‘No radical change in new govt’
‘Laws needed for real parliamentarians’
“HH THE Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled yesterday formed his first government whose foundational goal should be to fight corruption that paved the way for the collapse of the previous government,” columnist Dahem Al-Qahtani wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“But the government formation was quite normal, and it did not bear any sign of a radical change. We are now at the end of a legislative session, and Parliament may witness very sharp parliamentary debates and exchanges, and this performance will constitute a shock for some of the new ministers who have no ability or experience in dealing with the Kuwaiti public opinion or with members of the National Assembly.
“Fears have risen that some old and new ministers try to buy more time to avoid collision with members of the National Assembly. In this context, fears are likely to emerge when some of the old and new ministers attempt to ‘buy’ more time to avert any clash with the MPs, who ask ministers to sign contrary government transactions.
“Meanwhile, we say that the current government’s formation this time came with half quotas, where ministers have been appointed according to their tribal and sectarian affiliations, and the ministerial formation exaggerated the issue of the appointment of undersecretaries and senior officials who were working for various government authorities.
“But these officials irrespective of the efforts to be exerted by them, they have no political experience, and as such, they will inevitably face many crises in dealing with the public opinion as well as with some of the MPs who are professional when it comes to dealing with non-political ministers.
“There was great optimism in the formation of Sabah Al-Khaled to form a strong government with a clear vision of the crises that Kuwait suffers from. As a matter of fact, there was this great optimism towards the formation of a strong government by Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled, because it was expected that this government will group both statesmen and women who have clear cut visions about the crises currently facing Kuwait in addition to their ability to deal with various effective parties which work for the Kuwaiti political system in a way that shall make the government capable of achieving its declared objectives without putting in tremendous sums of money and without neglecting the basic requirements of the citizens.
“But, irrespective of the frustration of some people towards formation of the government in a traditional manner, we as activists in the civil community and writers and tweeters, should offer some sort of cooperation to the ministers to achieve the reform and fight corruption accordingly, because some ministers, be they old or new are not corrupt, and as such awarding them portfolios was done in accordance with the mechanism of the quota system, as these ministers, shall appreciate any effort to help them achieve the targeted objectives.
“However, we hope the Prime Minister HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled will not be busy with requirements of the daily action for a long time and pay attention towards preparing the expanded reform project based among other things on bringing in a radical change in the framework of the Kuwaiti State and shift it from the trial and error phase to the political and civil action based on clear cut visions and specific objectives away from the random solutions.
“However, the most significant step of the reform project will be the enactment of new legislations and laws to organize political action in the country and eventual reforms to the electoral system in order to produce a real parliament that shall elect members only those who promote nationalistic ideas.
“Not only that, even if these personalities decide to oppose the government in terms of dealing with many issues, they will not hesitate to support any government reform project that will serve the public and the country.”
Also:
“The new government headed by HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled took oath of office before His Highness the Amir, we pray to Almighty Allah to protect him, following great dissatisfaction, resentment, mismanagement, rampant corruption, popular and parliamentary demands to introduce new methods to deal with problems and planning for. the future,” columnist Owaied Al-Sulaili wrote for Al-Shahed daily.
“It is needless to say the new government includes ministers who are highly efficient and professional topped by Sheikh Ahmad Al-Mansour who has a long experience as one of the officials in the Ministry of Defence which represents one of the State’s sovereign and sensitive ministries, as such the work of this ministry requires a person at the helm of affairs who is capable of managing efficiently the activities of the ministry and this is applicable to Al-Mansour.
“Apart from the above, nobody can ignore the points of the new government. These points are represented by the existence of Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Ahmad in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where Sheikh Ahmad is one from the younger generation who has proved his efficiency in diplomatic action throughout the recent years, particularly since we know that he belongs to the ‘Sabah Al-Ahmad’ diplomatic school.
“Hence, it is expected that Sheikh Ahmad shall abide by the State of Kuwait’s political method and the wise line which it has followed through its distinguished march in dealing with various regional and global issues.
“Besides, the new government includes two MPs – the Minister of Information Muhammad Al-Jabri who has proved his efficiency in his job as minister during the previous phase and Minister of State for Services Affairs and State Minister for National Assembly Affairs Mubarak Al-Harees and this sends a message of cooperation with the National Assembly in addition to existence of three female ministers in the Cabinet.
“Likewise, the new government has many efficient and technocrat ministers, but the difficult task rests in how to work with a group of ministers, where the country in the past has lacked this type of work through which the government will be in a position to impose its agenda and its political and economic visions, particularly when it comes to confronting chaos of interpellations and the MPs and traders of tenders and blackmailers and avert to see the ministers being transformed into scapegoats for their colleagues from the government ministers as this had happened in the past.
“In other words, difficult circumstances shall face the government of Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled, let alone for a short period only of less than ten months separating us from the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
“In spite of the above, the government through the efforts of its young ministers along with their prime minister, will be capable of shouldering its responsibility before the Kuwaitis through necessary initiatives and decisions that are capable of rescuing the country from the deteriorating position and set a methodical plan to achieve the blanket and permanent development for the good of the country without being subjected to the whims and fancies of any influential person, merchant or prominent personality.”
“In the record of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) over the past three years, three situations are worth looking into while analyzing the three emaciated years as a way to finding an appropriate approach to exit the logjam, which has incapacitated the council and destabilized its structure, battered its validity, damaged its standing and ushered them into a strange era of Gulf heritage. It is possible to falter and further scatter the council”, Abdullah Basharah wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“Everybody was worried until recently when they saw indicators of participation in the Gulf Cup hosted by Qatar. Thereafter, the ray of hope started emerging through the Gulf historical wisdom, which led to a full house attendance in the Riyadh Summit. Here, I wish to put down the three situations I mentioned earlier.
