‘Kuwait losing importance in Gulf’

‘Ignoring hosting vital forums detrimental’

‘‘IT WAS indeed an honor to attend the last edition of the Doha Forum of 2019 which has been going on for the past two decades,” columnist, professor at Kuwait University’s Political Science Department and former MP Dr. Hassan Abdullah Jowhar wrote for Aljarida daily.

“As a matter of fact, the sisterly country of the State of Qatar has been granted an international tribunal through this annual gathering in its capital – another milestone of its transformation into one of the Gulf diplomatic vehicles.

“A galaxy of politicians, leading personalities, media institutions, in addition to many civil communities from various countries throughout the world, attended this forum irrespective of their differences and contradictions. They gathered around a roundtable to present official and political visions, attitudes, group strategies and academic solutions to different contemporary issues.

“The sisterly nation, the State of Qatar, deserves all possible forms of gratitude and appreciation for opening its doors to many Kuwaiti personalities to participate in this distinguished forum and for giving them the opportunity to meet senior officials including the presidents, prime ministers and foreign affairs ministers of several countries, as well as the representatives of many international organizations.

“Such being the case, we hereby express our gratitude to those who were involved in actualizing such a diplomatic channel through official and popular branches. In the meantime, we wish them continuous prosperity and creativity in all fields and levels.

“This type of forum reminds us of the golden age of the State of Kuwait, its deep-rooted diplomacy and its superiority in various artistic, literature, sporting and developmental fields which disappeared from the Kuwaiti dictionary up to the extent that no thought has so far surfaced in terms of restoring the spirit of life in the above-mentioned activities. This reflects the extent of deterioration in governmental administration and the loss of its compass.

“In this context, one may infer that some people are likely to feel resentment towards those who used to repeatedly talk about corruption as one of the major grounds for holding those accountable for such a fiasco.

“As a matter of fact, the State of Kuwait was once known as the capital of conferences as it gained the trust of all countries throughout the world irrespective of their different political regimes and ruling ideologies. Therefore, one may wonder if the State of Kuwait is unable to sponsor these types of forums in spite of its (Kuwait) regional and international dimensions, its deep-rooted experiment and pioneering experience in the diplomatic activity.

“Not just that, one may seriously wonder about the future perspective on our political situation and how to maintain our position and support our friends.

“Al-Doha Forum, for instance, is being organized in a unique manner, considering the smooth flow of its dialogue sessions. This is in addition to the competition between decision-makers who participated in the forum in order to present the policies of their nations to the entire world. It is needless to say that the organization of this forum did not require any miracle for it to see the daylight.

“The State of Qatar preceded some Arab states in terms of organizing this tribune. Actually, some other states followed suit in sponsoring similar or complementary events including the annual governmental summit in Dubai, Bahrain Forum, Davos Forum, The Dead Sea Economic Forum in Jordan and other diplomatic activities.

“In this context, one may say that many years ago, Kuwait University’s Political Science Department submitted an integrated vision on hosting an annual conference to be titled ‘Kuwait Forum’.

“However, this proposal was submitted after a series of summit conferences hosted by the State of Kuwait during the first half of the current decade. Unfortunately, such a proposal has been ignored.

“In the meantime, it is indeed sad to see that the cost of organizing this type of forum, which will enable the State of Kuwait to achieve many diplomatic gains, political balance, and cement the youth’s role through their participation in the organization, follow up and benefiting from global experiences is less than the cost of fireworks for marking the National Day – more than KD 5 million.”

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Dr. Hassan Jowhar

“Activities of Al-Doha Forum entitled ‘The Electronic Government in a World of Multiple Axes’ were launched in the last two days,” columnist Dr Nasser Khamees AlMutairi wrote for Annahar daily.

“This event was distinguished by the impactful and big international participation – a manifestation of the importance of the forum as well as its international and regional political and security contents.

“The forum coincided with significant events in a world which is currently witnessing tremendous changes in the balance of powers, global policies and trading.

“However, amid such a significant technological development is the aggravation of immigration issues and rising number of complicated security challenges. The world is in dire need of a new dialogue pattern to reach consensus on these issues.

“Consequently, we found that intellectual dialogues among the forum’s participants focused on pluralism. These dialogues were blanket in nature, simply because they were based on establishing the notion of global electronic government despite the huge challenges and multiple pivots.

“In other words, the idea of electronic government is mostly based on the national governments’ ability to achieve the necessary convergence of their interests and then striving for global social, economic and environmental prosperity.

‘Nevertheless, the basic introduction of global electronic government depends on many principles – the first of which is the legitimacy of using strength and power, in addition to respecting the sovereignty of other states.

“The second principle entails respecting competition and the constituents, as well as the effectiveness of national, regional and international performance to help achieve the targeted cooperation and partnership that should be enough to consecrate values, political, security and economic interests.

“According to Al-Doha Forum, the global electronic government is currently facing a major challenge – the fact that we are still living in a world of multiple pivots where interests contradict each other, while international greediness is overwhelmingly prevalent at the expense of values and the principles of justice, equality, sovereignty and impartiality.”

“Religious institutions are supposed to lack any form of corruption. However, since corruption has expanded to cover most of the institutions, it has reached the religious ones as well,” Dr Abdul Malik Khalaf Al-Tamimi wrote for Aljarida daily.

