Inadmissible

Furaida Al-Habeeb and Dalaal AlWad’ani, among others. It also reminded us of the apartheid era or the abhorred discriminatory politics in South Africa. This action will definitely put Kuwait on the human rights blacklist. Actually, it is disastrous and hilarious at the same time!

We want the director to tell us what the public clinics and hospitals will do in case a Kuwaiti falls sick in the evening - the period assigned for foreigners? Will they tell the Kuwaiti to come back tomorrow morning? If a foreigner falls sick in the morning, should he come back in the evening?

Besides the embarrassing proposal, our health minister hides information from the public through media gags or blackouts and highlights his foreign trips to make us happy reading news on the signing of agreements with foreign hospitals like those in Germany for the treatment of Kuwaitis. This clearly reflects the ingenuity of our government. It would have been better if the minister authorized the director of Kuwait’s health office in Germany to sign the agreement so that he can focus on the local health sector, especially since this director claims to be the relative of one of the leaders of Kuwaiti street movements.

The National Assembly members, who are controlled by the government, know the minister is not afraid of grilling, while the judicious government was threatened with the ‘no cooperation’ card when the interpellation requests against two ministers were presented. This has prompted the Assembly to postpone the interpellations until the next term in order to douse tension.

We now ask Al-Haifi to channel his energies towards the improvement of health services in the country, completion of under construction hospitals, and laying down a comprehensive plan for building new hospitals to cover the needs of the growing population rather than implementing the preposterous proposal of the health district director. News on these activities will gladden our hearts more than the signing of agreements in Germany. Once we have hospitals on par with international standards, doctors from Germany will come here to perform surgeries in our local hospitals; making us save millions of dinars. The minister must also impose certain restrictions to eliminate the embarrassing behaviors of some ministry employees.

Surprisingly, those who just discovered human rights principles along Al-Sahafa Street, the civil societies and former politicians have remained silent over the issue. They have not condemned nor protested against the discriminatory proposal which is unacceptable by all standards!

Email: Ali-albaghli@hotmail.com mitted parliamentary queries to the Minister of Commerce and Industry Anas Al-Saleh about the phenomenon of smuggling rotten meat into the country.

In his questions, Al-Adwa wants to know the number of shipments of spoiled meat and food that were seized before they were smuggled into the country during the last three years. He also wants to know the quantity in tons.

He also wants to know the quantity and quality of meat and food that are not allowed to be in circulation in Kuwait which the suppliers had attempted to smuggle over the last three years. He has asked for detailed measures that have been taken by the Ministry of Commerce and the customs officials against such shipments and their affiliate companies?

He wants the ministry to provide him with the number of cases that have been filed on the suppliers of those companies, and comparative list between the number of cases filed by the ministry and the seized shipments in the last three years?

He also inquired about the outcome of the cases filed by the ministry in relation to attempts to smuggle spoiled meat food into the country over the last five years and the verdicts that have been issued by courts.

“Did the ministry announce the names of the companies that tried to enter those shipments into the country through the media after the final court verdict,” he asked.

Al-Adwa has also asked about the number of licenses granted to companies and individuals who tried to import the spoiled meat or food into the country and if the ministry has allowed to issue new licenses.

Meanwhile, MP Nawaf Al-Fuzai is sticking to his determination to grill the Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shamali saying “I will not back down from my request as long as Minister Al-Shamali fails to address the loan issue in the right way.”

The parliamentarian said this during a press conference in the Parliament building. He was accompanied by citizens who are affected by the interests on consumer loans. The press conference was held under the title ‘No to postponement or bargaining in resolving the loan issue.’

He explained the grilling will reveal the corruption and the names of those who incited and misappropriated the public funds. He noted some of the solutions that have been laid down are far from the basis of the problem.

He added, “The Central Bank and the banking institutions have stolen people’s money through illegal means. It is a real case and the courts have issued verdicts in favor of the some debtors.”

Al-Fuzai criticized the Finance Minister for issuing what he called “conflicting statements.” He also criticized the minister for using the principle of ‘fair and just’ as an excuse.

He asked, “Is it fair on the part of the State to give millions of dinars in grants to investors on the stock exchange and deprive the common man? Why didn’t the Finance Minister apply the tax law on the companies? Is it fair to give donations worth KD 4 billion to more 100 countries and deprive citizens the citizens of benefit of about a billion dinars to solve their problems which are caused by the state?”

Some of the citizens who are affected and were present during the press conference, talked to the press about their grievances and explained how they fell victim to the loan due to the lack of oversight on the banks by the Central Bank.

Chairman of the “National Popular Campaign for Writing off Loans,” Hamad Al-Harbi stressed all Members of Parliament have not offered anything to the citizens to resolve their pending issues such as the loans “except Al-Fuzai who has submitted a grilling request against the Finance Minister who is in charge of the loans issue.”

He indicated this Parliament does not represent the citizens if it does not find a solution to the loan issue. He added previous governments did not resolve important issues until problems snowballed and ran out of control.

He added the government has admitted that the loans issue is a serious one by creating the ‘defaulters fund’.

One of the debtors, Yousef Suwailim thanked Al-Fuzai for supporting the citizens. He added his problem is with the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK).

He added he borrowed from the bank KD 15,000 and is taking from him KD 32,000. The rate of interest is not fixed and ranges between five and nine percent, but now he got a court ruling that the interest rate should be fixed at 4 percent.

Another defaulter, Salem Mullah Ali said he borrowed from one of the banks in 2003 and that the interest rate kept rising drastically. He added, “We reject postponing this issue to more than this because the issue has aggravated to a dangerous level and we wish that it is solved now.”