Rising crime strikes terror in public
Parents, govt equally responsible
“THE horrible crime Friday which claimed the life of a promising young man at the Avenues Mall, has indeed shocked entire Kuwait,” columnist, Professor at Kuwait University and former Minister of Education and former Minister of Higher Education Dr Modhi Al-Hmoud wrote for Al-Qabas daily Monday.
“As a matter of fact, the vicious crime came as a bitter shock not only for the parents of the victim, rather all citizens and parents. Several people could not control their tears upon hearing the sad news of this ugly crime which was committed by some reckless people who have adopted violence as a title of manhood and the use of arms as an identity of a false pride and dignity.
“Such people will not shy away from killing innocent people whose families have spared no efforts to raise them and groom them into respectable human beings so that they can accomplish their dreams.
“The victim — we pray to Almighty Allah to rest his soul in peace — had never imagined that he will be killed by a person his age. The heathenish crime in question has numbed all our senses to such an extent it sent a chill down our spines.
“In this context, we say the aggravating phenomena of violence in the Kuwaiti community and among the youth — Kuwaitis and nonKuwaitis, is something which can neither be ignored nor underestimated or justified, particularly since we know some activists tend to deal with such vicious crimes as political in nature or ascribe them to political grounds.
“For the time being, everybody fears for himself, his children and beloved friends, particularly the people living in residential areas because of the night marches and demonstrations which have started raiding our localities. These demonstrators have taken away from us our right to wake up safe and sound in the morning in our own backyards because our backyards have witnessed violence, unrest and turmoil.
“Not just that, at the moment the fear has become inherent for us and our children as we walk in our city even during broad daylight to such an extent we are deprived of enjoyment and excursion in north or south of the country at weekends, simply because our streets are full of reckless motorists and stuntmen who threaten the lives of the people on a daily basis.
“This happens in a ‘full absence’ of traffic policemen and also in full view of them. However, if you ask these policemen why they fail to impound vehicles from these reckless motorists just like some other countries in respect to the wishes of their citizens, the quick response is the law in Kuwait does not permit us to do so.
“Now the violence in Kuwait has aggravated to such an extent we at the moment fear to walk in the malls or in commercial markets, because these places are no longer safe since everyone is aware men armed with knives and sharp objects are stalking these areas and in future will even carry pistols.
“It is needless to say the responsibility seems to be great and as such it must be shouldered by all including the parents who encourage their children to take the law in their hands and the media which is only beautifying the violence and its tools.
“Apart from the above, this responsibility should be also shouldered by the citizens who depict violations of laws as courageous achievement. Furthermore, certainly the direct responsibility in this regard falls on the authorities topped by the Ministry of Interior which currently is involved in dealing with the marches and demonstrations at the expense of monitoring the absence of the aspects of the security.
“We pray to Almighty Allah to rest in peace the soul of the young martyr and bestow upon the bereaved family patience during these days. We hope this event will draw the attention of the security officials topped by the Minister of Interior concerning the internal situation in the country because this represents a historic responsibility that should be shouldered by him and his team members.
“We pray to Almighty Allah to protect Kuwait and its people from all evil.”
“It looks like we are suffering at the moment from an obvious defect which mostly besets the performance of our security agencies and this fact must be realized by all concerned officials in the country,” columnist, General Manager of Scope Satellite Channel and former MP Talal Al-Saeed wrote for Al-Seyassah daily Monday.
“In this context, we say the realization of the defective points by the concerned officials and the confession thereof shall represent the first step towards achieving targeted solution that might be required to handle and avert the defect and the poor performance in question in a prelude to keep abreast with events which currently takes place in the local arena.
“It is needless to say Kuwaitis have witnessed a lot of changes and various types of crimes which were earlier a taboo in this part of the world. In spite of the above, we found our security apparatuses still dealing with this development in the criminal realm through a traditional method.
“Take for example, the electronic crimes which have surfaced in the country recently and although this type of crimes require among other things a new legislation and mechanism commensurate with the nature of this crime, we are still dealing with the same manner in which we used deal with the traditional crimes.
“In this connection, we say even a small hacker may disturb the security apparatuses and evade arrest and this certainly reflects our obvious defects in the performance of the security system, but unfortunately the Ministry of Interior has yet to observe this defect which represents a big incurable catastrophe.
“As a matter of fact, the crime which was committed Friday at the Avenues Mall is not the first of its kind and certainly will not be the last. This rather represents the straw that broke the back of the camel.
“It goes without saying this crime has exposed a state of security turmoil which currently faces Kuwait in the absence of necessary futuristic plans that might be needed to evolve the performance of the security apparatuses.”
