29th Arab Summit restored hope

HH Amir’s speech covers all issues of Arab nations

“IT LOOKS like the Arab summits have become arenas for meetings, repeated demands and stereotype concluding statements,” columnist and assistant undersecretary at the Cabinet Fatwa and Legislation Department Dr Essam Abdullatif Al-Fulaij wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“Although the people in the past attached hopes on these summits now they no longer do so. But in spite this fact the summits remain the last breath that shall help keep this Arab entity alive waiting to get it electrically revived or give it a kiss of life.

“The 29th session of the Arab Summit held in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the day before yesterday, has restored the hope to the nation and this was represented by King Salman bin Abdul Aziz initiative to call this the ‘Jerusalem Summit’, which was a good outset.

“Although the political situation in the region is overcast, the speech of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad has indicated signs of weakness and ways to deal with them.

“HH the Amir pointed out these differences will ‘weaken our cohesion and the ability to face the escalating challenges and risks we are exposed to, for these differences will open the doors wide for whoever lurks in the corner and wants evil for our nation’.

“HH the Amir pointed out to the continuing danger of this negative approach to the point of stalemate. He said: ‘Our joint Arab action still suffers from stagnation, if not less, in some cases.’ He further called for studying the mechanisms of the joint Arab action and define the defect and the shortcoming.

“Speaking of the Syrian situation, which has reached an unprecedented global humanitarian disaster, he hinted about the dead, the number of displaced people and injured and the figure is steadily rising.

“He said, this disaster, that revealed the inability of the international community. Frankly speaking this is very unfortunate because the international community applies the double standard policy. He went on to say ‘this community sometimes condemns and denounces and maybe sometimes takes action when bombing takes place here and there, but to a large extent this community stands idle in the face of Syrians killed, injured and displaced.’

“This has resulted in Kuwait’s stand to assume its historical humanitarian responsibility, and did not hesitate to ‘fulfill its humanitarian obligations to help alleviate the misery and the effects of humanitarian conditions in which they live.’

“Meanwhile, HH the Amir has expressed concern and disquiet at the use of the Syrian regime for chemical weapons, pointing to the Western escalation of air strikes that came for this reason, stressing that ‘these developments resulted from the inability of the international community represented by the UN Security Council, to reach a political solution to the conflict in Syria’.

“He directly called on the Security Council ‘to fulfill its historic responsibilities in the maintenance of international peace and security.’

“HH the Amir, also condemned the repeated rocket attacks on Saudi Arabia from Yemen, praising the Kingdom’s efforts with the Arab alliance countries to support the legitimacy of the government of Yemen and leading the pioneering humanitarian role of the coalition countries to address the difficult humanitarian situation in the sisterly country of Yemen.

“As is customary in the words of His Highness the Amir — we pray to Almighty God to protect him — he devoted a major part of his speech to Palestine. He expressed his deep displeasure with the ‘decision of the US administration to transfer its embassy to Jerusalem in violation of the resolutions of international legitimacy’.

“In the meantime, HH the Amir condemned the Israeli actions of oppressing and dispersing the peaceful demonstrations of our Palestinian brothers in Gaza, adding the demonstrators were practicing their right through peaceful expression and this resulted in martyrdom of scores of them in addition to thousands injured.

“On the other hand, HH the Amir called on international community, especially the Security Council, to shoulder its responsibilities to protect the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and put an end to all sinful Israeli aggression.

“Thus, these are the words of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad clear and lofty, criticizing the mistakes and shortcomings, and offering alternatives and solutions, and we hope for the best of things, hence the signs of hope in the ‘Jerusalem Summit’.

“Let us remember the words of the Prophet (PBUH):

Al-Fulaij

There will be a sect from my nation that shall remain committed to the right and will not be harmed by those who may forsake them until the order of God comes’.”

Also:

“The speech given by HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad at the 29th session of the Arab Summit in Dhahran, Eastern Saudi Arabia, was indeed comprehensive, detailed and covered all issues of the Arab nation,” columnist Abdurrahman Al-Awwad wrote for Al-Sabah daily.

“In his speech, HH the Amir referred in detail to all issues of the nation and offered solutions. We are accustomed to seeing the Amir in this position because he puts his mind and soul in the issues of his nation and successfully puts his finger on the bleeding wound of the nation.

“His Highness began his speech by directly putting real problems of the Arab world in front of the leaders attending the summit, where differences at the moment pose a big challenge to the Arab House.

“These differences have weakened the coherence of the nation making it unable to encounter the challenges and escalating dangers. Under these differences the Arab nation is no longer capable of confronting those who harbor devilish tendencies against ‘us’.

“As a matter of fact, His Highness has not only defined the defect, but he offered necessary solutions to handle the same by doubling efforts to solve the differences which currently storm the Arab world.

“He also called for studying the mechanisms of the Joint Arab Action to define the shortcomings and reach a phase of coherence and ability to go beyond the difficult situations and restore coherence and solidarity to the Arab House to encounter all future difficulties.

“We believe His Highness started with the above motivated by his realization that the objective of the summit will not be realized as long the Arab countries suffer from differences.

“The speech of His Highness was clear cut filled with salient features. In other words, it was an obvious message to the leaders of the Arab world indicating it is high time to be in agreement and eventually solve our differences for the sake of peoples, security and the stability of the region.”

“The concept of tax appeared long time ago for collecting money from everybody with the aim of covering the cost of providing defense services in ancient societies,” Uwaid Al-Sulaili wrote for Al-Shahed daily.

“Tax systems emerged in some ancient civilizations such as the Roman and Greek. Tax was the main source for financing wars and it was imposed on the rich and the poor.

“According to Wikipedia, tax is the money received by the state from institutions and individuals in order to cover the expenses of the state represented in financing the army and police, providing basic services such as health and education, subsidizing some essential commodities and financing infrastructural projects.

“With the emergence of Islam and the spread of its principles, a new economic system appeared which was quite different from the tax system. The Islamic system is known as Zakat and involves collection of about 2.5 percent of money from the rich. It is then spent on financing different services provided to the society. Debtors and the poor are exempted from paying the Zakat as they are among the beneficiaries.

“Recently, Secretary General for the Supreme Council for Planning and Development said the enforcement of tax should happen within three years, stressing the urgent need for the state to have access to the money collected as tax.

“The Secretary General did not add any new ideas but just copied the economic systems followed in other countries. However, those countries are quite different from Kuwait in terms of history and social culture. He just wants to enforce a tax system without carrying out serious studies to identify the side effects and dangerous consequences of implementing the tax system for citizens and expatriates earning low income.

“Tax system should be just and should not add financial burdens on citizens and residents who earn low incomes. It should instead be enforced on rich traders through collection of a fixed amount as Zakat. Tax should be enforced on the huge sums of money being transferred to the banks of Switzerland and from the unlimited privileges offered by the state to the elite class. If this happens, the state will collect outstanding revenues that can cover the budget deficit.

“Can the Supreme Council for Planning suggest imposing tax on the rich traders or is it too risky and politically costly to approach the wasps’ nest?”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb