30/03/2021
26988 times read
30/03/2021
26988 times read
WHAT transpired at the Parliament yesterday was expected to some extent, as the session was specifically dedicated to the Cabinet taking the constitutional oath, which enables them to officially assume their positions as ministers.
Despite the straightforwardness of the priorities that the leadership of this country focuses on, the MPs were still eager to bar the implementation of the Constitutional Court’s ruling. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as everyone knows that their actual goal is to disrupt and frustrate the executive authority unless it fulfills their desires. This would mean even pushing to paralyze the country and further exacerbate the crisis. as if Kuwait needs more economic and political problems.
During the past six decades of the National Assembly’s life, the country witnessed several crises that led to the Parliament’s dissolution nine times. Six of them were during the reign of the late Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad, and on two occasions it was due to unconstitutionality of the electoral procedures. Despite having multiple reasons in this regard, the solution remains one, and it comes with high economic, political and social cost.
There is no doubt that the experience, especially in democratic work, is a necessity to develop the performance of the state and the society. If it succeeds, it will take root as a permanent behavior, but if proven to be a failure, it must be abandoned so that it does not turn into a source of weakness for the state as a whole.
Therefore, the experience of separating the authority of the Crown Prince from the Cabinet premiership has proven to weaken the executive authority and rendered it prone to settlements and deals that the MPs sought to achieve, even if they are at the expense of the state’s interest.
The events from 2011 until today prove this, especially the bitter experience of stripping the prime minister from protection, the most important of which was in November 2011 when some opposition MPs called for a protest march to the palace of the then-Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad with the intent of storming it in order to force him to resign. When they failed, they turned to the National Assembly building and stormed it.
All of this is due to a wrong understanding of the meaning of democracy and freedom of opinion and expression. Due to this, we have only witnessed insults, obscenity and encroachment on dignities, and the hurling of accusations against anyone who does not agree with the MPs.
In fact, this situation does not exist in any Arab country, even in the countries that claim to be more democratic than Kuwait, which used to be described as “the Pearl of the Gulf” and a pioneer in culture, arts and social openness but is today at the bottom among the Gulf countries.
Here we have to admit that the separation of authority of the Crown Prince from the Cabinet premiership, prior to achieving political maturity and understanding of the meaning of correct democracy, has led to this political chaos.
Therefore, it may become necessary to return to the merging of the two positions - the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister - in order to protect the latter and the country from what we witnessed in the past in terms of rallies chanting a rhetoric similar to “We will not allow you”, or perhaps worse than that.
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times