‘Global scene heading for change’
“IT was once reported that General Henri Gouraud, who led the French occupation of Syria and Lebanon in 1920, went to the tomb of Saladin as soon as Damascus fell into the hands of his forces, and addressed the grave calling: ‘Get up, Saladin, for we have returned,” columnist Mohammad Salem Al-Mezel wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“Of course, he was speaking on behalf of the Crusaders, who had defeated the walls of Jerusalem nine centuries earlier before his arrival in Damascus. Gouraud, known for his racism and religious extremism, began the age of mandate which lasted for two decades by occupying Mount Lebanon and then Damascus.
“After defeating the Arab army in Maysaloun battle, on the 12th of July 1920, he worked to divide the Levant into states -- Damascus, Aleppo, Mount Druze, Jabal Al-Alawites, and the ‘Lebanon’ Mountain state, whose centenary anniversary fell days ago passed and was celebrated by French President Emmanuel Macron in his own way during his recent visit to Lebanon.
“However, one hundred years separate the two men (Gouraud and Macron), during which the world has changed a lot.
“In other words, Gouraud, had come to the Levant by virtue of the pure military might, while Macron, has come after 100 years, with soft power and explains, perhaps, that Gouraud went to the grave of Saladin while Macron visited Mrs. Fairouz (the Lebanese well known singer) in her home. But the result remains the same.
“Just as France entrusted the Lebanese issue according to Versailles and San Remo 100 years ago, it is likely that the major powers recently entrusted to Paris the ‘Lebanese file’ at a favorable opportunity -- the current deteriorating situations, perhaps a watershed in the history of that country, created by the catastrophic explosion of the Beirut port, and the absence of any Arab role.
“It seems clear that there are strategic shifts taking place in our region. Its little details may be aware of the rushing headlines, but we are certainly oblivious to its bigger picture. These transformations intend to return us to about a hundred years to such an extent it looks like that both the Versailles and San Remo were not torn down by the progression of time.
“It is clear from Macron’s speech in Beirut, and some recent leaked reports, that Europeans are racing against time, with their eyes on the US elections that will be held in less than two months.
“The French president told the Lebanese politicians last week that they must ‘arrange their affairs’ before the end of the year, as the US administration, regardless of who leads it, ‘will not be as diplomatic (and here I mean tender, kind) like France’, and certainly will not wear silky gloves.
“The US administration is completely preoccupied with the re-election campaign of President Donald Trump, which gives the Europeans more margins for the movement. Also, the current Trump administration decided from day one to gradually withdraw from the region, which may be completed if Trump wins the forthcoming presidential elections.
“This is convenient for Macron and his European siblings, who of course fear the advent of a democratic administration that will restore the American momentum in the Middle East, perhaps via Iran, to complement Barack Obama’s project that Trump aborted, fortunately keeping in mind that the United States entered the region from its widest gates following the British withdrawal at the end of the 1960s, and the French preceded them twenty years earlier.
“Today the picture is reversed. The old lady is preparing to fill the vacuum that the US ‘disengagement’ will leave with the region’s problems. The observer notes that many of the seam lines in which Europeans seem to move today are very similar to those that were defined a hundred years ago. We see the Italian Foreign Minister in Libya inaugurating his country’s sponsorship of the recently announced ceasefire.
“The British ambassador is moving between Aden and Sana’a in an effort to calm down the situations towards a political solution to the Yemeni war, accompanied by successive contacts between London and Riyadh at the highest levels.
“Europe, which has been burdened by the chronic diseases of our region, and whose security has undermined the manifestations of the chaotic American intervention in the Arab world, is seeking today to re-engineer that reality through direct intervention, certainly not military, based on rebuilding a new political structure where London will control all of its details even from behind closed doors.
“After ninety years of Turkish active relations with the West, it coincides with ‘a final state of divorce’ with the Arab and Islamic East, through which ‘the new Ottomans’ are currently striving to restore their missing influence.”
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“When the state worsens, it disintegrates and loses its centralization, control and power are distributed among the influential people, and society becomes subject to polarizations and the domination of small identities at the expense of national centralism, and the state apparatus becomes tools in the hands of those with influence, and the references become sectarian, tribal, factional, and family, and the state turns into a formally dilapidated structure without control rooms,” columnist and former director of Culture Department at the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters Waleed Al-Rujaib wrote for Al-Rai daily.
“Wealth is concentrated in the hands of influential people, and is distributed among the loyalties and the purchase of liabilities, so social justice and equal opportunities are absent, honest national competencies are excluded, bad elements emerge and the social balance between groups is disrupted, the class gap between the rich few and the poor majority widens, and laws are enacted for the benefit of the influential.
“The first manifestation of the state’s depravity is the loss of personal and public freedoms, so that exercising constitutional freedoms becomes a crime punishable by law, and the public office and the legislative authority become means of rapid and illegal gain, and bribery becomes a method and corruption is a prevalent culture on the surface.
‘The educational system collapses, ignorance prevails, awareness decreases, values, morals and behavior collapse, general culture declines, the level of arts and literature declines, marginalized in light of social and cultural backwardness, different cultures differentiate and diverge, and the sharp conflict becomes not between modern and newer, but between backwardness and modernity at its lowest levels.
“The law becomes tailored and is measured based on cases and individuals, and the application becomes selective and applies to some and does not apply to others, which makes the state of security a class rather than a general one, and society becomes a threat to some of it, and violence may become the means for some in settlements, where the law is the law of sects and groups.