“President of the United States of America Barack Obama recently declared great improvement has been observed in a country that was known for extravagance. The country in question formerly consumed millions of barrels of oil per day, until this extravagance reduced as a result of improved and efficient fuel, after old cars that increased the fuel consumption rate were eliminated,” Faisal Abdul Aziz Al-Zamil wrote for AlAnba daily.
“Seeing the improvement attained in its technological aspect, Obama affirmed the country will no longer base its needs on the oil production in the Gulf, as it did in the past. From this perspective, we know the oil price could be influenced in a way the general budgets of GCC countries will be affected and if we remember, the slump in oil prices in 2002 led to fiscal deficits in the Gulf region that amounted to 17.2 billions dollars. This scenario could be repeated.
“Security risks were the primary motives for establishing a Gulf Union, but following the global economic turmoil and unexpected latest developments, it became a strategic choice to establish a union for that purpose, and it should not be neglected.”
“Yesterday, the lawmakers struggled among themselves to present series of draft laws from various angles, but all of them turned their focus on a single issue- misappropriation of public funds in the treasury reserve,” Waleed Burubai’e wrote for Al-Watan Arabic daily.
“The draft laws were about debt forgiveness, interest buyback, or granting KD 1000 to citizens who have not taken loans. They suggested that government could set up a public authority to settle debts, and justified the issue as purely technical which they said cannot be treated with provocative statements. According to MP Yousef Al-Zalzalah, it will not affect the national budget.
“MP Al-Khanfour responded to the Finance Minister, saying his statements were provoking and was expected to come from outside the government because it was not in the interest of cooperation, and that the decision to cancel the interests on loans lies with the parliament rather than the government.
“MP Seyyid Al-Qallaf also said the statement issued by the minister favors the opposition and threatens the political situation, forgetting that AlShimali was badly treated in the era of ‘opposition of exclusion’ to grant them free access to public funds, according to their agenda.
“The statement of Al-Shimali is regarded as provoking since it contradicts their intention, and it will not promote cooperation between the two executive and legislative authorities or depict a wonderful picture of the new parliament and its ideology. We want the parliament to first concentrate on the development file, as well as waging war against unemployment and reviving confidence in the economy through commendable initiatives for gigantic projects.”
“I put the political stand aside, because it is the legitimate right of every one of us to disagree with any political position, but there should not be a neutral position in a situation whereby the security operatives deliberately ridicule people and beat them only because they are expressing personal opinions peacefully,” columnist Dr Bader Al-Daihani wrote for Al-Jaridah daily.
“You either support maltreating people and violating their dignity or stand against it, so remaining silent in this situation translates support for the ridiculous action.
“An ordinary person may find this issue ambiguous such as that he cannot distinguish between political opinion that is possible for other people to oppose and taking his position to ridicule people.
“However, the issue is clear to many people who were once canvassing to protect democracy, human rights and public freedom, but unfortunately they turned out to be supporters of attacks on people.
“They remain silent like ‘corpses’ watching how bad the patriotic youths are exposed to maltreatment, beatings and arbitrary arrests at whom gas canisters are hurled, who are victims of tear gas and have to face rubber bullets. The officers have also fabricated ready-made charges against them to ruin their academic and professional future.”
“It seems the National Assembly or the ‘onevote parliament’ commenced its activities in an unenthusiastic manner even though the government hoped it would start working on the suspended development projects,” columnist Waleed Al-Rujeib wrote for Al-Rai daily.
“This parliament started its legislative term by provoking conflicts which may intensify in the future. These conflicts occurred due to the obvious discrimination in the way parliamentary positions were occupied, particularly that of Parliament Speaker and his Deputy, which supposedly shocked some members of the National Assembly.
“The latter were apparently promised to rerecruit a former minister who was eligible to be a part of the new government; however, the decision to re-recruit him was withdrawn at the last moment before the announcement of the new Cabinet.
“I am not sure how long this Parliament will last but irrespective of its lifespan, most people of Kuwait have rejected it.”
“We cannot overlook the fact that the size of the problems which exist in our society are increasing and we cannot specify the reasons for their existence,” columnist Mishari Abdullah AlHamad wrote for Alam Alyawm daily.
“When the issues cross all limits of morality and ethics and spread the phenomenon of exceeding the limits of dialogue and discourse sometimes people lose their lives due to the recklessness of especially when ‘some’ use the platform to spread lies and as a result people’s lives become a massive mess following which you would wish everything stops in its tracks when you take account of what is happening around you.
“Take for example the motorists who toy with their cell phones as they drive along a busy driveway. Is this normal style of life here? Is it sound to do so?
“When looking for a logical reason I cannot find any with scientific basis except say that the first sociologist (Ibn Khaldun) said the luxury is the beginning of destruction of states and that the states pass through three phases like a human being — childhood, adulthood and old age — before finally perishing.”
“Before 24 hours passed by after the heinous crime which was witnessed at the Avenues Mall last Friday, which led to the death of a young doctor, securitymen were able to arrest the killer and he was taken to the competent authorities to allow justice to take its course following which tranquility returned to the hearts of the citizens and residents who were worried following this incident,” columnist Abdulrahman Al-Awwad wrote for Al-Sabah daily.
“This robust ‘strike’ security, is due not only to the major efforts exerted by the securitymen, nor to the use of modern techniques in their work only, but because they put their conscience in their work, do not violate the law or privacy, in order to achieve their goal, without resorting to repressive tactics that are known in other systems, to extract confessions from the accused or suspects.
“So we call on the concerned authorities to revise laws and exercise control on shops which sell knives and cleavers which are used to kill or injure others inside commercial malls by restricting the sale to shops affiliated to cooperative societies.
“God save Kuwait and its people and residents on its territory of all evil.”
“The law is being enforced on the citizens according to the mood and temperament either on a street, home or markets. Normally, it is natural to file a case at a police station,” columnist Mohammad Al-Mullah wrote for Al-Shahed daily.
“Not only that there are some securitymen who refuse to register the case on the pretext it is a simple incident and doesn’t deserve to be registered, fully knowing their behavior does not give credence to the situation.
“The police stations suffer from lack of police officers, police suffer from lack of equipment and as a result lack of patrols on the streets.
“Apart from the above, wasta plays a big role and contributes to disaster. When a problem occurs, ‘His Excellency’ the Member of Parliament is ready to intervene to close the file. Wasta is the main problem which the Ministry of Interior has to do away with.”
“After the reign of Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem, democracy in Kuwait has been fake and deficient. Call it whatever you want but we have been living a big lie called the Kuwaiti democracy for the last 50 years,” columnist Ahmad Al-Alawi wrote for Al-Kuwaitiah daily.
“We live in ignorance of this democracy, the main constituent of which is that the nation rules itself. With regard to this, we enquire why the Kuwaiti nation is not controlling its own destiny. Why the nation is not electing its government if it is a democratic country?
“For several years, we fool ourselves by thinking we live in a distinguished democratic country like several developed democratic countries in the world. However, we eventually realized that Kuwaiti democracy is that of the Special Forces.
“Our authority boasts about the authentic Kuwaiti democracy in the United Nations. However, it is just a mask of prestige that is worn in front of the international community.”
“The heinous crime which was committed at the Avenues Mall is merely one episode of a long series of several crimes such as rape, kidnap, murder ...etc. Some of us forget such accidents as time goes by. One such incident was the murder of a police officer by his colleague inside the AlQadsiya Police Station during working hours. This is in addition to repeated crimes such as kidnapping maids and children and raping them which has become almost a daily phenomenon,” columnist Faisal Abdulaziz Al-Zamel wrote for Al-Anba daily.
“Unfortunately, newspapers always publish news reports about the crimes committed by human wolves but they do not publish a single story about severe punishment meted out to any of those human wolves except imprisonment inside the Central Jail.
“The way of committing such crimes indicates the perpetrator or the culprit does not consider the consequences of his crime appropriately. How is it possible a simple conflict in a parking lot leads to killing a person you don’t even know?
“Apparently, the culprit did not image properly the heinousness of the consequences that change the way of life of the victim and criminal completely.”
“Who says persecution against the Palestinians is the price for liberating Palestine? How can the Arab conscience bear persecutions against successive Palestinian generations under the slogan ‘Do Not Forget Palestine?’,” Dr Khaled Ahmad Al-Saleh wrote for Al-Watan Arabic daily.
“The frightened minds and hearts filled with sorrow of losing a country hardly settled down before the equipment of displacement and migration struck. They even brought down tents wherein the Palestinians took refuge, and so they scampered for dear life.
“Every society has peculiar laws and associations, so whenever the laws change or association is replaced, the concerned society pays the price for failing to put in place laws and associations enforced on them. Did Arabs try to build cities for their brothers who migrated to them? Did they meet at the Arab League to distribute the human resources across open territories begging for inhabitants? Did they try to preserve the dignity of those displaced from their land, since dignity probably stands as the real motive pushing them to return to their country, no matter how long?”