WHAT Kuwait has experienced in recent years can be summarized through the reaction of citizens who saw themselves living in injustice and oppression as a result of parliamentary interventions in everything – big or small.
Someone wrote on social media about the day after the dissolution of the National Assembly: “From today, there will be no parliamentarian who takes away your right to promotion in order to put pressure on a minister to promote his relative or a constituent. There is no parliamentarian who will intercede for a mentally ill person and put him in military training, and then the latter turns to us. There will be no parliamentarian who will run between ministries to mediate for a group that does not want to work and wants to earn a living while at home. From today, we begin the journey of cleaning up what was ruined in the past years." This kind of message explains a reality that Kuwaitis have lived through over the past five decades.
We are not revealing a secret if we say: “Indeed, this reality was caused by wrong popular choices; as people were betting that the next would be better than the previous, but they were shocked when they found it was worse, and even the choices of parliamentarians had a price.”
It was assumed that the parliamentarians were the elite that legislated for a better future for a vibrant society, in which the percentage of youths is about 63 percent.
However, they went against the clock, when they believed, at a certain point, that they had become guardians of the people; imposing their fantasies stemming from political delusions in order to disorient the society and untangle its harmony.
Those who were able to make all people obscure and prevent joy even in homes would enact laws that increased backwardness, and spread discord and hatred and division even between the leadership and the people, made themselves forget that they live in a country whose people -- from time immemorial -- have relied on openness and tolerance, free exchange of opinions, solidarity and individual initiative which, at some point, turned Kuwait into a message of progress, culture and art for the Arab world.
For 32 years, these people did their utmost to destroy everything, or as one citizen said: “Everything beautiful in Kuwait was destroyed -- education, economy, nationality, art, theater, culture, sports, associations, environment, demographics, streets and ministries. They also destroyed values and morals, and even crops and trees were not spared.” They sabotaged everything in the name of the Constitution and the law. This is pure slander.
On the other hand, some governments worked according to their orders. Instead of seeking development, they thwarted every attempt to work toward progress. This is due to the fact that such governments’ main characteristic is hesitation due to fear of a big stick raised in the name of interpellation, political execution or pushing HH the Prime Minister to resign, even before he got to know the staff in his office.
We say it frankly: “The Sun cannot be hidden with a sieve. What happened over the past decades led Kuwait to a miserable condition. Despite that, the leadership is wise and forbearing; because it bet that those who were supposed to represent the people would put the highest national interests on top of their selfishness."
However, they refused to do so, and continued their erroneous ways; up to the point that the dissolution of the National Assembly became a popular demand. Many of the country's rational people called for it, especially recently.
Without a doubt, the doctor resorts to surgery when the disease does not respond to medications. Hence, the recent measures announced by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah came at the appropriate time, as a result of absurdity that led to the elected parliamentarian’s perception that he is the divine shadow on Earth and everyone must obey him. Yet, he failed to realize that the popular agency granted to him was for a specific mission. The parliamentarians went too far, to the extent that those who elected them lost faith in them.
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