“When the state worsens, no stone remains on stone, political and social disasters are resolved, and the state becomes hostage to external ambitions and interference in the affairs of its sovereignty, and loses its prestige internally and externally, without regard or loyalty to it, and people turn to other sanctuaries.
“When the state worsens, its wealth is plundered, its economy collapses, and it dies clinically, the treasury becomes without guards, nature becomes from the seas and plains of a landfill, the earth is poisoned with human remnants, and it loses its innocence and love for humans, and the ropes of connection between it and people are cut off, even if they live on it.
“We will not increase and we will not separate, but the wise and the wise take note, because the land needs love and organic attachment to it, and the state needs men and women who do not fear and who do not hesitate, so that it does not reach the point of wear and tear, but needs daring men and women if they need to live in safety a decent life.”
“As we celebrate the anniversary of the century since the founding of Kuwaiti Constitution the first to be witnessed in the Arab world, we remember loyal men who devoted their time and effort and made great sacrifice to lay down the rules and building blocks of the Constitution of Dignity for Kuwait’s democracy. Democracy still runs through the veins of the original Kuwaiti people since the nation’s establishment with the middle of the eighteenth century in the simplest form of democracy,” Retired Colonel Abdullah Al-Misbah wrote for Al-Anba daily.
“Kuwaitis agreed and met their will to choose the noble Al-Sabah family as its ruler and appointed Sheikh Sabah, the first ruler of the country, by conviction without pressure or interference from foreign countries, great or small.
“In 1921, the first Constitution of Kuwait was issued. It was the first written Constitution in Kuwait containing only five articles. In the implementation of this Constitution, a consultative council was established the same year. And, the second constitution was issued in 1938 by the Legislative Council, which was established the same year the members of the Legislative Council were elected. They’re 15 members and more comprehensive than the previous Constitution.
“In 1961, the late Amir Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem issued the third Constitution to organize the work of public authorities until the permanent Constitution was completed. This Constitution was valid for only one year until the last Constitution of Kuwait was issued on November 11, 1962.
“The Kuwaiti Constitution is the dignity of the people and the backbone of democracy. The faithful men of Kuwait made great sacrifice for the Constitution, while members of the National Assembly are the guards whom the people elect and delegate to preserve and protect the Constitution.
“Unfortunately, some of the guards of Constitution have failed the people and destroyed everything that was built by those faithful men of Kuwait. They betrayed their trust and chased after their own interests and cheap personal gains. The principle of safeguarding and preserving the Constitution became their last concern. They fought the people and restricted freedoms. They legislated everything that would silence and restrict citizens and prevent the freedom of expression, ignoring their supervisory role over the government. They followed their cheap personal interests, while distorting the most beautiful pictures of Kuwaiti democracy the region and the world used to refer to as Lebanon and praise Kuwait’s pioneering experience in it.
“Due to the poor performance of some parliamentarians, many Kuwaitis boycotted the one-vote parliament because they were not convinced of the principle, although I agree with them in some of their views. Candidates who are accustomed to humiliating themselves and begging their constituents to give them votes, as if they were fighting to gain access to the keys of treasure to the awaited the Green Chair, and others promising their constituents to fulfill their demands through illegal appointments and mediation.
“Participate and do not let Kuwait down, do not boycott the elections and fight the spoilers. Choose the strong and honest.”
“In these depressing and sad conditions that the whole world is going through, the seriousness of the conditions of the ‘jobless labor’ in the country which flooded many open places have been revealed to everyone. Unfortunately, they are begging for the sympathy and mercy of those who use them for a few hours at a low price,” columnist Mohammad Salem Al-Balhan wrote for AlQabas daily.
“The officials discovered the seriousness of the situation that this group of people is experiencing, its bad repercussions and impact on the safety of the country and the people through their benevolent efforts, for which they will be remembered in history. This revealed the cover of the hands that worked on the existence of this miserable group of people in the country – the ‘visa traders’ who exploited the need of the miserable person in order to achieve – behind the latter’s need and suffering – an interest that generates huge sums for them.
“Faced with this deteriorating situation, the question comes: How did this category (visa traders) bypass all the procedures, laws and regulations enacted by the State in order to determine the relationship between the worker and the employer, such that they flooded the country with the so-called ‘jobless workers’ who are unfortunately begging for the sympathy of others?
“Bear in mind that the State clearly and credibly defined the relationship between the worker and the employer in the laws, decisions and regulations implemented by the competent government departments, including the security, technical and administrative departments.
“The Ministry of Planning used to have a department which consisted of various agencies in charge of studying the labor applications received by companies, institutions and commercial stores. After these agencies thoroughly studied the needs of the aforementioned establishments and the work they do, the number of workers who would be recruited from abroad to implement the work of these establishments was determined.”
“The Iranian Salehi was referred to the Public Prosecution for involvement in many complex cases. His investigation is still ongoing. Every day, new information about the investigation is leaked. As per the so-called ‘duck of jerba’ agreement, he confesses his crimes and names his accomplices without coercion,” columnist Talal Al-Saeed wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.
“For the first time, he revealed many big names – some of whom occupy major and sensitive positions. No one expected or doubted their involvement in such cases. Rather, some of these names are among the most important in their mission to combat fraud, counterfeiters, bribery and bribes.
“It is important that the Iranian defendant is asking the prosecution to prevent the publication of his case for fear of inciting public opinion against him, but the prosecution has yet to respond to his request.
“The Iranian defendant, whose relations seem to have no specific ceiling, has had a desk at every wedding in Kuwait. This enabled him to establish the empire that he did not imagine would collapse overnight, after he fortified it with his multiple acquaintances and complex relationships. He was confident that they would protect him.”