THE Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) cut short the celebration of thousands of Kuwaitis when it proposed a solution to the loan issue. Its statement reflected the real motive, or simply put, the objective of blocs affiliated to it that had caused many economic problems to the country. It encourages frivolous expenditures to serve personal interests, especially in terms of major projects which lack developmental purpose.

On top of this, the chamber continues to use its political sword against whoever tries to challenge its ideologies. The chamber thinks these ideologies are pillars of the Kuwaiti economy. It uses a divisive method in dealing with various Kuwaiti components as was evident in its recent statement, “The public fund must be utilized to support only those who merit it, in order to avoid a situation in which the extensive use of the social luxury concept on government expenditures merely complicates the economic lapses, as well as the steady misappropriation of public money, including the future generations fund.”

It is impossible for someone with a controlling and discriminating mentality to contribute to nation-building and economic development, because whoever thinks he alone has the right to enjoy public funds is isolated from other citizens. This person believes in the idea of absolute discrimination, so he will not be comfortable with the concept of unifying Kuwaitis. He regards about 10 percent of the populace as the sole and rightful controllers of 85 percent of national wealth. A situation like this does not lead to the realization of national and economic development goals, because it limits the space for investment participation in favor of a particular sector.

Whoever thinks this way sees the loan cancellation proposal as a precedent to wasteful expenditure by the executive and legislative authorities in a bid to satisfy the profligate consumers. Someone with this opinion regards himself as the authority tasked to determine how public money is spent and the kind of people who benefit from it.
On the other hand, every citizen has the right to ask the chamber certain questions. Who encouraged the spread of the ‘consumer fever’ among citizens, up to the extent of enticing them to obtain loans with interests that sometimes exceed 40 percent? Is it not a general assumption that whoever influences an action is part of it, so he should bear responsibility like the doer; or does the chamber expect everybody to see with one eye and ignore its wrongdoing?

The chamber has overlooked security, social and political aspects of the loan issue. It just focused on the economic aspect, looking into the problem based on its own perspective rather than the reality. It has never deviated from the recommendations presented 20 years ago to address the economic problems. This kind of action merely complicates the problems due to the unrealistic vision.
The most recent of such recommendations was for the government to ‘buy’ bankrupt companies and pay their debts to overcome the global economic meltdown in 2008 at the expense of the entire country. Was it considered reasonable expenditure and a move to protect public funds at the time, despite knowing that the required payment was double the total amount of citizens’ loans — the cancellation of which frightens the chamber now?

It is unfortunate for some traders and businesspersons to think they can impose their will on the whole nation by putting pressure and intimidating authorities any time. Whenever anyone reminds them of the dangerous repercussions of their actions, they accuse the person of engaging in frivolous acts and messing up national wealth, while dealing with him ruthlessly.
A resilient economy is attainable through dialogue in order to encourage citizens to actively participate in building the nation, in addition to lessening the burden on public coffers. Sadly, the chamber does not feel this way in terms of finding a single solution for several national issues.

The ‘wastage’ which the chamber mentioned in its statement is less devastating to the nation compared to the blunders of the Central Bank of Kuwait and the commercial banks, particularly their failure to lay down a sensible collateral policy. These errors resulted in the wastage of billions of dinars on projects whose budgets are 10 times higher than the actual cost.
Again, the chamber has trampled upon the rights of most Kuwaitis, taking into consideration only the personal interests while ignoring those who fell into debt due to the failure of the government to guarantee services. Along with some businesspersons and traders, the chamber used political groups and parliamentary blocs to suspend the economic development process until there is no other option but to push for privatization and intensive sucking of human blood.