IN the past, it was said that, with every era, there is a state and some personalities running it. Such a state is defined by the decisions made by people of resolve who seek to build the glory of their nations and not their personal glory.

In history there are the names of many personalities that cannot be overlooked. To this day, humanity continues to narrate the stories of some of those who had worked for the sake of their nations and transformed their people from backwardness and poverty to progress and prosperity. True civilizations are made by these leadership personalities.

Even in ancient democracies, the names of some officials remain glowing. In fact, they continue to be a beacon for generations to come. This was the case with the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Singaporean Lee Kuan Yew, Mahathir Mohamad, and others, who did not give up the right in order to protect themselves from accountability or interpellation.

In Britain, the House of Commons witnesses more than one grilling of the prime minister and ministers on a daily basis. In the United States of America, there are daily hearings of ministers and senior officials, as well as in Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, and other democracies.

In such countries and democracies, representatives of people work in the interest of his country and people, and not for his personal interests as is the case in Kuwait, which is paralyzed by a question from an MP because the minister did not appoint his son as an ambassador or assistant undersecretary, or did not pass an illegal transaction.

From the farces of Kuwaiti parliamentary history, I remember that years ago, an MP had disagreed with a citizen, prompting him to claim that he is not a true Kuwaiti.

In order to prove his claim, he directed a parliamentary question to the Minister of Interior, asking for all the names of Kuwaitis and their national files. The response was three truckloads of documents that need years to be reviewed. Thus we ask - Who is responsible for this mess?

Has this ever happened in any country in the world? How many provoking questions of this nature have hindered the ministries that were preoccupied with securing documents to respond to it? How many ministers fell due to maliciousness?

This false democracy is what led every MP to fantasize about himself as a ruler. He has absolute freedom to insult, accuse others of treason and slander, and even humiliate. On the other hand, in rational democracies every official knows his role, works according to the law, and practices his work honestly without overstepping their authority.

In other words, the minister or the prime minister is not afraid to give up his position, which he sees as absolute ownership of him, for there is the law which is the rule, and not tribal pride and sectarian fanaticism, or partisan power, or political money, which is used to serve cronies and followers.

Yes, what Kuwait suffers from is the multiplicity of decision-making power, which has led and still leads to all this decline and corruption. The reason is the weak governments that voluntarily relinquished their powers, and made the MPs rulers because of their submission to their blackmail.

An official only cares about the position more than anything else. That is why all the governments that followed the government of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad, that is since 2006, were weak. It is due to the failure of the prime ministers to preserve and honor their powers.

This fact must be present in front of every official who accepts the assignment of a mission to serve Kuwait. Rather, it is necessary to correct the great defect, which was caused by the weakness of the prime ministers who gave the MPs powers that are not constitutional at all.

This can only be done by suspending the work of the National Assembly for a few years, and ensuring the presence of a strong government led by a man of decision to be a revival of the Kuwaiti renaissance. The poet said, “The soul of the free does not accept betrayal”. In Kuwait, there are many independent people who are able to be the beacon of the bright times ahead.”

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times