Lawmakers call for technocratic Cabinet to face regional dangers

Panel discusses naturalization proposals

KUWAIT: Lawmakers yesterday called on HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah to form a Cabinet of technocrats which should be competent to face dangerous regional developments. MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei said the new ministerial team must be based on a clear plan of reforms, should consist of technocratic ministers and that personal influences and factors should not be allowed to impact the formation.

The government resigned about two weeks ago following a no-confidence motion against a senior minister after a marathon grilling. HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah asked Sheikh Jaber to form the new Cabinet, his seventh since he was appointed to the post in 2011. MPs have been pressing on the premier to speed up the formation and to adopt a new methodology in forming a strong and capable government.

Tabtabaei said he rejects the quota system in forming the Cabinet because it does not serve the Kuwaiti people. He said that he supports picking up technocratic ministers from the ruling family, adding that royal ministers should be appointed in suitable portfolios. He remarked the Cabinet is not a cake that is distributed among the ruling family.

Tabtabaei called on the premier to exclude the majority of the outgoing ministers in order to avoid disputes between the Assembly and the government. He also said that he supports calls to postpone grillings at this stage and to ease tensions between the government and the Assembly.

MP Mohammad Al-Dallal said there was no justification to delay the formation of the new cabinet under the pretext of the need to ease tensions between the assembly and the government. He said that crises in the Gulf and the whole region are likely to continue for a long time to come. Dallal insisted that political tensions will ease only when the new government is effective and transparent, works to counter domestic and external challenges and extend a true and real hand of cooperation with the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, MP Safa Al-Hashem, the lone woman in the 50-member house, welcomed reports that the prime minister is working to exclude pro-Muslim Brotherhood members in the new Cabinet. She said reports that the new Cabinet will balance between regional and domestic requirements are welcome, adding if this means excluding Muslim Brotherhood members, it is a “blessed step”.

Naturalization

In the meantime, head of the interior and defense committee MP Askar Al-Enezi said the panel discussed yesterday proposals for the naturalization of children of widowed and divorced Kuwaiti women. He said that the government has failed to apply the law for the past several years, and accordingly scores of children of Kuwaiti women who are widowed or divorced from non-Kuwaiti men have been unfairly treated and left without Kuwaiti citizenship.

He said that under the law, children of Kuwaiti women are entitled to get Kuwaiti citizenship five years after the death of their foreign fathers, and children of Kuwaiti women from foreign spouses can get citizenship after seven years of divorce. But Enezi said that the government has granted only one list of such children in the past five years, and accordingly the government must be made to apply the law. He said that more meetings will take place with the government over the issue.