How to know if an MP is bluffing

When I previously wrote an article about how the fourth electoral constituency MPs switch off their mobile phones the minute they make it into the parliament, many people thought I was exaggerating or was too harsh on those lawmakers. Well, the fact is that what I said is actually a general phenomenon in all constituen-

We even sent text messages asking them to call back and none of them responded

cies; where nominees tend to change their mobile phone numbers or switch them off, or sometimes even close down their diwaniyas once they win the elections and make their way to the parliament, forgetting all about the promises they had made to their voters.

One funny story involving one such lawmaker is that the MP used to ask voters to follow him with their own cars to the ministry if they had concerns with their transactions so that he could use his influence. The story says that the MP usually crashed into other vehicles with his modern eight-cylinder vehicle, leaving them way behind in their four-cylinder vehicles, red lights and traffic congestions. The story suggests that this was the main reason why this particular MPs failed all the following elections.

Another story says that an MP filled his diwaniya with ‘hired’ guests every week, using people usually hired in weddings and other public occasions such as banquets to fill the place and make the host look so loveable by the people. Well, this trick was discovered when the visitors failed to identify any of those present in the diwaniya neither as the lawmaker’s relatives nor as area or constituency subjects.

Honestly speaking, this technique is new in Kuwait and this lawmaker is probably the first and will be the last to use it because he will surely lose all further elections. To prove to a friend that what I wrote was accurate, I asked him to get me the mobile phone numbers of four of the fourth constituency MPs and we tried calling them in vain. We even sent text messages asking them to call back and none of them responded.

—Translated by Kuwait Times