‘Corona exposes govt fragility’

‘Corruption weakens the state’

“THE coronavirus pandemic crisis has revealed the fragility with which state affairs and fateful issues are managed, the extent of corruption prevailing in the state apparatus, and the fearful role the parties of the state play in Kuwait, which has inherited weakness in the state and its institutions, and paralyzed the government’s ability to take decisions with national security and health benefit and developmental issues,” columnist and legal expert Dr. Mohammad Al-Moqatea’a wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“However, I will address the issues of marginal employment and rentals of apartments or homes in a frightening way, to put before the government the national benefits and decisions required to be taken.

“With regard to employment, the following decisions should be taken:

1. Every large company contracting with the government has the right to bring in employment, but workers are recruited in excess of their need or within their need, then they are left to work for others or take money from them or does not provide them with a decent human life, provided that two persons maximum should stay in each room, if not its license is revoked in addition to the imposing of double fine on the company.

2. The revoking of the licenses of the companies and establishments those who are involved in sponsoring more than five workers, but they are not working for the sponsor in addition to the revoking licences of companies and establishments which house their workers in unsuitable houses and inhuman living conditions.

3. To deprive every individual who might be involved in sponsoring two workers and not working for him or living under inhuman conditions in addition to preventing him from sponsoring any type of manpower, provided this prevention should last for one year during which he will be obliged to correct the relevant infringements.

4. Those who are involved in visa trading should be referred to the Prosecution for interrogation in line with the valid laws and their names blacklisted and published in the official gazette.

5. Every company, establishment or an individual who is involved in hiring manpower either residing legally or illegally to be detained or repatriated and all of the charges and expenses will be borne by the relevant sponsors.

6. Any person who facilitates, aids, neglects or conceals, or performs any act that helped the companies, institutions, or individuals commit the violations mentioned in the previous four clauses, as a government employee, whether or not, legal measures of accountability are taken against him, whether criminal, civil or other.

“With regard to rents of the houses, the authorities concerned in the country, should take the following measures:

1. Preventing the renting of residential investment buildings for non-families (bachelors), and it is required to register the names of the residents of each apartment, and it is not permissible for those who live in the rented apartment to be more than two people per room, and children under the age of eighteen are excluded, provided that the apartment in its components does not contain two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

“Apartment rent may be excluded for a single man or woman if he has the following professions: doctors, engineers, judges, consultants, university professors, managers in government or private institutions, accountants, professionals or supervisory positions, provided that it is not permissible in all cases that more than two people share a flat in the apartment, provided that it is provided with a single bathroom.

2. It is not permissible to rent houses in residential areas other than families, provided that priority is given to Kuwaiti families, especially those whose names are registered with the Public Authority for Housing and are on the waiting list. It is not permissible for those who live in the rented house to have more than two adults per room, and the same categories are excluded as mentioned in the previous item.

3. Imposing a monthly financial fine equivalent to twice the rent of the apartment or housing unit in case of violation of the previous provisions, with the permissibility of cutting off services from the violating property, as well as the permissibility of immediate administrative evacuation.

4. Application of the second clause of this decision to the houses or chalets that are rented, for example, the houses/chalets located in the Khairan marine area (known as the Khairan pearl) and the like.

5. Granting owners of residential buildings and rental houses in residential areas a period of six months from the date of the decision to settle their conditions in accordance with the aforementioned controls.”

Also:

Al-Moqatea’a

“Last year, the Constitutional Court, issued a verdict declaring the unconstitutionality of the Law No. 13/2018 concerning the conflict of interests and nullified the executive regulation related to the same law by issuing Decree No. 296 for the year of 2018,” columnist Owaied Al-Sulaili wrote for Al-Shahed daily.

“The unconstitutionality of that law was expected since the very beginning of its endorsement by the National Assembly, whereby the MPs deliberately took out the articles of the law in a hazy and misleading manner until it became a law that is not applicable and can through the inconsistencies of its articles and its lack of clarity the corrupt can escape the penalty.

“Many of the country’s leaders used their influence and powers to pass tenders and projects that serve their own interest and their businesses at the expense of the nation until the government job became a goal to achieve wealth and increase assets for some people, and we saw the frantic race to jump and control those positions from everyone without exception!

“As a matter of fact, the cases of abusing the public posts, were not aimed only at exploiting the latter to award some tenders to the relatives of senior officials, rather we found how some of the corrupt, founded their own companies along with their business partners to conceal their involvement in corruption and awarded some government tenders to them at very high prices and the State budget incurred losses in millions of Dinars during the past decades.

“After the emergence of the coronavirus and the government’s taking measures to confront that virus and harnessing the energies of the state to confront this scourge, everyone began to fear fearful of some suspicious deals for government institutions with private companies and tenders with illogical amounts with some merchants to try to exploit these conditions to achieve exaggerated returns at the expense of public money, which is what requires the public opinion to be fully aware of these tortuous methods and fight them.”

