‘High time to build country’

‘Kuwait heading for abyss’

“RESEARCH and information centers in addition to centers measuring people’s opinions are established in developed countries and these tasks are carried out by neutral specialists,” columnist wrote for daily

“In these developed countries, governments and parliaments that are concerned with the affairs of the people rely on these centers when it comes to taking decisions and improving the level of government performance and non-government organizations to provide services and development of the state in general.

“In our case it looks like we insist that we do not rank among those countries and our government insists that it is the only authority that is aware of the requirements of the citizens and that we must remain silent and if we do not, our ears are plugged and eyes closed; therefore our government lives in its own world which is certainly far from reality.

“It is also quite certain that once the government feels it is threatened, it resorts to the state budget to buy loyalties or external support to calm down the people for a period, that is to say it tells people to come and look at its intelligence in buying everything.

“If we recollect what has been written and said in Kuwait about reform and development, we will find tons of books and articles and the results of conferences, seminars.

“If we had a serious government at any time since the country’s independence, we would have found solutions for all problems that we are experiencing now, and would have saved millions of dinars spent on third parties that come to Kuwait and sit down with people and take their views, record and amend them so that these people can continue working with the government.

“I can say this is the policy of most of the foreign consultants and their representatives in Kuwait. Such studies made by those consultants are forwarded to the officials who sign a deal with them, seeks only his own interests and hides the original study made by them and gives the government what supports his position regardless of whether it is in the interest of Kuwait or not, and millions of dinars are drained in this absurd manner.

“Kuwaitis have the courage and determination to provide the view that benefits their country and protect the elements of existence and continuity, and protect the system and the people from the scourge of delay and hesitation because they are the most capable and the best and most loving and loyal to their country and who love to see it develop, and do not want to occupy senior positions or anything else in return for their views, all they want is the government to listen to them and accept their ideas.

“If the government wanted real development of this country, it would have formed a team of neutral thinkers from its sons — scientists, politicians, socialists, economists, and educators — and ask them to collect and analyze all the ideas presented by the Kuwaitis in their articles, and conferences and symposia and books, and make a summary of recommendations that can serve progress and development in all aspects of life.

“The government can also assign another team to follow up what is published by research centers in developed countries and other countries that have corrected their affairs after periods of deterioration and take good experiences as role models.

“The said team shall provide reports for each experience and a useful study of what is happening in the world so that our government and its organs and the people can be familiar with what is going on around us, and take what is beneficial for the country.

“The two teams can provide our government with a clear vision concerning policies and programs they propose and their decisions shall be based on the study and researches of specialist and sincere Kuwaitis based on the vivid experiences of countries more developed than us.

“What we see at the moment at the government level is a mockery and underestimating people’s opinions, claiming themselves more knowledgeable and understanding than others. If the government continues like that, Kuwait will remain stagnant until it reaches the bottom of the list of losers in the near future. It is time to wake up.”

Also:

Al-Baddah

“In every social, security and demographic chaos, there are those who always benefit, and we must always look for this beneficiary. The wealth of traders during crisis time doubles especially when the management loses direction in the country,” columnist wrote for daily.

“Any trend to correct this mess and limit it through legislations, laws and decisions shall be confronted and resisted by the beneficiaries, including politicians, parliamentarians and traders by all possible means they have.

“The talk about demographics of Kuwait has became stereotype and it is useless to talk about it, but the risk of this absurd structure has become more like a snowball which as it rolls down, takes along with it all that is in its path — values and social security — and causing serious damage to the infrastructure and economy due to the wide gap between the number of citizens and expatriates ratios that keeps changing with every passing day.

“I personally support the bold statement made by Sheikh Faisal Al-Hamoud Al-Sabah, Governor of Farwaniya, proposing the deportation of one million marginal or non-technical expatriate laborers who are not needed by Kuwait.

“On the other hand, we are neither concerned nor pay attention to the justifications of those who are against such proposals, claiming that it is impossible to actually implement it on the ground of reality because it might affect real estate market, that is to say for fear of increasing the number of vacant apartments or decline in rent. We are not concerned with that because citizens are the victims of this unfair equation which has negative impacts on all aspects of the state.

“The Ministry of Interior is continuing to deport residence law violators at a time the mafias in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor are tampering with the number of employees and workers needed by companies and establishments which has caused this great imbalance in demographics.

“The ordinary citizen is the victim of all this, he or she is the one who will pay for the poor health and education services and poor infrastructure of roads, electricity and water because what has been built, and the services provided by the State shall not absorb the increasing number of expatriates.

