publish time

12/11/2020

author name Arab Times

publish time

12/11/2020

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 12: The former MP and contestant in the 2020 elections from the Third Constituency, Fares Al- Otaibi says corruption is rampant in the country which has increased considerable in the country in recent years due to the absence of oversight and legislation in the National Assembly in 2016, in addition to the MPs turning their back on the interests of the citizens and the homeland. During an interview with the Al-Seyassah daily, Al-Otaibi said he is against the one-man one-vote system, saying he believes that it is responsible for what happened during the tenure of the former National Assembly; most of the MPs failed in their work and wasted the life of Parliament 2016 in conflicts and political rivalries.

Problems
He told the daily, if he wins the 2020 elections he will work to solve the problems of Kuwaiti women and added, the National Assembly 2016 has not accomplished anything that is of benefit to the Kuwaitis because the MPs were preoccupied in trivial political conflicts more than achievements, to such an extent, it looked like the MPs were more concerned about personal accounts rather than looking at what benefits the nation and the citizens.

He added, this behavior of some of the MPs of the 2016 Assembly forced them to apologize to the people for their negligence. Is this not considered an assurance of their failure to achieve the people’s interests, he asked. This is an official admission that had failed to work for the people and the nation. In reply to a question, that this Assembly issued laws restricting freedoms even though the constitution calls for more freedoms and not the other way around, he affirmed the Kuwaiti Constitution calls for more freedoms, but they (the MPs) did the opposite of what the constitution calls for.

Rivalries
Speaking about the National Assembly 2013 he said, the Kuwaiti people are fully aware that it was much stronger than the Parliament of 2016, because the Assembly of 2013 Council approved 120 laws during its term, all of which are laws that serve the citizens and the country, and this is due to the fact that the Parliament 2013 did not indulge much into political rivalries and unacceptable practices unlike the Parliament of 2016.

To the contrary corruption increased above its levels in recent years, because the MPs of 2016 MPs failed to legislate strict laws to combat corruption, which indicates the lack of oversight within this Parliament. “If I win the elections, I will focus on canceling one vote, so that we rely on the two votes.

This is better for democracy, as one vote has led to many negativities, and the evidence for this is that it brought a large number of candidates to the National Assembly in 2016 who had, what he called, no level of practice and political experience, and therefore they were easy prey for political conflicts and entire Kuwait expressed dissatisfaction with one-man one-vote system, so if I win the 2020 elections, I will work to amend the one-man one-vote election law. Of the electoral districts, he said the Kuwaiti constitution does not allow making Kuwait a single district. “I think dividing the country into five constituencies and giving each voter two votes would be much better than the status quo.

During the interview, he also said he will work to introduce laws that raise the income of the citizen so that they can live a decent life, and “I will work with full force to drop the loans of the citizens,” and said he is one of the strongest supporters of dropping the loans of citizens. Speaking of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, most economies of the world were affected, but the Kuwaitis remained cohesive during the crisis, the government wanted to provide more benefits for the citizens, but unfortunately we saw Kuwaiti youth being laid off from work in the private sector, and the government did nothing.

Measures
On the economic file, the contestant said, the country has been repeatedly talking about diversifying the sources of income but there has been no realistic measures in this regard because to do this the country needs to plan carefully by expanding Kuwaiti industry and encouraging investments within the country.

The state’s mechanism about foreign investments must also be changed. “I favor directing foreign investments towards Kuwait, with the need to welcome foreign investments to the country, as well as establishing industries that depend on oil derivatives,” he said. Of the housing crisis, he said, it is not as difficult as it is portrayed to be. The solution lies in distributing the existing plots of lands to the citizens. “Is it reasonable for the citizen to wait for many years to obtain housing care,” he asked.

According to him, he said, it is clear that there is an influential group that is benefiting from obstructions in the path of the solution to the crisis with one eye on the rise in the price of land and the problem that increases the housing issue is that the state does not take clear and radical decisions to solve the crisis, which has led to the presence of huge numbers of citizens waiting to receive housing care. When asked if he supports the ‘apartment system’ as a solution to the housing crisis, he said, he strongly rejects and as an example cited failed example of the Sawaber complex which can neither be forgotten nor forgiven.

By Najeh Bilal Al-Seyassah Staff