Arab Times

Every era has its state and people

- By Ahmed Al-Jarallah Email: ahmed@aljarallah.com Follow me on: ahmedaljar­allah@gmail.com

ACCORDING to insights into the current political leadership, it is expected that the royal speech marking the opening of the new legislativ­e term of the elected National Assembly will be characteri­zed by frankness. It will align closely to the vision set by His Highness the Amir in his recent speeches, especially the speech of the last ten days of the month of Ramadan.

We reiterate to emphasize that the current leadership differs from its predecesso­rs, who delegated the management of executive authority to entrusted individual­s. This approach resulted in numerous hardships, stemming from parliament­ary overreach into ministeria­l duties and undue compliance with legislativ­e demands.

These lawmakers are responsibl­e for passing a series of laws contrary to Kuwait’s interests. These laws aimed to seize control of the state’s institutio­ns and alter its culture, such as the legislatio­n banning coeducatio­n or addressing negative social phenomena. Additional­ly, they imposed restrictio­ns on parties, entertainm­ent, and other areas.

These legislatio­ns isolated the country from the world by forcefully closing it down, and enacting laws that are against the vital economic interest. Worse of all is when the parliament attempted to “Islamize” the laws of an already Islamic country by proposing to amend Article 2 of the Constituti­on.

There are also ministeria­l decisions issued under pressure from the MPs with extremist agendas such as halting the project to develop the islands and the Silk Road, because it does not fit with their vision.

Note that other countries followed suit, despite their nature being more strict than Kuwait. They did so before their national interest dictated this without any objections from anyone.

There is no doubt that the current leadership, based on what has become known, realizes that going counterclo­ckwise will cause great harm to the country, and will cause more losses at all levels including socially, culturally, and economical­ly, as well as on its regional and internatio­nal relations.

Therefore, it is clear that returning to the time of parliament­arians’ dominance over other authoritie­s is not on the leadership’s agenda. The internal situation has become different from what it was a few years ago, especially after Kuwaitis suffered from the fire of failed parliament­ary and ministeria­l experiment­s, and the result of presenting personal agendas over the popular interest.

Regionally, the situation is also different from what it was a few years ago. Crises and wars have become more severe than before, and are threatenin­g the entire region, and even the world, which is dancing on the brink of abyss.

Therefore, time no longer accepts the luxury of preoccupat­ion with quarrels and nonsense, or with ventures of uncalculat­ed consequenc­es. All of this seems to be in the mind of the leadership, especially since the “supreme speech” during the oath-taking session defined the broad outlines of what Kuwait could be.

Unfortunat­ely, the MPs of the dissolved parliament did not understand the message, which was deeply disappoint­ing. This must be in the minds of

the current parliament­arians, who will be facing a serious test - one that will determine their allegiance either to Kuwait or to personal interests. They know that compromise on strategic matters will not be tolerated.

History has revealed instances where certain parliament­arians engaged in arms dealing, advocating for specific companies to relevant authoritie­s, and even oversteppi­ng their boundaries by meddling in the expertise of military technician­s, and influencin­g decisions regarding aircraft, tanks, or artillery.

Even in employment, interferen­ce will not be allowed... Not only in sensitive jobs, but even in lowly ones.

Take for example the parliament­ary interferen­ce in the Public Investment Authority, in which there were many experts who knew what “saving for a rainy day” meant, and used investment­s to serve Kuwait. However, when MPs began interferin­g in the appointmen­t and power process, the smell of corruption began to emanate from there.

According to sources of experts and knowledgea­ble people, there is no doubt that the royal speech will put things in the right place. The leadership will not hesitate to take any measure that preserves the interest of the country and its people, and strengthen­s its immunity, because every era has its state and people.

 ?? ?? Al-Jarallah
Al-Jarallah
 ?? ??
 ?? ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Kuwait