Good governance is crucial for progress

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First, whether we like it or not, we are a Third World country, but a rational government can actually move us, by its own strength, to the ranks of developing countries, and this is a worthy and achievable step.

We have all the factors required to make this great leap and realize the dream within twenty years, or even less. All that is required is setting up a plan, adopting it, and implementing it. This is, of course, easy to talk about, but implementing it is not that easy.

Second, democracy is not an obstacle to progress and advancement, but rather it is a contributing factor, as no country in the world has advanced in the modern era without it, and progress here does not mean buildings, roads, the manufacture of cars, fast trains, and great airports, but it also means creative human creativity, with the presence of advanced universities, useful and free research, the publication of distinguished novels and literary works, the existence of clear laws and provisions, high theatrical and artistic creations, human dignity protected by the rule of law, and the examples before us are too numerous to count.

The Soviet Union, for example, and the countries that revolved around it, achieved a lot during the period of communist rule, whether in sports, industry, etc., but its citizens were sometimes willing to die in their attempts to escape from that “beautiful” prison. Education, food, and medicine were free there, but man did not live on bread alone.

Kuwait also reached the height of its “civilized” progress, in every sense of the word, when it enjoyed true democracy, before dark forces took over the country’s capabilities and turned it into an unjust homeland for some of its segments, and a dark homeland that lacked all kinds of freshness and beautiful feelings, under the pretext of preserving traditions. We were once, in the Gulf at least, the best, athletically, artistically, culturally and literally, despite our small size.

The creativity of Kuwaitis reached the world. Freedom is priceless, and its meaning is only known to those who lack it.

The maximum punishment that can be imposed on a “guilty” person is putting him in prison. Therefore, I am surprised by those who are willing to give up their freedom, or so they claim, under the pretext that by losing it, our hotels will be filled with patrons and our economy will advance.

This is a sick argument, so what prevents freedom from being in full in hotels? All decisions to prevent family enrollment and close the country were not issued by democratic institutions, but rather by an executive authority.

Whoever believes that theft increases in a democratic climate and disappears in dictatorial regimes is also wrong, due to the presence of firmness and severity. This is an illusion and nonsense. There is no evidence that corruption in the first case is greater than in the second. Just because we do not hear about incidents of corruption in a country does not mean that it does not exist.

Likewise, the legions of 34 countries would not have gathered to liberate Kuwait in 1990 from the oppression and injustice of Saddam, if we had been an unjust and corrupt dictatorial state.

Rather, they came with confidence that we are a people worth sacrificing for, and that the period of cessation of democracy was temporary and will not be repeated, and this is what encouraged the US leaders and other Western countries to sacrifice their money, and before that the lives of their children, to liberate our homeland!

Finally, all those who call for the demise of democracy have a goal behind it, and we have the right to oppose their whims. At the very least, “punish your madman, lest someone madder than him answer you.”

Kuwait will rise, through its adherence to its democratic system, whether its enemies like it or not, and all it needs is a distinctive, quality government. We have learned, from our history and the history of other nations, that what the leadership, represented by the government wants, will eventually be achieved.

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By Ahmad alsarraf

This news has been read 803 times!