“The ball now is in the court of the new Parliament that must move quickly to deal with this miserable imbalance in demographics by issuing recommendations or laws to address this problem and hold to account and track down the beneficiaries of this situation and those who have contributed to the destruction of the country’s security, social life and economy.”

“History is full of lessons. More than 1,000 years ago, the Vikings invaded a large section of Western Europe and the most part of Britain,” columnist

wrote for daily. “Denmark, the homeland of the Vikings, fought Sweden in 11 battles and one of the wars lasted 200 years. Wars between the two countries were given different names for various reasons but the true reason was the desire of each king to prove his military superiority.

“There’s no doubt that anybody who initiates pointless wars is abnormal. Denmark eventually recognized that its policy was wrong after losing many lives to wars, and admitted the need to coordinate with its neighbor to avoid major financial and human losses. It found out they were better off cooperating with neighbor to improve the lives of its people instead of aimless and endless wars.

“The conditions of the two countries have changed for the best ever since they gave up war. Denmark is considered among the major countries in Europe with three different languages spoken across its territories, with the best educational opportunities and the most beautiful roads.

“The present measures Iran adopts toward countries in the Gulf region are similar to those Danish took up in the middle ages. Iran had opportunity to become the Singapore of the Gulf only if they adopted wise political and economic policies. The world today respects economic power and not military capability.

“The difference between North Korea and South Korea is crystal clear. It also confirms what we just have discussed. Iran did not learn from the Danish experience and has been repeating their mistakes step by step.”

“The recent Aleppo battle exposed the fact that huge sectarianism and religious prejudices rest at the bottom of Arab and Muslim conscience,”

wrote for daily. “The human factor was supposed to be most dominant in the stances over the Aleppo issue and the tragedy faced by Syrian civilians. However, it was an opportunity for those controlled by sectarian ideologies to show their talent of dancing over the bloody corpses. It is quite disgusting and strange.

“The sectarian tradition of the region dates back to four centuries. During that period, it would sometimes disappear but it never died. In fact, the sectarian tendency was the basic director of politics and strategies. It pushed us into backwardness, ignorance and superstitions instead of creativity, industry and mass production.

“Identity became linked to sect and so did competition. Actually it is not only the Arabs and Muslims who are behind the growth of such an issue to such frightening heights. It is true that the West took advantage of sectarianism which already existed and it seized every opportunity to pour more oil on the fire. The aim of the West has always been to dominate this region and sectarianism made the task much easier.

“Even though there are humanitarian stances over the Aleppo issue, they are colored by the tendency of each media. Actually it was never 100 percent humanitarian. If it was abstract humanitarian impulse that controlled the reactions, we would have seen one similar to that in Somali and Yemeni issues in which there were a huge number of victims to the extent that death became the norm while life was an exception.”

“In the midst of all this conflict around us, we need a thorough understanding of the reality of our country in order to be spared of the ravages and destruction experienced by the peoples and nations around us, armed conflicts and sectarian divisions and terrorist activities in full swing, and in the light of all this, we must search for the right recipe to curb all this reflection on our small peaceful country,” columnist

wrote for daily. “This prescription begins with diagnosing the problem, the problem around us is a regional-international conflict does not seem to be for our country or have a direct interest in it.

“But we are probably one of the few countries which have focused on its existence to lay the foundations of peace and security regionally and globally, and it is not the subject that we benefit from what is happening around us — disputes — but if it continues itself that does not serve our national interests and internal stability.

“For all this, we must all be aware of the seriousness of the irresponsible handling of the conflicts around us, a great struggle, larger than our feelings that are easily manipulated under the slogans of religion and caste, and sometimes humanity.”

“Over 30 countries, including countries welladvanced in the field of intelligence and sophisticated weapons capable of destroying the world map, have all gathered on land, sea and air zones of Riqqa, Syria and Mosul in Iraq,” columnist wrote for daily.

“They are all there to fight a race that has no relationship or issues with them. The heartless forces of countries in question are trained to carry out barbaric acts of violence against innocent people. The trend became a source of fear for people around the world due to the level of violence and barbaric acts resulting in extreme bloodshed and leaving millions homeless. The countries in question have also revived the ghost of tribal sedition with the emergence of counter forces represented by tribal elements with hidden grudges — the reality of cursed drama whose first show started in the late 70’s after the overthrow and replacement of Iranian regime by jurists (Velayat — e faqih) having adopted the slogan to export revolution.

“We saw the cursed drama in the 8 year-old IranIraq War followed by Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Many events have taken place ever since ... don’t forget the Sept 11 attack, the Afghani war, and the war against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq! The question is: Did these destructive events happen by coincidence? Is DAESH a phenomenon that emerged out of the blue like volcano ash?

— Compiled by Ahmad Al-Shazli