‘Division ends sectarian wars’
“TODAY the Arab world does not live the beginning but the end of the dictatorial regimes because it has embarked on a new phase. In order to determine where we are now, we must remember the words of former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her creative chaos, the new map of the Middle East, and the new Middle East that includes Iran and Levant countries,” columnist Dr Fahad Al-Busairi wrote for Al-Rai daily.
“As for how this map I can say it will be exactly similar to what Yugoslavia is today, that is to say quasi-states which have some kind of autonomy such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro, which are built on sectarian, Orthodox, Protestant and Islamic basis, and this is what also happened in the former Soviet Union.
“The Arab world is on the verge of this division inevitably in Iraq and Syria, and Yemen, and may extend to pervade the rest of the Levant. As for Arab North African Arab states, including Libya, the division shall be in a different way generally not part of the map neither in the past nor in the future.
“In my humble opinion, Iran has reached maturity and almost a phase of religious state; however religion represents no more than shuffling political papers here and there — in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Historical logic says Iran is on the verge of a new phase, may be subjected to great internal problems in the event that it does not move forward the stage of nation-state democracy smoothly, which will not happen, of course, and I assume that (Hassan) Rouhani will be the last president with religious tendency.
“In order to understand the Arab Spring which turned into ‘Sectarian Spring’, we must remember that Paul Bremer, the military governor of Iraq after the fall of Saddam, disbanded the Iraqi army and police, and allowed the Shiite parties loyal to Iran to control the affairs, and of course that was not his stupidity as many think, it is the beginning of drawing the New Middle East map.
“The Iranians liked the game because it is their favorite game and trump card, and here the Syrian and Iranian allies, each according to their own motives, created a hot spot between the borders to strike at the Americans and get them out, thinking that the goal of the Americans is to remain in Iraq, then they cooperated together to divert the Syrian revolution and to suppress the Sunni opposition in Iraq.
“With the creation of this hot spot between Iraq and Syria, the Syrian Revolution turned into a sectarian revolution and pro-democracy movements in other Arab countries in Egypt, the Gulf and Yemen turned into political movements, but with religious nature sometimes and occasionally sectarian, according to the nature of each country, thus these movements lost their political and liberation importance and the Arab Spring turned into sectarian spring.
“So, we are heading towards the worst. Political liberation movements are no longer fighting for the establishment of democratic values nor to create more political freedoms for their oppressed people, but the systems have exploited them to fight to consolidate sectarianism in the region, to ensure their survival even if the division is at the expense of the Arab region with international consent and encouragement, and this is what will happen in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, because the only solution to the sectarian wars is the division or partition.”
Also: “The problem of unemployment, especially among young graduates forms a constant concern for governments that are keen on the stability of their societies and their development, because the unemployed young are waste energy supposed to be invested and taken advantage in the process of sustainable development,” columnist Dr Badr AlDaihani wrote for Al-Jarida daily.
“The consequences of unemployment in general and among the young people in particular, are social and political problems. The government bears responsibility by virtue of the political responsibility for the management of the affairs of state and society.
“In Kuwait, there is, unfortunately, absence of any serious public policy to address unemployment, especially the disguised unemployment, and the public sector will not be able to absorb the increasing number of employees over the next few years, especially since the state is expected to face difficult economic and financial conditions which have started to appear with the decline in oil prices, and the projected deficit in the general budget.
“What makes matters worse is that the private sector cannot, by its nature, create new jobs to employ the huge number of young people entering the labor market every year, and who are expected to number one million persons in 2030.
“In front of this disturbing situation for our young people, a serious thinking is required to find new and innovative alternatives, that provides new jobs, with the need to change the style of revenue economy, and to expand the creation of productive economic sectors, as well as returning to work in the ‘offset’ system, which the government suspended without any justification, although this system obliges foreign companies to invest 30 percent of the value of the deal in the local market, and create opportunities for training and employment of national manpower.
“We should not exaggerate the ability of the private sector in providing new job opportunities when privatizing public institutions and some economic activities, as stated in the government plans.
“The international experiences have shown that unemployment is always inherent to privatization, not to mention that the actual reality has proven the inability of the local private sector, by virtue of its size and nature, to provide new jobs (refueling stations is an example not exclusively).
“In spite of the size of the facilities offered by the government, including ‘national manpower support’ provided to each citizen working in the private sector, and despite massive media campaigns that encourage young people to work in the private sector, the proportion of citizens working in this sector is only 4 percent, at the best, including fake employment by companies who only seek government tenders.”
“On April 12th, the US Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton officially announced her nomination for the US presidency in the next presidential elections that will be held in 2016. If she wins, she will become the first female president of United States of America,” Ali Mohammad Al-Fayrouz wrote for Al-Rai daily.
“If she manages to win the Democrat ticket, Hillary Clinton will be challenged by Republican nominees such as Jeb Bush, who is the brother of former US president George Bush Jr Both candidates come from very strong political background, due to which they could become the favorites to win their parties’ nomination tickets.
“The upcoming US presidential elections will be tough for the two main parties — the Democrats and the Republicans. As it appears, both candidates will face tough times before they win their parties’ nomination ticket. Voters associate Jeb Bush with his brother George Bush Jr who, according to Jeb, committed serious political mistakes during his reign.
“Hillary Clinton too will face her own share of criticism over her past political experiences. She is tainted with financial and political scandals. However, does the 67-year old woman have what it takes to win the elections or will it be a final and sad end to her political career? Time will tell.”
