O leadership … We want a strong government

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THE current Cabinet is similar to most governments, especially the previous four, in terms of weakness and inability to take actions. This is because the majority of ministers are not at the level of the current stage of Kuwait. They are not able to deal with the massive files inherited from the past stage, which was characterized by bickering between the National Assembly and the Council of Ministers, and led to deterioration at all levels and the instability of the ministerial position. In fact, Kuwait has the highest number of former ministers regionally.

This situation led to the infiltration of corruption in state institutions to such an extent that it is difficult to fix. The only solution is to rebuild all institutions, and dismantle the quota system that is void of competencies, as it is affecting even the formation of the Cabinet and all executive positions. What Kuwait is experiencing is not an ordinary situation, as some try to portray it. The continuous decline on the economic, political, educational, health and social levels is a natural result of the absence of decision- making.

This is something that has led to the spread of chaos and the exacerbation of economic crises and security unrest in many countries – both Arab and non-Arab. Let us explicitly admit that there are ministers and undersecretaries who have benefited from their positions, and used them for their own interests. They even made the institutions they supervise almost like private companies, something that is not present in any other Gulf country, where the law is the master except during rare occasions, and their governments perform their executive role without any interference in their work neither from the parliament nor from “shura”. Based on this fact, it seems that the Kuwaitis have not learned from the lessons of the past.

They keep repeating the same mistake with each government, either by conflicting interests between it and the MPs, or by imposing its vision, which is well aware that it is not in line with reality. We therefore ask – What did the previous governments, as well as the current one, do to close the files related to the Bedoun residents, demographics, housing and public finances? The answer is simply “Nothing”, or it seeks to keep these files open in order to invest them politically.

On the other hand, it seems that the MPs are in a different valley, and do not express the popular demands that they adopted in order to be elected. They only grab populist issues, and they want them to strengthen their electoral positions, such as the issue of loans, which is one of the simplest solutions if there is sincere intention to solve this crisis. Despite this catastrophic failure in developing the state, political players refuse to abandon tribal, sectarian and regional quotas, and seek to root the error as a political and administrative approach that cannot be deviated from.

This wrong vision cannot be adopted and cannot proceed with reform, due to which the government remains weak and incapable of confrontation. It is very shameful for Kuwait to live in this miserable situation, and to pay a heavy price for stubbornness and unilateral vision. These authorities were established to cooperate and complement each other based on their competencies, and not for the government to be a victim of the National Assembly, or the parliament to be a victim of the government. We are a country facing many challenges, and this necessitates having a government and parliament that are well aware of the sensitivity of the local, regional and international situations.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
[email protected]/[email protected]

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