JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Feb 21, (KUNA): His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s speech at the inaugural session of Kuwait’s National Assembly is “a jumpstart for national unity and increased cooperation between the legislative and executive bodies,” Parliament Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun said Tuesday.
“This is why combined efforts are needed in the parliament and outside of it – the media, in particular – to achieve this aim,” the chief lawmaker told Saudi newspaper, Okath, in an interview.
“We have gone through the tough experience of an invasion, when Kuwaitis united forgetting all of their sectarian and tribal affiliations.” The parliament, along with the government, is faced with a number of issues of significance, namely the much-debated development plans, he said.
“We have not disagreed with the government over the development plan, but over its implementation.
“It (the government) viewed dealing with the plan through a law that gives it full legislative rights and all of the details that follow. This is the underlying source of the argument,” he suggested.
A law should clearly outline that the discussion and implementation of the plan should be carried out after the dual approval of the Cabinet and parliament, especially on strategic projects, he added.
On the so-called opposition of MPs in Kuwait, of which he prescribes to, Al-Saadoun explained: “It is an opposition of the nation’s administration, not the nation’s regime.” This opposing stance was taken in response to “the cabinet’s poor performance and its corruption,” he said, adding that the opposition will continue its position “until the corruption, offenses and disrespect of the constitution have stopped. Only when the Cabinet appears to be performing correctly will we alter our position.” On the people’s view on their leadership, he said, “we are proud that the (Al-Sabah) regime in Kuwait is unique and its stay in power, for around 300 years now, is a result of the people’s advocacy of it.” Al-Saadoun did not attribute the majority Islamist win in the Kuwaiti parliament, as others have succeeded in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, to a conspiracy but stressed the view that these were the choices of the peoples.
He expressed skepticism when speaking of the Kuwaiti parliament’s role in making the Gulf Cooperation Council, a union, criticizing the over 30-year-old regional bloc for only recently adopting I.D. travel among the six nations.
The parliament does not reject a unified Gulf currency, but did not accept the government’s decision to pass a resolution, without the consent of the National Assembly, he noted.