“The problem with the nation of “Iqra” has always been their lack of interest in reading. It is with great regret, which is very bad and bitter, that we get our information from the internet via social media without bothering to search or even verify the information,” Talal Al-Sa’eed wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.

“Rather, we believe what is written without second thought, so rumors keep spreading and any person who wants to create confusion succeeds, whether he’s an individual working for the interest of a group or a group working for the interest of a party. The situation has deteriorated to the extent that blogging on”Twitter” has become means of earning thousands of dinars by hitting certain people behind curtain. Once the blogger or the pseudonym falls upon arrest and subsequently confesses, his pay master will abandon him. He will then find out that his balance does not tally with his income and begins to admit to himself that he’s a bribed liar working for this or that group.

“Is this suitable for us to pursue without even thinking? Recently, the local dailies reported the Deputy Director of Financial Prosecution in the Ministry of Interior’s hospitality case whose judgment has been adjourned but we want to shed light on this subject. The argument must be written in letters of gold and taught in the colleges of law as well as schools, because it has a high national value that clarifies the true meaning of patriotism for generations and written in a text: It is not clothes that are worn or anthem repeated in song!

“It is sad we do not read the likes of golden pleadings. Rather, we are satisfied with reading the outline or satisfied with the question: Was a ruling issued or not? There are many cases in which rulings were issued. However, it did not cost one of us to read the rationale for verdict usually published with the ruling itself or the prosecution’s pleading in defense of right or public money. There have been past cases in Kuwait that deserve documentation and commendation, not for legal practitioners alone, but the ordinary citizens to acquire a general culture. Sadly, we do not read and we are a nation of iqra (read) ... Zain.”

“In 1936, Kuwaitis knew that the government agreed with foreign companies to explore oil in Kuwait. These companies already started exploring and drilling wells. The esteemed forefathers felt, with their national sense, that Kuwait would become an oil country, and it would follow that the State’s features would change and many jobs that the Kuwaitis are good at would disappear such as pearl diving. Many other jobs would emerge but the Kuwaitis cannot do these jobs,” columnist Dr Abdulmohsen Hamada wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“Society may need doctors, engineers, teachers, and experts in economics, law and administration. They were assured that Kuwaitis, in their current cultural and educational level, cannot succeed in the changing society. Therefore, they saw the need to reform education to solve this problem. Indeed, education was reformed. In 1936, the Kuwaiti school implemented educational systems and modern curricula applied in neighboring Arab countries that preceded us in the reform of education. In 1937, the first school for girls was opened and it used the same curricula.

“To achieve this, Kuwait received four Palestinian teachers who earned 100 rupees (KD 7). This was done according to an agreement between the Kuwaiti Knowledge Department and Mufti of Palestine Haj Amin Al-Husseini.

“In 1942, four Egyptian teachers arrived. Kuwait paid 50 rupees as salary. The Egyptian government paid the rest of the salary, then the Syrian teachers came.

“After the flow of oil into Kuwait’s land, the features of economic progress in the State emerged. The State witnessed modern and integrated urban renaissance, such as building integrated modern areas. It was keen on improving services such as building dispensaries, hospitals, educational institutions, places of worship, sports clubs, and labor institutions to provide other services.

“To achieve this comprehensive urban renaissance, the State must provide the manpower that would work in institutions, including doctors, engineers, teachers, nurses, administrators and construction workers. This is in addition to other types of employment that the State needed to achieve its comprehensive renaissance, then the expatriates begun to flow into Kuwait as per the request of the government and businessmen.”

“While I was discussing the health care issue in Kuwait with a specialist in the world of public relations and marketing, he told me that the word ‘expatriate’ has negative connotation in the mind of the receiver or reader, and that they advise media institutions and concerned companies to be careful and to use an alternative term for ‘expatriates’ – ‘residents’,” columnist and pharmacist Mohammad Al-Anzi wrote for AlAnba daily.

“When I asked him if there is a real difference between the two words, he explained the word ‘resident’ means that you are stable, you reside and present in this country in the face of permanence, and that you are not a passerby, you are not a temporary refugee to be referred as ‘expatriate’!

“After the meeting, I pondered on his words and turned the pages of newspapers and accounts of influencers on social media where I found a big category of those against the expatriate or resident.

“Unfortunately, the ordinary people in my beloved country have already begun to believe that we are suffering crises after crises because of the residents. This is unfair and the injustice makes Kuwait lose its status. This affects the country’s reputation and deprives it of many competitive advantages. I will enumerate some of them:

“For example, Kuwait, since its modern establishment, has attracted Arab and foreign competencies in several sectors such as education, engineering and others. The situation has become remarkably disturbing, especially in some local media platforms which broadcast negative messages with hateful and racist elements. The evidence for this is abundant.

“Also, if we think that talking about expatriates or residents is a temporary crisis, this is not true, because if we look at the current official statistics and expected number for the year 2050, we will find that the number of residents will exceed four million compared to three million in the current year. I meet a lot of foreigners annually on several occasions outside Kuwait, some of whom are still reading what is written in our local newspapers and our media.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb