O leadership … Just as in our nights, our morning is full of idle talk and shenanigans

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MORE than half a century ago, an international relations expert wrote, “The world keeps coming politically close to setting the parameters of a new international order that has just emerged or is about to emerge, from a state of long-term instability or high violence and destruction such as war or turmoil.”

In addition to the aforementioned, the countries, irrespective of whether they are small or big, that had prepared for all possibilities had a foothold in the new system, and their role in the international and regional equations emerged remarkably.

Those countries worked first to dry up the sources of their internal crises through tangible development projects that provide stability for their people. At the same time, they also worked to prepare their infrastructure to settle local investments, and attract foreign ones as well. On the other hand, crises multiplied and turned into hotbeds of chaos in the countries that remained stagnant.

Since the beginning of the international movement for change in the early 1990s, Kuwait has stood on the sidewalk, singing the glories of the past but not moving a single finger for the sake of the future. For this reason, it is today experiencing a series of crises from which it is not possible to get out if it maintains the current status quo.

O leadership, we have been crying out for years, like many others, about the great burdens placed on society as a result of the housing welfare dilemma, medical treatments, subsidies, waste, loans, and the unhealthy relationship between the National Assembly and the successive governments. Everyone plays deaf, or at best, a number of resonant slogans come out in the form of government’s work programs, which are usually written in faded ink because majority of the programs are just copy-and-paste from the previous governments.

Indeed, we and others are crying out as if we are blowing into a torn waterskin. This is because, despite the exacerbation of the traffic crisis due to the absence of a clear strategy, resorting to sedatives by using expatriates as scapegoats and holding them accountable, and not seriously thinking about how to exploit this in the interest of Kuwait and turn it into a source of income, this issue, like many others, remains unresolved.

In light of these crises, Kuwait has become more like a shop whose owner went bankrupt due to which he searched through old books, and did not work to diversify his sources of income, despite having wealth that qualifies him for development and advancement.

The housing issue has not been resolved since the mid-1980s. In fact, it is getting worse. This is happening despite the great suffering that Kuwaitis face, while our government refuses to learn from the experiences of other countries in this regard.

Learn from Morocco, which solved the problem by granting companies plots of land to build residential cities, and then selling them to citizens at reasonable prices or on installments payable over 40 years. Or learn from Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain or Britain, and the United Arab Emirates, which solved this problem within a few years. the last of which was to honor Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed for exempting retirees and families of the deceased from housing loans. We still do not know why our government is deaf and blind to these solutions.

O leadership, our governments do not work, and they do not allow anyone to work. As for the successive parliaments of the country, it seems that their parliamentarians are detached from reality. They do not see what is happening in the world, and do not realize the dimensions and risks of developments. This is because we live in accordance with the saying, which translates to: “Just like our night, our morning is full of idle talk and shenanigans,” coupled by closure and isolation.

Our country needs a strong hand, and a firm decision that puts things right, as Kuwait cannot wait any longer at a time when the world is changing. It is on the verge of a new international order, in which we must have a foothold and not allow our homeland to be consumed by oblivion.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

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