“First: In a clear term, it wouldn’t have been possible to hold the Gulf Cup in Qatar and the GCC Summit in Riyadh that followed if not for the consistent mediation of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah. Since the surprise broke out about three years ago, he has not stopped moving around in an effort to resolve the issue and send emissaries to concerned parties when necessary.
“Second: With all due respect, I appreciate the caution exercised by Gulf leaders to manage the situation and prevent further slip as much as possible, believing that the impasse is a passing stage, while the council remains a common fate.
“Third: We commend all Gulf leaders who remain resolute in trusting efforts of the Amir as the only means of overcoming the crisis. I was among those who were scared of infiltration of fingers into our region as everybody understands the region is attractive with stability, tempting with wealth, generous in giving and effective in impact.
“Fourth: I wish to congratulate Dr Nayef Al-Hajraf for winning confidence of the leaders as the newly appointed Secretary-General of the GCC in recognition of his administrative prowess that will be put to bearing in the GCC, not only in the financial aspect but administration.”
“Mahathir Mohamad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, ruled his country for 22 years since 1981. He fought against corruption and led a great revival, shifted the country’s dependence on agriculture and transformed it into an industrialized country. He then stepped down in 2003”, Bader Al-Bahr wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“Following the outbreak of corruption, he returned in 2018 as the president of Malaysia with the support of the people. Within the first ten days, he banned the former prime minister and his wife from traveling, and dismissed the secretary of state treasury and the attorney general, tightening his grip on the corrupt to ensure the return the looted billions.
“We mentioned Mahathir’s story even though there are more wonderful stories such as the story of Lee Kuan of Singapore. This is because his story represents a clear example of the fact that the eradication of corruption is not the responsibility of the people but rather the decision of one person. If he goes away, corruption returns and if he returns, he crushes corruption again, especially in countries where corruption is evident.
“Our brothers in Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) are working hard. Last year, we were invited to their meeting in the presence of the United Nations for discussing an anti-corruption plan. We asked to be the first to comment, and said all these plans and schedules will not be known to people due to which the people will be deterred unless the influential thieves are imprisoned after which a feeling of safety will spread and the law will prevail.
“This is a short story about corruption. In 2015, we started a campaign, with the cooperation of our distinguished colleagues, to fight fake and falsified academic certificates. We wrote articles, held seminars, filed lawsuits, lodged complaints with the prosecution, submitted a draft law, and then established the Kuwait Association for Quality Education, banning the use of non-equalized certificates, which was finally approved after it was stripped of some of its articles. Five government agencies announced the application of the law to their employees, and the caretaker minister of Ministry of Education was unable to put in place its executive regulations.
“As for the funny part, following our four-year fierce war for the issuance of a relevant law against falsified certificates, one of these forgers who claimed to hold a doctorate degree was reinstated to his previous position based on his false PhD. The only change was the removal of the “doctor” the title before his name.
“Has it become clear to the leader as well as experts, and politicians that the people will not be able to fight corruption, and only the leader is responsible for fighting corruption?”
“Our beautiful Arabic is the language of the Noble Qur’an. The state has been spending a lot of money to ensure Arabic is taught in schools and to print books. Many male and female teachers are enduring the effort, burden, and hardship of teaching Arabic to the young and old”, Dr Hind Al-Shoumar wrote for Al-Anba daily.
“How much have we learned the fatha, the dhoma, the kasra, the sokoun, the verb, the object, the initiator, and other essentials that make up the beautiful sentences or the repulsive phrases, which are formed because of ignorance of them?
“This is because when a defect occurs in the sentence, it loses its effect and becomes like the spoiled goods that Ministry of Commerce and Kuwait Municipality rush to withdraw from the markets and punish its promoters. That is the truth about our dealings with spoiled goods, but we do differently when it comes to spoiling and distorting our beautiful language and spreading spoiled linguistic goods.
“Since a short time, the position of a proofreader had its place in the media and publishing houses as well as in prestigious places. The linguistic editor had his role of guarding the rules of the Arabic language. They were stopping any excesses on it by anyone and making sure of the beauty of the drafting before broadcasting and publishing in respect of identity, public taste and ancient heritage.
“Unfortunately, there are some in certain positions of responsibility who have not mastered the basic language skills. It is rare for a language correction to be made before publication. We have come out from time to time with flagrant cases of distortion of the Arabic language and irresponsible tampering of its beautiful rules.
“We have come to see that those who distort the Arabic language are not just the school students. These cases are also seen in some issued statements, press statements, or even some official speeches. It includes extreme insults to our beautiful language such as misplacing the subject, or putting fatha on the object because the linguistic level of some officials is very modest, and the linguistic corrector is a thing of the past.
“I invite researchers, who are zealous for our beautiful language and our ancient heritage, to monitor the cases of attacks on our beautiful language and to pursue the aggressors against the subject and the object of it. And if the legitimate pursuit of these abuses reaches UNESCO, no one will defend these cases and their perpetrators.
“We must show care in teaching the Arabic language and its rules, not only on the level of schools, but also at the level of those who are being prepared for leadership and supervisory positions. It is shameful to lead and at the same time commit flagrant violations to our beautiful Arabic language of the Noble Qur’an.”
— Compiled by Zaki Taleb