Today’s free advice priceless tomorrow
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DURING the five years preceding the Iraqi invasion, every government in this country has been a government of real challenges. After liberation, those challenges intensified because the basis was, and still is, to get out of the bottleneck and walk confidently towards sustainable development.
This has become a slogan that is out of reach due to drowning in details that the demons of interests have decorated as priorities, while what is actually required is completely elsewhere.
Therefore, today after the bitter experiences that the country has gone through in the past three decades and the problems faced by the three governments of His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad that led to total stagnation in all aspects, it has become imperative than ever before to bring in ministers of competence.
The new Cabinet formation should be one that will devote itself to remedying the heavy files sitting on their desks and on the conscience of people, and not one with members whose names have been recycled despite being proven to have failed in the recent past and not being up to the responsibility entrusted to them.
Therefore, if the expectations regarding the return of certain names, according to what is being circulated, to some ministries are true, it is as though nothing has been done. That is because those who failed during circumstances that were less stressful than the current ones will not be able to secure financial liquidity and address the negative aspects that led to the downgrade of Kuwait’s credit rating.
The same applies to Health, Public Works, Education, Economy and Commerce ministries. In each of those ministries, there are dilemmas that need skilled surgeons to uproot the cause of the disease, and not those who “salute” and do nothing, because that would always make matters worse.
Kuwait has many specialized competencies and people qualified to manage. This fourth government of His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled, which will enter the fray without the obligations of the past stage, must dedicate itself to working seriously and outsmarting the maneuvers practiced by the MPs in order to achieve their own electoral interests. Otherwise, the people will hold His Highness the Prime Minister responsible for any failure through the choosing of this type of Cabinet.
Unfortunately, the successive governments contributed to the spread of corruption through favoritism in projects, and the overpricing of tender bids, in addition to the deliberate delay in their implementation by opening the door for change orders, and deliberately prolonging the documentary cycle due to conflicting competencies, some of which have passed more than 25 years old and are still under implementation. Whenever any of it is finished, a scandal or rather scandals emerge.
During the past decades, some political currents and parliamentary blocs, because of the government’s failure to address them, have hampered the economy with many restrictions. This led to the failure of major projects, such as the northern economic zone, the Silk City, and the border free zones, as well as the failure to implement Tony Blair’s plan, and the closing of the country to investors and tourists. In addition, the relations with neighbors were affected, which made us confused, as if we were walking in a dark tunnel but only getting out of a hole to hit a wall.
All this is in the hands of His Highness the Prime Minister. He must live up to the trust granted him by the political leadership, and work confidently to get the country out of the impasse, so as not to repeat the history of his previous government, whose main feature was confusion. As the saying goes – “Those who refuse to accept advice that costs nothing today, will tomorrow buy it with regret at the most expensive price.”
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
This news has been read 11872 times!
