Critical defeat in the oniony battle
KUWAIT shook from all corners last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday due to the sudden sky-rocketing increase in the prices of onion which kitchens cannot do without.
There have been many explanations and justifications on this issue, and we do not know who is telling the truth or otherwise.
At times you hear the blame being cast on government laboratories for delaying the testing of samples. At other times, the blame is on one of the beneficiaries among the empires of the vegetable market. It is being said that he prevented import of any quantity of onion, apart from the onions which are imported through him ... and this is why the price shoot up to unprecedented levels.
We ought to contemplate on this issue. If the delay was caused by customer protection laboratories affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce, it is imperative to penalize the one who caused such delay irrespective of his excuse which, of course, will be worse than his mistake.
However, if the blame falls on the so-called ‘onion emperor’, this blame should be diverted to the control bodies in the Ministry of Commerce, as well as the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR). People are fed up with their anomalous behavior.
It is our right to ask about the ones who were granted agricultural land portions which are currently worth millions and have been transformed into resorts, villas and places to spend a nice time resting; forgetting the main objective of these land allocations that are meant for agricultural purposes.
Why not hold accountable any of these people? Why not ask them where they stand on the main purpose of the land which was allocated to them and what have they been doing with it, given the main objective is to achieve agricultural self-sufficiency?
I do not believe that onions cannot grow on the land of Kuwait. We used to plant onions inside bottles in schools when we were children and during our early teenage life.
We did not hear a single comment on the issue from some members of the National Assembly considering the issue concerns every household, owner of the house, housewife and kitchen.
Some members of the National Assembly rushed to engage themselves in accelerating formation of the new government to ensure they see those they want to be part of the government.
Some have demanded for the thousandth time to resume talks on the cancellation of fake and undeserved citizenships. They also kept on calling for comprehensive amnesty for everybody who lack good behavior among their miserable movement including those who broke into Abdullah Al-Salem Hall and those who chanted, “Prepare your men and we will prepare ours”, “We will not allow you” and other imported slogans.
Therefore, we think that both the lawmakers and government “drowned in a little amount of water;” bearing the defeat in the onion battle while the poor people are likely to be the victims of the entire issue!