad are ongoing for reviving harmony in the GCC house and rectifying the mistakes that were committed in the near past.
“There is no doubt that the region, especially the Gulf countries, are being threatened and blackmailed by every major countries.
“Due to all this, our relations must be amended so that we can unite to face the growing threat on our regional security and the damage that the social harmony of the regional countries will eventually sustain.”
“Our respected Civil Service Commission (CSC) tells a citizen, who registers with it for a job irrespective of their qualifications, that ‘Please wait until we announce about employment’. The governmental oil companies also tells the same citizen ‘Please wait’. The same happens with other governmental and semi-governmental entities,” Talal Al-Saeed wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.
“However, the main problem in this matter is when these governmental entities recruit expatriates even before they exit out of Kuwait International Airport. This is the ugly employment scene in the country that we absolutely cannot accept while our people are searching for jobs from one entity to another.
“What makes us unhappier is that some of the expatriate workers who are recruited for working in farms become legal experts within one day. What an insult to our suffering citizens! Has it become some form of a trend – ‘Just enter Kuwait even as a domestic worker, and you will find yourself becoming an expert in no time with the blessings of the governmental regulators such as CSC’? This trend is particularly common with a certain expatriate community.
“However, the ‘ghost’ of Kuwaitization is terrorizing that community and many others. They are attempting to derail the wagon of the replacement policy and wishing it never succeeds.”
“Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni activist tweeted on Aug 15, 2018: ‘A secular democratic State is the solution, secularism to get rid of priesthood and democracy to get rid of Caesar. Your morning is secular and democratic, there is no doubt they will come,’” columnist Dr Ali Al-Zu’bi wrote for Al-Shahid daily.
“When many Arab nationalist thinkers called for ‘secular democracy’ as a political solution to promote progress in this or that Arab society, the thinkers of political Islam were screaming day and night saying this trend is from the West based on shortsighted humanitarian vision and contrary to Islamic Law.
“The same political Islam groups, which opposed secular and democratic trends in the past, are openly calling today for adoption of secular democracy as a solution to political backwardness in the Arab region. A question arises here: Does the thinking of Islam political stream change and people are convinced that the best solution to our problems is secular democracy, or they recently realized that their political project – to rise to power – will be achieved only through democratic secularism?
“Personally, I think the second part of the question is the closest to the truth, because the idea of accepting the other is taboo in the religious political mind regardless of the ideological or sectarian orientation.”
“I followed the incidents in Iraq with passion, so we shall painstakingly analyze every step and note down objectives, considering there is a similarity in our relationship with Iran and our neighbors in the North and East,” Abdullah Basharah wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“Both countries have well known records with Kuwait, but we will now leave Iran out since its diplomatic moves change depending on the map of interests and massive threats. We shall focus on Iraq that has been toeing the right path by carefully choosing an expert in international relations Barham Saleh as its new president. This aligns with the need for Iraq to be on the same page with the international community while its policy should be in tandem with fundamentals of global activities. It should also synchronize with factors required for being a good neighbor and favorable conduct towards all countries, especially the Arabian Gulf neighbors such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
“Regardless of analysis on choosing President Barham Saleh, there is no doubt that Iraq has achieved so much by choosing such a personality who will contribute to building channels of communication between Iraq and the international community. This will be done in a manner that satisfies the global taste in line with the regulations set by the United Nations Charter and International Law.“