23/10/2016
6905 times read
23/10/2016
6905 times read
![Ahmed Al-Jarallah – Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times](https://www.arabtimesonline.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ahmed-Al-Jarallah-200.jpg)
UNDOUBTEDLY, the coming election will be different from the previous one in terms of formation and context, because the changes that occurred in the last four years have put every issue into perspective especially with regard to populace representation.
Every politician now realizes the size of his representation without any misrepresentation; hence, we hope all the boycotters will nominate themselves and enter the battle. This means they must get out from behind the curtains of lies and ‘bumblebee’ slogans.
When the Constitutional Court upheld the one-vote decree, the boycotters realized that all the bullying they did in the past will never work with the people of Kuwait who have settled their case in the previous election and now practice their natural right in expressing opinion, far from fake offers. The people of Kuwait saw how the State continued without the boycotters and how its establishments stabilized. In fact, its establishments became more productive, whether in terms of projects or legislation.
Indeed, the performance of the just dissolved Parliament was not on par with the aspiration of the people; given that it witnessed some missteps, although it is credited for unchaining the wheel of work which was crippled for the last 30 years. This was picked by major development and reform indexes which attributed the delay to “long legislative and executive practices, and their burdens.”
This means that throughout the past 30 years, the performance of the Parliament was not in line with the proper democratic concept because of the political blackmail mentality which prevailed in the past. This mentality affected the outcome of legislative terms before the amendment of the voting system.
Throughout that period, the Parliament overstepped responsibilities up to the extent of fabricating frauds and attributing them to members of the executive authority. They belittled the constitutional tools in their hands, which is also the reason why the consecutive parliaments entered the political settlements bazaar at the expense of public welfare.
These practices were cemented by those who considered themselves the ‘majority opposition’, which led to political instability in the ranks of ministers because they were put at the mercy of the ‘vote of no confidence’ when they failed to sign ‘illegal’ transactions of certain MPs, or even when a minister took a stand concerning the followers of such MPs in his ministry.
Unfortunately, Kuwait has been faltering for the past 30 years by wasting a complete legislative term without any development in the legislative infrastructure of the country, because the previous MPs focused on preventing endorsement of any project that did not favor those with the loudest voice.
On other hand, the former MPs issued laws that led to squandering of public funds and inflated the budget for salaries to a point of having total deficit without coming up with means of increasing production rate.
Today, as the so-called majority bloc return to their senses and participate in the one-vote process, they are surrendering to reality of the situation. In fact, it is an announced confession that they were just spreading disquieting news and slogans which they cannot stand for.
In the coming election, these boycotters will stand face to face with the people of Kuwait without having anything in their hands apart from their disappointing and embarrassing parliamentary history, as well as their misinterpretation of the reason behind their return.
The people of Kuwait will never fall for their statements again, such as, “We are participating because of pressure from the public calling for our return,” or “Answering the call to fight widespread corruption in the country.” This is simply because the people of Kuwait, to say the least, discovered that all that they did in the last 30 years was to serve personal interests and increase electoral gains through bribes (overseas treatment), tenders and other deals.
At the time, they continued to intensify the people’s suffering by preventing efforts to solve housing problems for instance, so such problems remain as the slogans they invest in politically or to cripple development laws and participation of the private sector in the economic movement.
There is a list of many misgivings these people have committed in the last 30 years when they dominated the Parliament — from random employment, crippling of investment and industrial development to stagnating the economy by failing to diversify income sources. A clear manifestation of this is the fact that since 2009, Kuwait has not won any foreign investment.
Add to this list the sparking of tribal and sectarian tension which put the country into a series of deeper internal conflicts as they kept on assuming that they are the ones who are able to save the country from all, and without them, nothing will be done.
Their nomination will not take them from their dark past and their practices are still vivid in the minds of voters. Regardless of all that, the battle ground is here.