The ‘intolerable’ Bedoun issue
“THE Bedoun issue is a bureaucratic lie. It has grown because of mismanagement by successive governments from 1965 until now. The Bedoun issue evolved from nothing and it was possible to overcome it with simple and uncomplicated administrative solutions,” columnist Dr. Ali Al-Za’abi wrote for Al-Shahed daily.
“On the other hand, we find that there are more than 200,000 people who have been naturalized in unclear ways, and the misfortune is that most of them do not belong to the
Bedoun category that we know and are known by official government departments.
“The dilemma is created by successive government departments over more than sixty years and now we enter the fourth and this category of people have been cut off from more than three generations from the homelands of grandfathers, even if they are from outside the borders of Kuwait and their belonging to homelands and their attachment to the Kuwaiti identity more has been undone.
“These new generations know only Kuwait, and their fathers know nothing but Kuwait, and official papers confirm that they did not leave this land for more than forty years, with the exception of those who go to Hajj, Umrah, medical treatment, take part is sports teams or attend army courses.
“Now, it is no longer possible -whether locally or externally -- to accept the continuation of this miserable situation, which is suffocating and restricting this group until we have reached a stage of great socio-economic oppression that has led some to commit suicide. This is expected as long as all the doors and means of livelihood have been shut on them.
“Just imagine -- dear reader -- that an expatriate who is holding a high school certificate can work in the public and private sectors while bedoun holding Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate degrees do not find a single door open for them, and if they find, it is an insulting door in terms of material or moral gain.
“What is required urgently is the issuance of laws to enable the Bedoun to obtain the basics of a decent life, including education, health, housing, work, the right to marry, obtain driving license and right to litigation, in addition to giving them priority for work over an expatriate.
“This is the first step that will give this category psychological, social and economic stability, and remove the state of humility that has imposed on them a life of misery and poverty or may force them to adopt more dangerous paths in future.
“The policy of exclusion practiced against the Bedoun category is the policy of the weak and it may lead the society to great dangers, and once we bypass these inhuman paths, the issue of naturalization can be resolved calmly away from the unhealthy humanitarian situation experienced by this group, which has been plagued by government negligence in a very disturbing manner.”
Also:
“In terms of objectivity and impartiality, and according to the assessment of specialists, the state has done everything it must to protect public health and society from the threat of the Corona pandemic since its emergence, and in most cases it has anticipated developments and restricted the spread of the epidemic, and this is evident in the measures and indicators that are broader than to mention it in a hurry, however, the government, unfortunately, has not done as it should have in the last stage, that is to say the vaccination phase which is the most important stage in facing the pandemic,” columnist engineer Adel Al-Kharafi wrote for Annahar daily.
“The companies that produce the Corona vaccine have been contracted at a relatively early stage, and the government has organized the vaccination site in the fairgrounds, and thanks to the state and the medical bodies. However, this does not absolve the government of its responsibility for the slow pace of the vaccination process, the unavailability of the required quantities of the vaccine, and the concentration of the vaccination site in one location.
“It is clear that the government has rushed to prepare for the provision of the vaccine, with only one bird in hand, while the rest are on the trees. The citizens were pleased with the arrival of the vaccine, and the registration in large numbers for receiving the dose, but they were disappointed as a result of the slow process.
“Although the number of those who registered to receive the vaccine is more than 250,000 citizens, the number of those who received vaccination does not exceed 20,000 according to official sources, and this is unfortunate, as the vaccine was not available in the expected rate of 10,000 vaccines per day, according to official health sources and we fear that seeking wasta (mediation) is a means to obtain vaccination.