Kuwait redemption is in bold decisions

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WHENEVER a significant segment of society demands the dissolution of the National Assembly or its suspension for four years or more, this means that the will of the voters is against the whims of those they chose to represent them in the National Assembly.

Also, the intimidations and threats of some MPs to return to the situation that Kuwait was in 1976 and 1986 when the Constitution was suspended is nothing more than smoke bombs fired by these people to preserve their positions and gains.

Today, the option of suspending the Constitution is not even close to being on the table. What is needed is the suspension of the parliament.

Perhaps if this demand had taken place in the 1980’s, we would have found a great popular objection, especially when the dissolution of the National Assembly resorted to the “Mondays Diwaniya” and the great popular political momentum of that time. However, the power of the government and the executive authority, despite its failures, was capable of confrontation. Those who experienced that stage know how things were organized in the country.

It is true that the former Iraqi regime saw and grasped the opportunity to pounce and occupy Kuwait through the political movement, and the opposition to the National Assembly, whose first task was to seek to amend the Constitution in a way that was contrary to the popular desire.

Surprisingly, no one supported that barbaric invasion, and the response came from the Jeddah People’s Conference, which concluded with a set of recommendations. However, this quickly evaporated after the liberation, and the political path since that time has turned into something like a systematic deflation of the constitution and the law.

At that time, the process of political naturalization was a Trojan horse for the powerful to change the demographics of the country. It reached the extent of talking about a good percentage of MPs with dual nationalities, some of whom are accused of forging it.

This reality that Kuwait has been experiencing since 1992 has led to a series of crises and paralyzed the country, especially after the MPs exercised an excessive dictatorship over the powers of the Council of Ministers collectively, or over the majority of ministers.

In other words, an alliance emerged between the corrupt in the government and the National Assembly, which helped the infiltration of this unhealthy scourge in all state facilities, especially with the last two parliaments in which the performance of the MPs was characterized by a lot of maliciousness and the pursuit of deals at the expense of the homeland and its people.

Today, if any reputable institution conducted a referendum, it would have found that a significant percentage of the Kuwaiti society, if not all, would demand the suspension of the National Assembly for more than four years, and even the amendment of the constitution, provided there is a strong executive authority that has a clear vision for the future, and meets the demands of the people who are tired of continuous obstruction of the legislative authority and its uncalculated adventures.

The consequences of all this has led Kuwait to an unenviable state. In fact, it evokes pity for a country that was a pioneer in all respects but is today suffering from what resembles old age diseases even though it is still in its prime age of giving.

The progress of Kuwait lies only by responding to the will of the popular forces. This will not happen if matters remain studied behind closed doors, and do not take into account the fact that the goal is to work for this country, which is recovering from the diseases inherited by short-sighted practices, and weak or corrupt governments.

Therefore, if there had been a strong executive authority in the past, the suspension of the parliament could have been avoided, and the country would have spared itself from all these losses and crises.

All countries that have risen from their falls always have had a brave man who was able to overcome all obstacles and lead his nation to where it aspires to be. In Kuwait, we need such men in order to rise again.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

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