‘T

he Kuwaiti people strongly blame the government for not making a single tangible achievement.’ This very same blame is one big joke everybody circulates while are absolutely unaware that by doing that, he or she is actually blaming themselves because each and every one has to reform what they are doing before they would have the right to stone the government.

We are all familiar with a poetry line that urges us ‘not ask people not to do something which we already do’ because this would otherwise be a great shame. It is hence that the problem starts. We are asking the government to make achievements without knowing that we are actually part of the problem. Those asking others to work have to accomplish their duties first!

This was clear when the government first started applying the fingerprint punch in and out systems for public employees. So many employees sought wasta (connections) to be exempted from using them and some influential people have already started making such pleas. Some of them wanted to use me personally to ask for such favors!

I wonder how one could ask a government to achieve something while its employees do not show up to their offices and are not committed to their official working hours. Some of them even tried to delay transactions and make harder for applicants. Those demanding work and achievement ought to start working and achieving things themselves because Islam tells us that ‘Allah does not change people unless they themselves willingly change.’

I am personally fully committed to the fingerprint system and found out that so many are as punctual as I am to punching in and out on time, but only spend their working hours at restaurants and malls. Therefore, I suggest that the State Audit Bureau demands asking employees to fingerprint in every two hours to prove that they are actually present at their offices!

—Translated by Kuwait Times