“It is a serious catastrophe because religious institutions are more likely to stay away from any corruption as they are based on moral values and divine regulations which differentiate between what is allowed (Halal) and what is prohibited (Haram). Like many others, I find myself hesitant to handle such sensitive issues because of its special nature.

“We have read what was published by a number of local newspapers about the corruption in Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and the violations in the collection of donations as reported by Ministry of Social Affairs. This corruption has reached the Grand Mosque Administration. We always hear about strict penalties awaiting those involved in corruption, but we see no actions being taken on ground.

“Ministry of Social Affairs affirmed its keenness to follow up the financial activities of charity organizations. It said the charity organizations as well as Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs can be trusted. So then what is the source of corruption? What does it mean when we smell the stink of corruption in religious institutions including financial manipulation and lawsuits filed against muezzins and others?

“According to reports, there is corruption in terms of appointing people based on “wasta” and even reaching trafficking drugs overseas. We heard about residency in Kuwait being facilitated for some supporters. We also heard about exceptional wealth of some clerics in Arab countries and Iran. Even though we get this information from media, there is a saying that there is no smoke without fire.

“We know quite well that the ready response is to ask us about the source of this information. Actually, we consider this as an attempt to escape instead of providing evidences that this information is fake. Sadly, the religious umbrella covers such corruption. It is unacceptable that these conditions continue forever without facing legal penalty against those involved in corruption.

“Unquestionably, there are honest religious institutions which should not be included in such accusations. There are donations being collected legally and distributed to the needy. In order to protect those honest bodies from being included in the accusations of corruption, the issue must be investigated carefully in order to identify the exact source of the corruption.”

“It seems clear to everyone that the delay in announcing the formation of the government is due to several obstacles, some of which we had mentioned in a previous article. The remaining constitutional age is too short to meet the aspirations of some of its participants. Also, some had issued warnings that the new government would become a victim of parliamentary accountabilities and will not be free of an electoral review by a group of MPs,” Bandar Al-Khiran wrote for Aljarida daily.

“On the other hand, there is the dilemma of the thorny issue of corruption in front of the two authorities. It was opened by the former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, who is exempted from the caretaker government. The names of those within the circle of suspicions are from the ruling family members. This constitutes a burden and dilemma in dealing with this file. Therefore, our demands on more than one occasion have been to distance the ruling family members from any government formation, whether at the level of the presidency or the ministerial level.

“It is too late to announce a new ministry - a ministry that would translate everyone’s aspirations to fight corruption. Since the coming government’s lifespan is expected to be very short not exceeding few months, it is preferable that its formation is aimed at creating sound conditions to address the accumulated bad conditions in the various corridors of the state and its projects as well as the blatant transgression on public funds, and the administrative and financial corruption.

“The features of the national project must start from two basic dimensions – first is the cooperation between the legislative and executive authorities to approve the amendment of the electoral law to be fair in terms of representation, and avoid encouraging sectarian, tribal and factional blocs in order to allow good selection and promotion of national unity. The second dimension starts from providing an atmosphere for real national reconciliation that eliminates rift, fragmentation and rivalry by adopting a general amnesty law that extends to all who are convicted of opinion issues and political stances, and abolishing laws that restrict freedoms away from the attempt of some to revive a negative atmosphere that benefits them electorally.

“Our homeland is greater than all of us, because it is the one that contains us. Living in it with dignity and freedom is more important than our various positions.”

“He obtained a bachelor’s degree in law, had organized a national conference and became popular in 1952, worked as a lawyer, and was arrested several times,” Bader Khalid Al-Bahar wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“He initially called for a peaceful demonstration against colonialism, which turned repressive later with the use of force. He was charged with treason and sentenced to life imprisonment but he spent 27 years in jail.

“During a civil war, there was an international campaign for his release and it came to pass in 1990. He later became the leader of the Africa National Congress (ANC), and reached an agreement with those who imprisoned him to wipe out apartheid and organize elections in 1994.

“He won the presidential election and started defending human rights and the poor across the world. He became a global arbitrator for disputes, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. He didn’t seek a second term, but became the national symbol with deep respect in the world.

“He is Nelson Mandela, whose death anniversary was about ten days ago.

“People who are committed to national sacrifice and dignity do not anticipate reward and singing of praise. We should learn from this man who spent 27 years in jail.”

“It is the responsibility of parliaments and governments in all countries of the world to wage war against corruption, as citizens do not have the capability of combating corruption, which is the main factor upon which the destruction of countries relies,” Mishref Aqab wrote for Al-Shahed daily.

“Corruption and nepotism are two dangerous catastrophes that tear apart societies and countries. Corruption and nepotism can never stand with stability and sustainable development. In some rich and poor countries, there are corruption, nepotism and maladministration such that corrupt countries lag behind in the anti-corruption ladder.

“Fighting corruption should involve implementation of laws, and combating corruption and nepotism require transparency with strong decisions, strenuous actions and official procedures to solve the corruption problems in societies. There are multitude of serious problems in the Third World and Arab countries such as maladministration and related corruption, and many of these have been categorized among the most corrupt countries in the world.

“In conclusion, corruption and nepotism can’t stand alongside sustainable development, stability and implementation of laws. The most important way to fight corruption and maladministration is by right selection and transparency. It is pertinent to focus on war against corruption, nepotism, maladministration, poverty and ignorance in the Third World and Arab societies.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb