‘Judges punished but Govt, Assembly never penalize transgressors’
“THE file of the case of Salehi judges was folded with the issuance of sentences of imprisonment and dismissal of 6 judges, fining of two other judges, and disciplining others is recorded for the judiciary when it handled errors and transgression of some of its components by itself without interference, and we must here refer to the role of the former Attorney General Dirar Al-Asousi in this aspect when he insisted on proceeding in this way,” columnist Nasser AlAbdali wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“In the meantime, we must admit that the other two bodies, I mean here the government and the National Assembly had never taken such steps of holding accountable their members.
“Most governments are the source of all evils when it comes to the abuse of public money and administrative abuses – not from today – but since the adoption of the Constitution in 1962, and no government has ever supported its referral to the prosecution with proof, and evidence that condemn a minister, an undersecretary or an assistant undersecretary, but some governments have always referred but concealed evidence or not to send it until the case is closed for lack of evidence, and I don’t think anyone forgets the transgressions in the Kuwait Oil Tankers Company and the Kuwait Investment Authority.
“At one time, an ordinary citizen joked about the decision to refer a minister, an undersecretary or an assistant undersecretary or a senior official to the Prosecution because of his accumulated experience that these referrals were just a media show and the same can be said of the National Assembly, since Parliament has never had the courage to refer its deputies to the prosecution, if transgression is proven or punish them.
“Some members of the National Assembly transgress the law and, through this transgression obtain many gifts, some of them in the form of gains for their election managers, and all this in many cases, with government collusion, of course.
“Despite this, the National Assembly has not yet attempted to form a committee to punish its components that transgress the constitution and the law as if those members are infallible from error and transgression.
“Fortifying the institutions is through the establishment of committees or teams within each institution whose concern is to follow up on the assets of its components, whether they are ministers, senior officials, representatives, members of the municipal council, or any of the small and large institutions that belong to the public sector, not by concealing their transgressions and trying to keep the wrong belief that some institutions do not err.”
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“I, and other journalists, political and civil activists, have written repeatedly on the issue of “bedoun” or “people of unknown nationality”, and those whom the committee calls “illegal residents”, as it is an old issue that grows with the passage of time, and carries with it many problems that the state and society are disturbed,” columnist Hamad Salem Al Marri wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.
“The culprit in this case in the first place is the government, because it is the one who allowed their presence in the country, after it implemented the Nationality Law at the beginning of the 1960s of the last century.
“Bedoun are either Kuwaitis, or they are forced to hide their original nationalities if they actually hold the nationalities of other countries, or they were expelled from the country.
“As for those who were not in Kuwait when the nationality law was applied, it is assumed that they entered the country through the ports, and this means they entered with the nationality of his country of origin, which means there is a database for him with the government, including his nationality, but if they entered the country illegally, how the state allowed them to live and move around, receive education and treatment without holding an identity card that proves who they are or from where they came?
“This makes him have two options, either to take out the original ID issued by his country so that he can live legally within the country, or to extract a government ID from the state, and this, unfortunately, is what happened, as many of them extracted work IDs in the authority they worked in.
“After decades of the existence of this community group, it was natural for them to grow up, because they are human beings who intermarried and gave birth to children, and the problems later bother them and the state which grew with time, and their inability to work and provide for their daily living expenses, and their children were deprived of free education, and this increased their financial burdens, so they resorted to the Zakat House and the charitable committees, while a number of their children took committing thefts and drug trafficking when the drug dealers exploited their financial situation.
“The government must solve this issue as soon as possible, as there are many advisers, activists and writers who have given their support to solve it, and it has many devices through which it can solve this issue radically, and benefit from this category in many fields.
“Some if them are qualified and hold specialized scientific and literary certificates, but they did not find the opportunity to work in their specialties, including teachers, engineers, doctors, pharmacists, accountants, and other disciplines, and the government should take advantage of them instead of bringing expatriates to fill vacant jobs.
“The expatriate comes to the country seeking livelihood, and for this he is keen not to spend large sums in the country, as he transfers about 95 percent of his monthly income to his family in his country, at a time when the citizen continues to receive services from the state.
“If the bedoun is hired instead of the expatriate, he will spend all of his monthly income in Kuwait, since he has no other place to live but Kuwait, and this will enhance the economic cycle in the country.”
“When our dear country experienced the brutal Iraqi invasion in 1990, the importance of a security strategy became clear during those critical times. This strategy should be implemented whenever the need for self-defense arises and it should be done in coordination with external parties,” columnist Dr Khalid Boudi wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“More than three decades after the abhorrent event, we ask: Do we have a security strategy?
“When we ask this question, we do not mean the existence of a written plan to deal with any external danger, but the extent of an integrated strategy with the availability of resources for defense and coordination with internal and external parties. In this manner, each party plays a certain role whenever necessary.
“It is known that Kuwait has defense agreements, but are these agreements updated and part of an integrated security system to deal with any kind of risks that the country might face?
“We pray to God Almighty that there is no need to activate the security system, but caution and precaution are required so the painful events do not recur.
“Moving towards the direction of building a highly efficient defense network requires the cooperation of all authorities in the country.
This should be the top priority of the authorities.”