‘Fight graft to stem rot in society’
‘Progress stunted despite ample funds’
“I THINK it is the right of the people of Kuwait to ask why is the country in constant decline despite the availability of all the financial and human resources necessary for the country’s progress, development, and stability,” columnist, legal expert and former dean of the Faculty of Law at Kuwaiti University Dr Mohammad Abdulmohsen
Al-Moqatei wrote for Al-Qabas daily. “It will not be long before people know the answer to their questions. By extrapolating the country’s conditions, its chronic problems, for more than twenty years, are still present with great distress and pain.
“Although the state public budget has jumped from KD 4 billion 15 years ago to KD 20 billion with a five-fold increase, due to spending on projects and a large number of services, the deterioration in the situation is steadily increasing.
“In other words corruption has increased in all fields and symbols and the corrupt people have neither been arrested nor tried in a court of law.
“This happens although the general economic situation and persistent setbacks in all sectors without exception, inflation and high prices have become a nightmare for people.
“Add to this the housing which is a growing problem to such an extent the solutions given by some officials are refuting a scaring reality that mostly represented by the increasing of the housing applications and skyrocketing prices of the real estates.
“With regard to health, education and other public services they are still in a continuous spiral of stagnation. There are no real solutions or practical exits, but temporary solutions and analgesics, which have exacerbated their problems.
“Speaking of the traffic problem, the motorists are still suffering from suffocating traffic congestion and this can be mostly attributed to the increase in the driving licenses some of which have been issued to people through wasta for the benefit of some people.
“The problem has aggravated because all the solutions that were submitted to deal with the issue are unstudied and unserious and this reflects a state of fearful deterioration that currently prevails in the concerned departments which are rife with corruption.
“Meanwhile, we see a decline in the restriction of freedoms and restrictions that have been imposed on the freedom of expression in addition to attempts to abort the activities of effective popular action organizations such as welfare societies, cultural and intellectual associations, the cooperative societies and the communal activities.
“Apart from the above, we have observed the retreat and aggravation of corruption and the increasing influence of the corrupt people in some government institutions and the National Assembly.
“This retreat signifies the control and legislative institutions are no longer capable of playing their roles properly.
“Not just that, we see some of the lawmakers currently turning their eye on the poor performance of some of the State institutions as if these lawmakers are elected to close their mouths in the face of corruption and this means they must, without hesitation leave their seats in the National Assembly.
“This is because their corruption and weaknesses show they should not stay in their positions because some of them are born in the womb of a corrupt election system which has produced some lawmakers, but most of them don’t represent the people.
“This system has actually torn apart the country and divided it on sectarian, denominational and tribal basis. Hence the State of Kuwait calls on its sincere citizens to halt this deterioration before it is too late.”
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“In my article I would like to refer to a Kuwaiti citizen whose transaction was intentionally ‘kept in drawers’ by one of the officials for five years,” columnist, General manager of the Scope Satellite TV Channel and former MP Talal Al-Saeed wrote for Al-Seyassah daily. “Hence, this citizen found no alternative, but an attempt to commit suicide and this reflects the state of despair and misery that has befallen him because obstructions were put in front of his transaction.
“He attempted to commit suicide because he wanted to draw the attention of the concerned people to his torment and to a state of injustice that he and many other citizens were subjected to due to the practices of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) against Kuwaitis and inform the CSC officials that injustice and persecution may result in the citizens committing more than the suicide.
“This is because the citizens hear and read that expatriates have been appointed in various state institutions and paid high salaries in addition to the increments given to them and recently one expatriate got an increase of KD 1,000, just one year after his appointment, while a Kuwaiti is entitled for KD 10 increment per annum.
“Meanwhile, we say we have never heard that the transaction of any expatriate has been stopped by the Civil Service Commission by ‘the virtue of the Floor No Eight there’.
“Anyway, this poor citizen tried to commit suicide by jumping from the fourth floor of the CSC building not from the 8th floor, because no Kuwaiti is allowed to enter this floor because this is accessible to only the brothers of some expatriates.
“Anyway, injustice and the unequal treatment may result in humans committing more than suicide. However, according to this citizen, his problem was settled a few minutes later following his attempt to commit suicide.
“The question here is, should every citizen resort to suicide to get his/her transaction being processed? Or should all citizens resort to collective suicide to draw the attention of the CSC to end the torments of Kuwaitis who continue to lose their job opportunities in favor of our expatriate brothers.
“It is obvious, the bureaucracy which currently prevails in the CSC because of the advisors of our expatriate brothers who came to us with their complexes and their heritage full of complications to apply the same in our country have resulted in the Kuwaiti citizen in question resorting to end his life after waiting in vain for five years to be appointed in a state ministry or institution.
“Given the above, I advise every Kuwaiti whose transactions have been ignored by the Civil Service Commission to resort to suicide, but this time from the eighth floor, because if this happened, then the concerned officials will pay attention to his/her torment, because we know one expatriate security guard has been promoted to the post of information advisor.”
“Falling back into old habits is an adage that applies perfectly to the rumors which precede the commencement of a parliamentary term. They usually are concerning the dissolution of the Parliament even before it has commenced. These of course are just malicious and baseless rumors,” Abdulrahman Al-Awwad wrote for Al-Sabah daily. “The strange and astonishing thing about these rumors is that those who are spreading them are trying their best to influence the honorable members of Parliament to launch some populism statements in favor of an MP or as they assume. Most astonishing aspect is that some of the MPs respond to these rumors sometimes by launching waves of interpellation against the ministers.
“Luckily, the voice of wisdom from the National Assembly Speaker and several MPs comes to the rescue by pinpointing the plot which is aimed at rendering the MPs to become aggressive, and by refuting claims about the dissolution of the Parliament. “Let us commence the parliamentary term by the grace of Allah with the hope of passing laws that will benefit the country and its people.”
“Only a few days remain for the start of the new legislative term but the tone of threats and intimidations of some MPs towards a number of ministers has already begun to gather momentum,” Eng Tareq
Jamal Al-Derbas wrote for Al-Anba daily. “Unfortunately, I do not see any benefit for the citizens from what these MPs are proposing. People do not want to escalate the political conflicts without benefit. They do not want to hear the disturbing statements of some MPs who are just showing off their muscles in Abdullah Al-Salem Hall without achieving any results that can meet people’s ambitions.
“People need radical solutions to the accumulated problems. We are tired of seeing some MPs win and have their say using cheap methods, which have only made people lose confidence in the legislative institution and the rest of state institutions as what is currently happening now.
“Our country is located in a volatile region. Calmness, wisdom and tranquility are required from us and should be imposed on everyone because we have the Gulf crisis on one hand and the tragic situation in Iraq on the other, as well as a neighboring country that is inflicting evil on us and planting terrorist cells in the heart of the country.
“The Parliament is required to support the mediation efforts of the ‘Sheikh of the Peninsula’ His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad and work on securing our external and internal front to preserve the social fabric.
“Citizens are demanding the MPs to live up to their expectations. So much is at stake! People need loyal MPs who seek to enact legislation that will contribute to the development of the administrative system in force in the government sector. We have a management crisis and everyone knows this. However, why have we not sought to enact legislation to amend this woeful system?
“We need an MP who will work on eliminating the phenomena of wasta and favoritism and issue legislation that will contribute to the elimination of administrative and financial corruption, instead of being one among the most important elements of corruption of this system.
“We people are in dire need of statesmen who can shape the future of this nation by seeking the interests of the nation rather than cheap electoral interests.”