This is what the election has borne

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KUWAITI society has proven its ability to deal with events in a pragmatic manner, and with ease at the same time, irrespective of the matter.

What the ballot boxes failed to say, the social media managed to say. Therefore, everyone knows what the election managed to produce in terms of the new faces, but the discourse remains the same. In fact, the candidates – both the ones who won and the ones who didn’t – sometimes used strong language.

The just-concluded election brought back some familiar and recurring faces but the rest are new. Even though some of them campaigned for bringing reforms, their fall has been attributed to tribal or rather partisan motives, or bribery. The available laws did not positively help in this regard.

This is due to the fact that the basis for this is the effect left by the candidates. That is why there was a lot of idle talk and gossip during the campaign programs, which were unbelievable to the opponents more than the allies and supporters. Due to the absence of a strong and capable government and the absence of a firm will, the situation will not be better than what it is.

Therefore, it is not expected to change the prevailing situation for years. During recent years, the weakness of the executive authority was revealed along with its lack of approach to the popular variables first, and then the political variables. For this reason, it is anticipated that we will witness a crisis in the next stage, along with a tense relationship between the elected National Assembly and the future government.

The aforementioned anticipation will definitely come to pass unless there is a serious vision about what the country needs. Everyone must work on cooperation, without entrenching themselves behind conflicts of interest, either personal or inspired by influential people, and ensure that every statement and every word would not be a source of crisis.

However, based on the outcome of past experience, especially in the last ten years during which the parliament was annulled and dissolved several times and several elections were held, tensions and lack of cooperation between the executive authority and the nation representatives will be present, either through the usual grillings, or by seeking to freeze the parliament because of lack of “mood” of some.

Signs of conflict over the speakership of the National Assembly have begun to resurface between two personalities. The supporters of one of them see him as a stabilizing factor, and believe he has the ability to conclude deals that remove tension from the Abdullah Al-Salem Hall. The other is claimed to have great dreams, and he believes that he is entitled to that position due to many considerations. He also believes that he represents the current generation.

Therefore in this test, Kuwait will be absent from the minds of many, irrespective of whether they are nation representatives or ministers who are members of the National Assembly by virtue of their positions. Deals will be attended to, and the rope around Kuwait’s neck will be further tightened.

In all of this, and for 30 years, the state and its projects are either frozen, or development is the source of profit for those who seek to employ everything for their own benefit, and not for the benefit of the country and the people. To cover that up, we will continue to live daily in conflict between points of view, either regarding the Bedoun issue, or the dual citizenship matter.

It is as if we are living in South Africa during the days of apartheid, or that the constitutional institutions are floundering over the issue of loans, while housing care remains the victim. The country’s rise and opening it to everyone is a major disaster because there is a deep state that controls all these files.

On the other hand, the plundering of the country and the people continues through suspicious deals in projects, which are implemented in other countries at the lowest costs, and whose quality is much higher than in Kuwait. All this is a political price to be paid either through parliamentary pressure on the already weak government, or by imposing it on the ministers through influentials.

Unfortunately, there is no one who can study what is right or wrong. In the absence of a firm decision and will, righteous ones get punished in order to set an example to others.

Therefore, what this election has borne means that we will face the same crises in the future. This is what raises the sadness in the soul. It is due to the absence of a state project that Kuwait deserves, which was once an icon of development and progress in the region, but is today in a deep pit.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

This news has been read 19026 times!