14/01/2021
14/01/2021
LAST week, the local newspapers were filled with news about the Kuwaiti youth and individuals who bring pride to the nation, and others who bring shame.
Topping those who bring pride to the people of Kuwait is the young Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. He is Kuwait’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and was awarded the “Kuwait Medal” by His Highness the Amir (May Allah preserve him) for working with dedication to serve the nation away from political accounts and media glare. These are the characteristics of a true statesman.
We saw Al-Nasser boarding his plane, visiting Gulf states stuck in an unjustified conflict, carrying to them the message of our Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad, and complementing the efforts of the late Amir of humanity Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad whose efforts in healing the rift in the walls of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and restoring their unity were observed and praised by the whole world.
I was very pleased when I saw the Qatari people, who were blockaded by their brothers, listening with happiness and pleasure to the statement of Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Al-Nasser when he promised the people of Qatar and the whole world to end the blockade on them.
I share a longstanding personal relationship with Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nasser, as he is a classmate and a good close friend of my brother and diplomat Counselor Nizar Ahmed Al-Baghli, who passed away on the first day of January 2020. His colleague and friend in study and work, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nasser, came to offer condolences, and I exchanged conversations with him about my brother. I told him that my brother used to seek my assistance in every matter he wanted from the senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in terms of promotions and moving from one country to another. I used to help him in that and the Foreign Ministry officials and senior employees spared no efforts in assistance.
I also used to ask my brother Nizar why he did not ask his dear friend Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nasser, who was the director of the Foreign Minister’s Office, to meet these requests. My brother laughed and told me that the sheikh said to him, “Your brother Ali has more friends in the Foreign Ministry and more influence than me”.
When I recounted this story to Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Al-Nasser, he told me that he avoids any mediation as much as possible, even if it is deserving. This is what we hope all of our government leaders will do, God willing.
The second young Kuwaiti man who has made us proud at the beginning of this year 2021 is the young Hussein Bu Majdad. Al-Qabas daily had published a news about him on January 7 on its last page. He was honored at the Geneva International Fair, and he works as a firefighter in the Rescue and Combat Team in Kuwait Fire Service Directorate.
Bu Majdad, who does the same job as any other firefighter and suffers like thousands of firefighters all over the world, invented a tool that can open doors during emergency cases if children or adults are detained inside closed rooms either in private houses or government institutions or factories. This invention contributes to saving lives and protecting private and public properties by opening doors within 15 seconds without breaking them through the manual use of the tool. Thanks to our young brother Bu Majdad, and we say “May God bless us with more like you”.
Those who brought shame to us are many, topped by those who caused suffering to the people of Kuwait after the latter elected them as their representatives in the National Assembly, which they transformed into “the Assembly of Grief”.
Many of them promised their successful colleagues that they would elect them to leadership positions such as the National Assembly Speaker or his deputy, but they turned back on their promises. We saw their bad choices for committee membership as they made as members their colleagues who are probably hearing the names of these committees for the first time.
In addition to those offenders are the permanent council officials (the secretary general and his staff) and the National Assembly guards who allowed in tens of rioting youths and ignored the practice of the National Assembly since its inception six decades ago by inviting ministers, former members and prominent social, economic, religious and judicial personalities to attend the opening ceremonies of the first sessions of the National Assembly.
Some of the MPs of the “Grief Assembly” or the National Assembly concluded it by presenting an interpellation against His Highness the Prime Minister. It may be deserved, but in my opinion and the opinion of many, this is not the proper time.
The country suffers from corruption and delays in various levels, and it was necessary for them to direct their attention to rid the country of the corruption that stifles every Kuwaiti citizen. As for the grilling of His Highness the Prime Minister, it can be delayed ...
By Ali Ahmed Al-Baghli
Former Minister of Oil