24/02/2022
32222 times read
24/02/2022
32222 times read
FINALLY the government has abolished the Kuwait Mosafer, Bil salamah (for domestic workers) and Muna (PCR test accreditation issued outside Kuwait) apps. This decision is manifested in the Arab proverb - “Going to Hajj when people are returning”.
For more than two years, people have been urging the government to cancel these apps because they caused great harm to them, especially those who were stranded in the various airports around the world, had to sleep on the ground, and paid huge sums according to the terms of these e-platforms. Their pleas not only fell on deaf ears, but the suffering intensified.
During that period, the response of His Highness the Prime Minister was, “It is not my responsibility … Go to the Minister of Health”. However, the health minister's ears were completely shut and he did not respond to anyone. Even when they wanted to explain the compelling reasons, they were so flimsy that even young children did not believe them. People then sensed that these infamous platforms were aimed to benefit opportunists.
However, the government, as usual, was infected with the COVID-19 confusion, and lost its sense of smell. Perhaps, in the Council of Ministers, there were those who benefited from this great “extravagance”. As long as the public money was loose, and there were opportunists filling the country, the voice of looting dominated the scene.
This is one of the misfortunes of the government's confusion and stubbornness, which burdened the people. Their fate was at the mercy of a confused government and a prime minister who neither listens nor speaks.
Therefore, the regression we are experiencing today at all levels is not surprising. In fact, the executive authority caused dozens of small Kuwaiti investors to flee to neighboring countries, which welcomed and secured for them all avenues of success that they had missed in their homeland.
Owners of small projects left Kuwait after they encountered the terms of the very complex stimulus plan, which cannot be applied as a result of the impossible conditions imposed on the applicant for assistance he sought to revive his project, pursuant to the law of the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises Development, which aims to support youth, combat unemployment, and enable the private sector to achieve economic growth.
However, the young investors instead found themselves in hell as a result of the precautionary measures to combat COVID-19. They were optimistic about that stimulus plan, but the government turned its back on them. Some of them are currently in prison because of their failure to pay the accumulated debts, and others are wandering the corridors of the courts.
These miseries were not the latest innovations of the “rational” government to the extent that it “brags” so it does not hear the voices of popular appeals or the suggestions of experts.
The government is also not speaking because its language is not understood by the people who enjoyed the dance of His Highness the Prime Minister a few days ago in the popular parade, raising his sword as if he was announcing his departure from the government.
This is the wish of the people. They are hoping that the departure of the government will happen soon and not later, and that the parade was the farewell dance. They are also hoping for an immediate departure of the parliament whose corruption is too great to be carried by two camels.
These wishes are in order for Kuwait to rest from the era of “I do not see, I do not hear, I do not speak”. Reconciliation is at the expense of this beautiful homeland, as the practices of the two authorities are taking it closer to hell.
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times