Negative phenomena panel comes back to haunt people
“THE speech of His Highness the Crown Prince on the roadmap for the future and its strategies for the development of the country and the urgent will of His Highness Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Ahmad, the Amir of the country, ‘Comfort the citizen, I care about the comfort of the citizen.’ The response was: Hearing and obeying,” columnist Prof. Nouria AlRoumi wrote for Al-Shahed daily.
“Some members of the National Assembly impose the negative phenomena committee that was created in the parliament’s committees in previous years and was categorically rejected by the people and was stillborn.
“Now, it has come back to life under a new name, the ‘Document of Values’, placing the informants on the behavior of the citizens, while pledging to protect the whistleblowers.
“Is the committee a guardian of the people more than the constitution, which defines rights and duties and paves the way for deterrence and punishment laws for every transgressor? Are the people minors who need guardianship over them?
“Do they pay most attention to what is mentioned in the items of the Phenomena Committee and the values document? Preventing mixing, restricting freedoms, and killing joy and happiness by preventing entertainment and parties?
“Do they think of the young generations and fill their leisure time instead of handing them over to drug-pushers on a silver platter, intoxicants, narcotics and evils, and their travel abroad at the end of each week in search of joy and entertainment and breathe the air of freedom that is not available at home?
“Did they not realize that we will pass the first quarter of the twenty-first century? Did the people elect them for the emergence of this committee? Who recommended them to be guardians of the people?
“Whoever legislates the policy of informants on people whose duties include following up on drugs, bribery, fraud and intermediary, is this their specialty or the Ministry of Interior?
“So, will the ministry be cancelled as there is no need for it to overlap the terms of reference between it and the tasks of the Committee? Why was the family’s role in children’s issues abolished?
“Where are the committee members from the priorities of the citizen including demographics, random naturalization, dual nationalities and forgers? Who are responsible for collapse of education, teachers’ qualifications, résumés, private lessons, leakage of high school exams questions and holders of forged academic certificates?
“We did not hear from them about the shameful act that happened to the children, as it was published in the newspapers that ‘50’ children had been molested by an expatriate teacher.
“Will the members of the committee put an end to the deputies’ mediation of their constituencies and put pressure on the government to appoint this and that from their relatives and their electoral managers?
“Will the committee put in place an effective remedy for the offensive and disgusting words of some deputies when they become angry during the sessions? Will it prevent them from using the “oqal” to assault others and using their shoes to hit their colleagues when they differ in opinion during the heated debate between them?
“We dreamed, after the deputies won the National Assembly elections, that each member would present a written plan with the vision of Kuwait’s future ready for discussion, serving the people’s requirements and achieving their ambitions, hopes and urgent issues, these demands for which they were elected, a plan in harmony with the new era and its future vision.
“Instead what we saw was the revival of the negative phenomena that was dead only to be revived under the name of the values document.”
“The unjust campaign waged by politicians and journalists in the West against Qatar’s organization of the World Cup, which the Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad recently referred to, was not new. It is an extension of the unjust campaigns launched by the British press, when the General Assembly of the International Football Association (FIFA) decided to give Qatar, not Britain or the United States, the opportunity to host the 2022 World Cup,” Dahem Al-Qahtani wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“The shock inflicted on the British press at the time drove some newspapers and writers who were pretending to be democratic and played the freedom of opinion card, we saw smear campaigns that had not been faced by another country that had the task of organizing the most important global event.
“At that time, I wrote a series of articles in the Qatari newspaper Al Sharq, in which I exposed the falsehood of British propaganda, and challenged them that Qatar would succeed in preparing for the World Cup and would organize one of the most successful World Cup soccer tournaments.
“The State of Qatar, which had announced at the time huge infrastructure projects, including the rail network, and roads, the implementation of these projects coincided with the construction of World Cup stadiums; to complete the scene at the start of the tournament.
“But the frenzied campaign, in bad faith, wanted to distort the Qatari efforts, when it confused previously announced infrastructure projects with the construction of World Cup stadiums and other facilities associated with the tournament.
“Although this link is not considered a negative thing in itself, it is an unreal link. The other criticism related to the violation of human rights of workers who participated in the construction of the stadiums for the World Cup, which was directed by Western parties in a selective and distorted manner, and was recently redirected by the German Minister of the Interior.
“Despite all these measures and treatments, some politicians and journalists still insist on condemning Qatar of unjust charges. To show their true intentions, which is their unwillingness for an Arab and Islamic country to succeed in organizing a global tournament the size of the FIFA World Cup.
“The State of Qatar, its people, and its government, did not let these unjust accusations distract them from the Qatari desire to make this tournament one of the most successful tournaments in history. FIFA President Gianni Infantino, predicted that the World Cup in Qatar would be one of the most successful tournaments in history.
“We congratulate the State of Qatar in advance for the expected success of the World Cup, which I testify for myself by virtue of my work for some time in Doha, the huge and great size of the efforts made by our brothers in Qatar, especially our promising youth in the Projects and Legacy Committee, which is the committee responsible for organizing the tournament and which excelled in carrying out the tasks responsible for it with all their might.”
“Corruption infiltrates any person, no matter what measures are taken to combat and address the issue. It is like cancer. In the fields of medicine and health, as well as the workers therein, there are ethical charters and oath taken before practicing the profession. However, this is not an absolute protection against corruption in a humanitarian profession where there are temptations and doors encouraging corruption,” columnist Dr Hind Al-Choumar wrote for Al-Anba daily.
“During the Corona wave, some news were published about blatant cases among officials with high positions in different countries who paid the price for corruption, whose forms varied and practices grew under the guise of necessities or saving lives in times of epidemics – the price of their positions.
“The Corona pandemic posed a huge challenge to those clad in white, confronting and fighting the epidemic of corruption, as it is more harmful than the Corona epidemic because it multiplies the damages and consequences for everyone.
“Corruption could be the main cause of the loss of lives due to experimental treatment or practices in the purchase or supply of baits or other thorny files that have not yet been discussed in all countries mobilized during Corona, and there are still unresolved files in multi-locations and countries.
“Corruption is a form of dishonesty in a bid to obtain improper advantage or abuse of power for the benefit of an individual. Corruption includes many activities like bribery and embezzlement, in addition to certain practices that are legal in many countries. Political corruption occurs when an official or any employee acts with another government official in an official capacity for personal gain.
“Corruption in health care is more serious than any other sector, because it affects health outcomes. It is fatal and widespread. In 2019, Transparency International described the six most common forms of service corruption – absenteeism, unofficial payments from patients, embezzlement, inflated services and costs, nepotism and data manipulation.”