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Sunday, October 13, 2024
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‘Douse the fire before it consumes us’

publish time

10/09/2024

publish time

10/09/2024

‘Douse the fire before it consumes us’

The beginnings of establishing student unions go back sixty years. I participated in the first elections and won first place, representing the commercial high school. I subsequently left the union because of the chaos I witnessed, which seems to continue to this day!

Despite the passage of 60 years since the beginning of the establishment of these unions, none of them have received state recognition.

However, almost all the ministers of education, and those higher than them, attended the majority of the conferences and activities of these student unions.

The government always played a role in spending on these unions, and these funds were never subject to any oversight, due to the illegitimacy of these entities.

All education officials were also hesitant -- and some were afraid -- to approach these unions, due to the strong connections of the union members with many members of the National Assembly, and the control by religious, political and tribal groups over the majority of them, with a slight sectarian presence on the outskirts!

These unions have grown and have recently become a real threat to the country’s internal security and peace, and this is done with the knowledge of all higher education, university and applied education officials, and perhaps with their blessing. As you know, these unions have the power to mobilize student groups, especially in cases of attendance and mass absence, via WhatsApp.

Eng. Hamoud Al-Enezi, an enlightened and independent person in his opinions, and a former member of the Municipal Council, as Secretary General of the ‘National Integrity Society’, made intensive efforts to uncover the amount of ‘idleness and violations’ taking place in the student body.

For this purpose, he conducted several interviews, warning and admonishing of its danger, especially what is happening these days in terms of preparations for the upcoming student elections, and their extremely dangerous negative impact on society, and how huge sums of money being pumped into these unions, the majority of which are of unknown origin, with the aim of financing tribal conflicts within the university and the applied institute. It is believed that the Muslim Brotherhood has a role in the feverish activity taking place!

The government is required to move quickly to douse this fire, stop this tribal polarization, from parties that do not have the slightest sense of responsibility, because it is basically illegitimate.

All the movements of these unions aim to prevent the consolidation of citizenship values and the fight against corruption. Therefore, ministerial decisions must be issued to prevent their existence, and efforts must be made to create alternative unions that are more nationalistic and less sectarian and tribal, while criminalizing the by-elections.

The activities and work of the election committees, inside and outside Kuwait, and the titles of their advertisements that bear the names of the tribes, not to mention raising their flags and anthems, have become a source of concern and panic for those with living national consciences, from all this violation of the laws and the negative impact on national unity, especially those that offer student services through their “tribal” committees, in broad daylight and with the knowledge of all higher education officials.

We repeat that the money spent by student unions on the travel of their members, their conferences and committees, and what is spent on by-elections, requires millions. So what is the source of this money, and who monitors how it is spent?

Engineer Hamoud believes that each list in the United States of America, for example, pays about 200,000 Kuwaiti dinars for the cost of the elections, which includes the voters’ travel, hotel reservations, etc., as the tribes undertake the mobilization, and the lists undertake the financial funding, through the political relations of the student lists.

The Brotherhood group, as he sees it, has the largest role to play in the process of financing the student elections and fueling tribal conflicts.

The solution to this dangerous situation exists and is known, and what was done with the National Assembly can be followed with these unions.