‘Statement neglected vital matters’
‘Solution lies in late Amir’s stance’
“THE Kuwaiti allegiance to the Al-Sabah family was never the subject of controversy and there is no room for criticism. It is dated forever. ‘There is consistent cooperation, agreement and love enshrined in the Constitution and charter. This is the feeling of the entire Kuwaiti community towards the Al Sabah family’. The late Abdulaziz Al-Saqr said this during a Jeddah Conference in October 1990,” columnist Dr Ali Abdul Rahman Al-Huwail wrote for Al-Rai daily.
“The first thing that attracts the attention in the Kuwait document and the statement of political forces called ‘the reform work document’ is the sharpness that characterized both the document and the statement which helps the reader to remember the shoddy atmosphere of the Arab revolutions and the alleged victories in the 1950s.
“Those who drafted the statement or document have used expressions consistent with the expressions of the 1950s to refer to the regime of government in Kuwait. It is an expression often used to describe dictatorial regimes, not like the Kuwaiti constitutional and democratic system that has been popularly agreed upon twice and documents and regulates it through the relationship between it and citizens in the Constitution unites
Kuwaitis.
“The second remarkable thing is that the readable document and the statement speak in the name of
Kuwait without proving the existence of a mandate from the nation or the majority of its citizens, as there are no authenticated signatures of more than half of Kuwaitis with one confirming their approval, and collecting and documenting these signatures is not an impossible or difficult matter, as it was implemented by the Egyptian youth who opposed the late president Morsi. Today, with high-tech technology, it becomes much easier.
“The problem is not that there is a disagreement between the regime and those who have made a statement about national reconciliation, with evidence that everyone who apologized to His Highness the late Amir (may God rest his soul in peace), His Highness immediately accepted the apology and dropped the existing penalties according to his constitutional powers. The problem lies in the existence of final court verdicts issued against these people.
“There is no solution except what was presented by His Highness the late Amir, may God rest his soul, for the alternative is insulting the judiciary and overriding its powers that are guaranteed to it by the Constitution, and thus transgressing the constitution itself.
“The statement without support or justification inserted the issue of the Bedoun, which is the problem that has existed for decades, in its demand for national reconciliation although this issue has nothing to do with national reconciliation. It is clearly an attempt to mix the papers of the country’s issues, especially since the state is in the process of establishing a higher committee to manage all nationality affairs, and this is based on demands regarding withdrawn nationalities and amending the nationality law.
“Despite the referrals of senior officials from the government of Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak to the judiciary, his dismissal from the premiership and overhauling the Integrity (Nazaha) board, the statement calls again for fighting corruption and referring the guilty to the judiciary without proposing a solution or adding a solution.
“The statement neglected to present what matters to Kuwait as a whole and that really affects it, and it must be addressed immediately, such as getting out of the financial crisis and preventing its recurrence , by diversifying sources of income, raising the level of services, saving education, raising the level of health services, correcting the demographics.
“The statement also ignored Kuwaitizing the work in the private sector, and redistributing subsidies without depriving the needy, studying the application of the tax system and presenting it to citizens, adhering to the constitutional limits in privatization, attracting foreign investment and direct implementation of the agreement with the People’s Republic of China, concluding special understandings with Iraq, and expanding small and medium enterprises, and studying the proposal of the Capital Economics Foundation, to reduce the value of the Kuwaiti dinar while continuing to support its exchange rate and purchasing power, and to rehabilitate the infrastructure and comprehensive development, and similar issues.”
Also:
“If we want to address a complex set of interconnected and interrelated problems, it is necessary to break the barrier of outdated ideas produced by obstructive minds and go through the core of reality,” columnist Naji Al-Mulla wrote for Al-Jarida daily.
“Rational privatization governed by competition, far from monopoly, which is not created for the benefit of some will inevitably end an overlapping and wrapped package of problems, and eliminate poor services while improving these services in terms of quality and speed, whatever they are.
“Privatization will also end any free service or commodity for non-citizens, and the state guarantees provision of electricity support to citizens at a certain level, with mandatory consumption guidelines such as timers, sensors, water guides, and low-energy homes
“As an alternative to the health budget, after privatizing it, the state pays citizens to provide health treatment in Kuwait and abroad, and the same is applied for schools, universities and institutes of international reputation after the privatization of education.
