Al-Sanousi: Imprisonment and dud cheques program

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KUWAIT has lost a media figure who left great humanitarian and creativity imprints throughout the years of his career. The curtain drops with the departure of this Kuwaiti, Gulf, and Arab personality – the former minister Muhammad Al-Sanousi.

The late Al-Sanousi was a man who, throughout his career, was keen to establish a distinguished media approach, encapsulated in graceful and clear language. He also worked on providing the media field with everything that distinguishes the authentic Kuwaiti identity, which is inclined towards openness to all, offering help, and lifting the grievances of the oppressed.

I still remember the initiative launched by this great man about 35 years ago after the famous Al-Manakh stock market crisis, in which we participated like many Kuwaitis.

I remember how Muhammad Al-Sanousi got out of the studio and went to prison to make the world a witness to another kind of injustice that a group of Kuwaitis and residents were subjected to at that time in relation to the phenomenon of dud cheques. The penalty for anyone who issued a dud cheque was jail term ranging between two to five years. This penalty was not merged, or in other words, the issuer of dud cheques was punished separately for each cheque he or she issued.

Among these were many women who succumbed to their husbands’ pressure, and borrowed but later issued cheques without funds in the accounts. The sentences of some of them reached 20 to 30 years in prison. This made an elite group of citizens launch an outcry to end the grievances of these people. This was led by the late media figure, who turned one of the cells in the prison into a studio where he met with many of those imprisoned for issuing dud cheques.

I remember the inmates he met in prison included an Indian resident whose crime was the issuance of a dud cheque of KD 200. In broken Arabic, he said he was wrong in issuing it, and he was serving a two-year prison sentence, and he was not allowed to work in order to secure the amount. The prison warden was an understanding person of good faith. Al-Sanousi asked the director, “If we pay this person’s debt now, will he be released?”, and the warden said, “Immediately.” Al-Sanousi paid the person the money, and the prison administration began the procedures for releasing the prisoner. This campaign resonated not only in Kuwait, but in the entire Gulf region.

I remember the Vice President of the UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, when he watched a part of the program, had contacted Al-Sanousi, and wired him a sum of one million dollars to help those in debt. Unfortunately, this generous gesture was viewed by some Kuwaitis with contempt, and they made a fuss about it in the newspapers, which prompted the cancellation of Al-Sanousi’s program after that, and the initiative was terminated. Some of those who refused to lift the grievances of debtors and defaulters still oppose amending the law related to dud cheques, even though the majority of countries in the world have made it a civil case, not a criminal one.

They do not even allow people of goodwill and fraternity to donate to debtors. They even restrict the work of the Zakat House and some charities interested in this matter. Although we have been raising our voices to this day to solve this problem that afflicts many people, it is still one of the dilemmas. We remember the late Muhammad Al-Sanousi for not only being a pioneer in this regard and for being a distinguished media figure, but also for being a humanitarian figure that Kuwait has lost.

Nevertheless, he has left behind a vast legacy that could serve as a tool for the young people working in the media field, so that they realize what it means to be a journalist, whose objectives are always the people and the elevation of the country. May Almighty Allah have mercy on Abu Tariq’s soul, and grant him dwellings in His spacious gardens. May He inspire the bereaved with patience and solace. “We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.”

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

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