‘Women lack political role’

‘Education on right track’

“COMMENTING on the results of the recent parliamentary elections, our respectable colleague Mubarak Al-Duwailah wrote an article on Dec 4 in his corner (column) under the title: ‘Harvest of the years’ and talked about the expected members of the new Cabinet,” wrote for daily.

“Al-Duwailah talked about two subjects. The first was related to women’s participation in the elections and political performance in general when he said ‘The first experiment, in which women failed miserably, is enough to learn the lesson’.

“The second, he justified the output of the educational system, saying unjustly the liberal ministers who have taken charge of the Ministry of Education were the reason behind all deviation and behavior of all our students. He said: ‘Because the liberal thought doesn’t pay attention to behavioral and moral aspects of the students, we find students are the largest segment outside the public behavior, and are characterized by non-compliance’.

“With full respect for the point of view of our brother on the two issues, he knows quite well that the comparison between men and women in the political performance, according to the balance of justice, is not fair as comparison in a society whose conditions allowed men to exercise democracy for more than fifty-five years compared to the exercise of the women which did not exceed ten years. “Our colleague forgets that all means of social communication in Diwaniyas and gatherings are available for men while women are deprived. They are allowed to communicate only with their campaign managers.

“In virtue of traditions and customs, I must add here that men still control and dominate the vote of women. In other words, sisters and mothers and wives sometimes vote for the benefit of the tribe or sect — voluntarily or involuntarily.

“I do not know what awareness our brother Al-Duwailah is talking about when he knows that the current to which he is affiliated and the Islamic political currents specifically have resisted women’s participation in politics. Women have not enjoyed political rights for over more than half a century, and the reason is known to us as I have explained.

“Does our colleague believe that the practices of his movement made it possible for a woman who suddenly adopted the ideas of Islamic movements to compete efficiently with the men?

“I am surprised, and here he will not compare the ratio of the failure of some of the men, their erroneous practices and extravagance and abuse of public money to the exercise of a few women who held the responsibility. Our colleague has to look back in history to know more about democratic practices and see failure of men until date.

“The second issue he touched is education. Yes, most of the ministers of education were either liberal or moderate, but they remained totally silent or turned a blind eye on the employees and senior officials a majority of whom belonged to the Islamic political movement, they are citizens who worked hard and served the Ministry of Education.

“It was those employees and officials — and not the minister — who designed the curriculum and influenced the minds of our sons, their actions, and thoughts particularly if such thoughts go in line with what the legislators or MPs think who threw a strong fence around any change in curriculum.

“Our colleague also ignored that his movement controls the Ministry of Awqaf, the mosques and charity work for more than 30 years, during which extremism prevailed and young men were urged and lured to fight jihad.

“Can we say that his movement — the Muslim Brotherhood — is responsible for extremism and senseless destruction of human heritage and moderate Islam? If the answer of our colleague is ‘YES’, we shall accept his analysis, I mean women have proved a failure in exercising political rights and had to learn from scratch.

“I hope my brother and colleague will be objective and look at the entire scenario from all angles, and tell you the truth, because this is one of the ethics and principles of Islam, as we learned in our schools when the enlightened and moderate intellect controlled the education for years and we are still proud of the behavior and the output of this system.

“We are also proud of the behavior of the majority of our students to this day and we are with them and for them to develop our educational system.”

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Al-Hamoud

“The recent election result has expressed the size of resentment and dissatisfaction of the people to what was happening in the country over the past four years in the form of unprecedented and rampant corruption and the practices of the former health minister,” columnist wrote for daily.

“It is therefore the recent election results can be summed up as a feeling of outrage and boredom and indifference which was prevalent over the past four years.

“The nation has given its verdict and is now prepared to face the exceptional circumstances in the region, and to try to fend off the negative repercussions through new faces in the National Assembly.

“Undoubtedly it is an expressive message that the citizens expect a good government at least at the same level of the choice of the citizens, if not the best.

“The choice of ministers in the Cabinet of HH the Prime Minister-designate will mean the verdict of the citizens has been accepted who have sent young representatives to play their roles of overseeing and legislating. We all expect a good choice in the government.

“Bad choice in the next government cannot be accepted by the people through their representatives in the National Assembly and Kuwait will once again stumble into a world of congestion and obstacles will continue to hinder positive work to confront corruption that has prevailed in recent times.

“I must say there are some MPs who are filled with vengeance and sabotage and will work for others from outside the Parliament that will not be good for Kuwait, either in terms of success or progress.

