How long will Kuwait be captive to a bickering
and unproductive government and parliament?

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THE absence of a vision and a plan is the most serious offense to Kuwait, offset by the sin of seizing authority over another, bickering about everything in the country, and hiding behind flimsy justifications.

Therefore, the dilemma we are facing will continue as long as our governments continue to bury their heads in the sand, and with the continued personalization of stances by MPs and their transformation of constitutional tools into weapons that they use to either pass what they want or paralyze the Cabinet and get rid of non-compliant members.

One of the biggest sins is having a Cabinet that is not able, strong, and effective. It stands like a pedestrian as if it is not its responsibility. The Prime Minister willingly waives off its powers and hands it over to the National Assembly and its MPs who do not care about the affairs of the country and its people as much as benefiting from corruption and using it for their benefit.

For years we have been living in hell, but not a single person has moved even a finger to rescue us. It is hopeless for the people who are looking for the cause of the problem. Is it the Cabinet, or the one in charge of its executive responsibilities? Could it be due to the election outcomes, or the constituencies and their geographical distribution? Is it because of the nature of the legislative authority that has taken the path of blackmail over the past three decades, and has been entrenched since three years in deals that were exposed but which emboldened them?

These legitimate questions are asked by every Kuwaiti in pursuit of answers that will extinguish their anger. They are the same in the statements of the two Deputy Prime Ministers – Minister of Defense Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali, and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmed Al-Mansour.

Here it must be noted that Kuwait and its current government have lost two well-known ministers. We hope that this will be a warrior’s retreat in preparation for a stronger comeback when there is an able presidency of the government, who will get us out of the cycle of panic and factionalism that seeks to kill everything that is patriotic. All that is needed is statesmen to take charge.

Why is Kuwait witnessing all this devastation? The answer is clear and does not require prolonged research. In short, it is because of the unsuccessful choices of the Prime Minister, who relied on some powerful ministers in all of his four governments, while the rest were just employees who did not rise to the level of the position they held. Therefore, we saw how his governments endured weakness and lacked creativity in its solutions to the problems faced by the country.

If there was anyone who imagined that whatever happened in the past two months of the new government’s life was not expected, all indications were that a torrent of interpellations would barrage the Cabinet, whose boss remained unmoved even though he had the opportunity to change the incorrect equation.

This was especially when his two ministers courageously faced malicious grilling, even though they were alone, as the government neither protected them nor provided them with sufficient ammo for confrontation.

The Minister of Defense passed the confidence test with 23 MPs, which is the same number obtained by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed. According to political readings, this means that the government has abandoned them.

The two grillings were about practices committed by former ministers. They included many inaccuracies that no sane person would accept, but they were malicious on one hand, and represented the weakness of the prime minister on the other.

Nonetheless, will the state remain captive to a government and a National Assembly that do not produce and did not offer anything that insinuates reassurance to the people who no longer have any confidence in the two assemblies, and whose main demand is for them to leave and suspend the National Assembly’s activity for some time?

After that, all laws should be issued by decrees of necessity, after which work should immediately begin to salvage Kuwait from the catastrophe of social, economic and political decline caused by weak governments and parliaments dominated by backward political currents.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

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