Malicious lawsuit MPs jeopardizing legislation

This news has been read 11529 times!

WHEN the current National Assembly members were elected, we almost believed that these lawmakers would hit the ground running to revise laws while transforming Kuwait to become better than its present situation after sinking into political blunder for years.

Our hope was dashed as the lawmakers immediately went back to their usual attitude – wasting time on questions and grilling, with which they kept the government and Kuwaitis busy. Hence, these are the questions lingering in the minds of everybody today: What benefits did the citizens get from grilling the minister of commerce and industry? Did the proponents of the grilling create a better working environment or submit bills to reinvigorate the battered national economy due to political imbroglio?

All the grilling points would have been resolved if there was determination to engaged in legislation work. However, Kuwait has been denied of updated laws since the motive behind such act was to serve electoral interest. We say ‘denied’ because everyone around us is aware of this. It is as if locking down State institutions is for the sake of a few beneficiaries who do not want others to work.

Based on this, they moved the option of random grilling among ministers, starting with the Prime Minister until it reached Khalid Al-Roudhan. They made omission of his name from the list of shareholders in a company a big issue, while neglecting the organization of the real estate market. This is in spite of the alarm bell that has been ringing for many years. Some of them were lawmakers in the past, but they never bothered to find out the regulations governing this aspect.

Instead of devoting themselves to reforming the administration, improving performance, and expanding the commercial and industrial base; a number of MPs wasted their time on trivial issues which are not in the interest of the country.

Furthermore, every time they see a minister working in accordance with the laws and shunning favoritism, they attack him and prevent him from doing anything that threatens their favorite persons or affects the system of corruption which they pretend to combat while doing their best to protect it. They are considered one of the strangest cases of parliamentary work in the world.

Both the National Assembly and the government wasted more than one month in discussing the grilling of the commerce minister. This was preceded by a series of threats to grill this or that minister, while laws are becoming more obsolete and not in line with the current developments; thereby, isolating Kuwait from its neighbors and the world.

All this happened while a number of MPs are boasting about their rhetoric as if they are war leaders and not part of those bound by expenditure, procrastination and favoritism until the people almost lost trust in democracy.

Instead of all this, why not enact modern laws to end the unemployment crisis which affect a big number of graduates whose main aspiration is to find a job in the public sector? This means they will move from the line of unemployment to the other line of underemployment and then increase the wasted public funds. They must be encouraged to join other sectors.

What did the two MPs provide to citizens other than grilling? Is it not better to submit bills that serve the country and its citizens? It seems they have nothing to give but grilling, even if their target was to inspect the intentions of others.

Since we have reached such a situation, the country will never accomplish any advancement unless it goes out of the tunnel of conflict over personal interests and then move towards hard work and competitiveness in order to serve the country and put it back to its previous position as Pearl of the Gulf.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

This news has been read 11529 times!