“If this happens the same will happen to the country as what has happened in the sports arena. These lawmakers of aggravation and tension must be faced by the majority of lawmakers.”

“Democracy in Kuwait is not a recent phenomenon. In the sixties, the first Parliament (Constitution Assembly) was elected to stipulate the Constitution. After that, several parliaments have been elected to this day,” wrote for

daily. “Kuwaitis have been practicing democracy since the establishment of the State of Kuwait with the election of its first ruler Sheikh Sabah (the first). During the reign of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Jaber, the country witnessed formation of the Constitution Assembly. Throughout the timeline of Kuwait history, its people have been practicing democracy based on friendly relations between the people and the ruling family.

“Despite differences that might emerge in the society, Kuwaitis have managed to maintain their relations and uphold the democracy system. Even during the Iraqi invasion, these strong ties were not shaken at all. In fact, it became stronger like never before. Therefore, we call upon everyone to practice the kind of democracy that brings societies together, and work towards developing the country for a better future for our children and the coming generations.”

“We are now counting down days to the inauguration of the newly-elected National Assembly, after which several challenges will set in to lay down the foundation for what the next stage will look like,” wrote for

daily. “It is a real opportunity for the youths elected into the Parliament to put their vision before the people through a series of bills which can change the method of doing things as the previous methods caused problems to government performance generally. In contrast, the government, if well constituted, can work towards realizing the aspirations of the people and solving their problems with the right scientific principles to eliminate crises.

“The proof that the youthful lawmakers are capable of bringing forth their scientific knowledge to the populace through enacting laws is by hitting the ground running in finding solutions to maladministration. This problem has already destroyed administrative values due to widespread use of ‘wasta’ (influence), employment infiltration, low production and lack of quality. They should be ready to work based on the right vision, devoid of service for benefits to win loyalty of voters and guarantee retention of parliamentary seats.”

“The democracy ceremony is over now. Despite the fact that the dissolution of the Parliament and the call for new elections were sudden and without warning, no one in the political arena expected the speed with which the process was carried out. Many political movements, if not all, took part in the elections including the opposition which campaigned very hard. The results were unexpected, as youthful faces and members of the Opposition gained grounds by winning many seats,” wrote for daily.

“The results of the Nov 26 elections recorded a big change in the faces of the Parliament as about 70 percent of the people voted and the change turnout stands at 60 percent.

“At this point, the Kuwaiti civil society coalition would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the winners of the elections for earning the trust of the electorate and the honor of representing citizens. Congratulations also go to those who were not lucky enough to win despite their courageous and effective participation; even if they did not win, they will do so on other occasions.

“People are clever and ambitious now after going through different experiences of history and democracy. They are now quite alert following the disappointing conflicts of interests, leadership posts and rampant corruption.

“As a civil society organization, we call on the new government and parliament to cooperate and translate that cooperation into reality based on wellstudied plans that focus on citizens and with the goal of forming a strong and developed country that can withstand economic stumbles and financial crises.”

“After the liberation of Kuwait, the competition for National Assembly speakership was between Ahmed Al-Sa’adoun and the late Jassem Al-Kharafi. At the time, I was among the supporters of Al-Sa’adoun,” columnist wrote for daily.

“The then government did not want him to come back as Parliament Speaker. Some even objected to the government voting for the Speaker. We argued that ministers have the constitutional right to vote and they have to exercise such right. We said they should not be deprived of their right to vote just to serve personal interests.

“The government is free to quit or to side with a specific project or party depending on the extent it has adopted the latter’s policy. It was also suggested that ministers should participate in the election of committees individually and each minister must vote according to his personal opinion.

“Actually, such a suggestion is worse than asking the government to abstain from voting. This devastates the collective responsibility of the government by making each minister go solo in the Parliament. It is a violation of the Constitution and parliamentary rules.

“Allowing ministers to vote in the Parliament distinguishes Kuwaiti politics from others as it stands between the presidential regime and parliamentary system. The existence of appointed ministers and appointed MPs was a must in a former stage which was aimed at enriching the democratic experience. This issue was supposed to end after the accumulation of political experiences that Kuwait acquired through the years.

“Unfortunately, due to the domination of some factions when it comes to political and social issues in Kuwait since the 1960s, we still need the presidential regime (controller) or ‘forced marriage’ between the presidential and parliamentary systems that the Kuwaiti lawmakers have invented. Unless Article 80 of the Kuwaiti Constitution is amended or changed, the ministers’ right to vote in the Parliament shall remain.”

— Compiled by Ahmad Al-Shazli