“Ten years have passed since the political rights of women were endorsed in Kuwait. The experience has to be evaluated especially since there are many who claim that women’s role in the political arena has failed. The truth is majority of such people just hate the presence of women not only in the political area but in life,” Prof Ghanim Al-Najjar wrote for Aljarida daily.
“Such types of people have their own reasons but we do not accept them. Nonetheless, the rights which Kuwaiti women received in May 2005 should not be subjected to reconsideration, but scientific evaluation is important in order to improve performance.
“The National Assembly has always been a male-dominated zone, especially after illegal electoral system was used from 1962 to 2005. For about 43 years, the National Assembly has been showing weak performance — a failure that only the Kuwaiti men were responsible for.
“In 2009, four women entered the parliament for the first time. Regardless of their performance, their entry into the parliament was a strong indication that women have political acceptance in this country. Kuwait became the first country where women got elected immediately after receiving their political rights.
“The bottom line is that the society has brought down the gender barrier forever. There is no justification against the presence of women in life particularly in the political arena. Therefore, it is not acceptable to generalize the political failure of women because the men have also failed in the politics but we never generalize them.”
“The first of May marks the International Workers Day or Labor Day and is considered in more than 100 countries a day of rest, including Egypt and Bahrain, but in Kuwait this day does not count as a day of rest on the general state facilities, but is calculated as a day of rest in the oil companies and the laborer has the right to get an allowance should he work on that day,” columnist Tareq Bouresli wrote for AlAnba daily.
“The real backbone of Kuwait is the oil and oil workers, and I say this with confidence and pride, those workers is the guardians of the most important financial resource of the state, the black gold, and the knights of production of this raw material the most precious in the world.
“These employees deserve to get good salaries, and it seems that the strategic alternative whose features have appeared lately seems to launch the idea of making an amendment on salaries maybe decreasing it for this category of workers as part of the application of a plan.
“At this point, we should discuss the policies and hatred of some people towards these employees who claim that they are highest paid compared to other state employees.
“We must know that the salaries earned by employees working in the refineries and oil drilling sector are the highest in the entire world not only in Kuwait due to the hazardous nature of their work which can cause injury or death at any moment.
“These workers are doing the most hazardous work in the world and it is enough to know that they are working on shifts system for the past 20 to 30 years in extreme dangerous environment just to ensure the continuity of the flow of the black gold.
“In spite of all these facts, some people are still stuck to their demand to decrease the salaries of this category of workers or to do away with monetary benefits they are given.
“These people must know that the Oil Sector Law is totally different from the public and private sector laws.”
“For several years, there have been a series of complaints saying the idea of eliminating citizens from the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs in favor of some expatriates, who belong to certain religious doctrines, was due to administrative corruption,” Dr Abdul-Mohsen Yousef Jamal wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“However, the outcry went with the wind while some lawmakers, who are members of those religious doctrines, were defending the ministry officials and attacking citizens advocating for reform. Today, the agitation for change in the ministry is coming from the minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs — the topmost authority in that ministry.
“He believes the rights of citizens should be restored to the ministry which is very important in religious activities. It is exceptionally important at this period when some preachers and religious leaders seem to be having interest in terrorism that is scary to the entire world. This is because they have been taking up arms against some governments.”
“Around 10 years ago, possibly a bit less or more, Saudi Arabian Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal Al-Saud decided to deliver an address on behalf of the Kingdom at the United Nations General Assembly,” Reem AlMa’e write for Al-Kuwaitia daily.
“Prior to that day, he used to distribute written addresses and assign the then Saudi Arabian Ambassador Fawzi Al-Shabkashi to read them. He took the step very late, such that some people tried to find out why he made the decision but it was a futile effort, although they rushed to raise assumptions! At the time, he stood on the podium reading the unambiguous address. He criticized the idea of using veto to impede decisions of the Security Council after which he ended the address and left the podium.
“On that day, he could not stand the pain for long and was shy to look at the people in queue to shake hands with him. He spoke in a pitiful voice, saying, “Fawzi, I can’t finish it, so complete it and apologize to the gathering ...” He left the United Nations building in New York and the news of his surgery was broadcasted after a few days. Therefore, when Saud Al-Faisal asked journalists who wanted to compete with him, nobody could respond. He himself responded today after his decision to throw in the towel as a man of logic and wisdom.”
“By seeing the development of the current incidents in Syria and the way the Syrian revolutionaries are advancing against the forces loyal to Bashar Al-Assad, we can’t overlook the interview given by the US President Barrack Obama to journalist Thomas Freidman on April 4, 2015,” columnist Adel Abdullah Al-Mutairi wrote for AlAnba daily.
“During his interview President Obama said why the Arabs cannot fight human rights violations in Syria? He also affirmed in the same interview that the US is committed to the safety of its allies in the region and protect them from any external invasion.
“It seems these words have encouraged the neighboring countries supporting the Syrian revolution to cooperate between, and everyone knows that the victory that happened lately couldn’t occur without increasing coordination between the groups which have participated in the revolution, which definitely reflects a regional understanding between the major parties supporting the revolutionaries — Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
“This was indicated by the New York Times newspaper when it commented recently on the liberation of Idlib City by saying that finally the Syrian revolution is getting the fruits of the SaudiTurkish approach.
“Perhaps, the real regional actors in the region are finally aware that all work cannot be done by their American allies instead of them and they are the ones who must take care of the security of the region.”