“Privatization will create real jobs for young people, and it will make the employee effective, experienced and committed, equipped with skills and ethics in work and dealing with others shall be radically different from what is present in the public sector today.
“Privatization will transform the parasitic government institutions and facilities that are currently considered to be the cause of the irrational bloated expenditure, which brings no revenue to the nation; rather it is an incubator of randomness, disguised unemployment that has reached 60%, corruption in tenders, unscientific and inefficient use of resources and equipment.
“Privatization with one blow overcomes all these aspects, and we will not need armies of officials, managers, employees, that is to say we will do away with their problems, the problems of those who manage them, and the loss of standards of efficiency between the ranks of the intermediaries and political appeasers. Privatization turns state assets into assets that generate jobs and taxes, i.e. they generate profits and generate income.
“Privatization will impose a change in the education philosophy so that its outputs are compatible with the market, the temples of fake certificate will collapse, and students and parents will be keen to enroll their children in the most prestigious universities and rehabilitation centers because the educational outputs will be subject to the conditions of the private sector and the job will be based on intelligence, skill and scientific potential, not the price of certificates.
“Privatization will turn the budget upside down, and Chapter One will reach six billion, on the assumption that the state pays 650 dinars as labor support for 400,000 Kuwaiti employees working in the private sector, at a value of 3.12 billion dinars, and the rest for the salaries of employees of non-privatized government institutions and agencies.
“This approach must be complemented by conditions in order to be in contact with the public community interest. It is necessary to impose Kuwaitization, to continue to support national employment, to impose progressive taxes, to exclude marginal employment, and to reduce the value of the real estate because it consumes the salaries of Kuwaitis and a large part of the capital and profits of successful companies, the protection of consumers from all forms of exploitation and commercial fraud.
“It is also most important to distribute 25 percent of the net profit of local and foreign sovereign funds to citizens annually, and to disclose the data of the sovereign funds to people ‘online’ and their developments minute by minute, such as what Norway does.
“This is an example. If we do not do it, we will remain in the ‘embrace’ of squeaky snakes who suffocate us and then swallow us.”
“I do not know if there is seriousness in dealing, working and implementing the instructions, circulars, bulletins and decisions issued by the offices of the Minister of Education and Undersecretary of the ministry to approve communicating with employees in schools’ administrations and teachers through WhatsApp. With this method and the illegal image, steps which are not in the interest of work led to chaos and no one is held responsible!” columnist Abdulaziz Khuraibet wrote Al-Shahid daily.
“Over the last months, the ministry has been keen on publishing and sharing successive statements and meetings about its accounts and daily events without taking precautions and health measures until the time of announcing the infection of an employee during the preparation phase of the distance education project and the educational platform – mere video clips devoid of interaction between the student and the teacher.
“In many previous articles, we warned a lot about such meetings, as they do not adhere to health and preventive measures. We have stressed as well the need to stop such meetings, activities and work, as this is not the time to show such meetings on social media and official accounts of the ministry.
“We received a message entitled, ‘Teachers’ Suffering with Teams’, and we present it as it is:
“We, the teachers in various educational stages, suffer from poor planning in the distribution of work hours despite the recent publication of a circular which is based on the work required. The work is divided into groups and the directors were given some powers to be lenient with the technical staff and teachers. Unfortunately, most administrations do not cooperate except in the presence and mediation of officials who are above us!”
“I do not know if my proposal or vision is open for thought, debate or even consideration. It is not a secret to all of us that in recent decades, the country witnessed deterioration of some basic services which are important in the lives of people, such as education and health, in light of budgets and spending at the time,” columnist Iqbal AlAhmad wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“The causes and reasons behind the deterioration are not the subject of our article. However today, after the emergence of problems in spending due to decline in oil prices and sales revenues – the main source of spending in Kuwait in light of the severe deficiency of other sources of income, we need to reconsider the ratios of spending on some services, especially the important ones.
“In the next few years, a portion of the budget for military deals and the purchase of weapons should be allocated to support the education and health budgets, provided the transition from its current level to higher and distinct levels matches the outputs and quality of education in the private sector, particularly the distinguished ones.
“In the field of education, we need qualitative development and the transition to modern and technological education ... not the allocation of funds to raise the salaries and bonuses of the academic staff in view of the normal and routine giving we have been used to.”