When will we wake from the sleep of people of the cave?

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IT seems Kuwait is slumbering like the people of the cave mentioned in the Holy Quran. We may wake up after 309 years to find out that our currency has changed, especially with the frequent talk about the devaluation of the dinar, which could thus result in further inflation and decline in projects undertaken.

Subsequently, the country will experience further decline in credit rating. All this is due to the fact that the one who is supposed to see and speak neither listens nor sees the calamity that is creeping into the country. Even if he speaks, his words only add insult to the injury.

In Kuwait which is merely lost, the constitutional impossibilities have become a normal matter.

There is a resigned government whose mission is to discharge urgent matters. It does not attend the National Assembly sessions, but when the parliament suddenly calls it for a session to discuss the health situation in light of the second wave of COVID-19 sweeping the country, it immediately announces its attendance.

A bonafide government is supposed to have announced and presented its work plan, which undoubtedly will not differ in its content from the constructive rhetoric in which all government programs were formulated for the last 30 years to date.

In light of the words of His Highness the Prime Minister about the Kuwaitis’ reluctance to accept ministerial portfolios, there is no doubt that the birth of the new government will be delayed unless some miracle happens, and the deals between the Prime Minister and the MPs come to pass in a manner that would favor the desires of the two sides.

His Highness the Prime Minister did not ask those around him and the elite in the Kuwaiti society about the reason for the abstention from ministerial posts. He also did not follow what is published in the press and social media to realize the extent of the problem that the country has reached, and the fear of citizens who will become scapegoats for the interests of influential people who seem stronger than all laws and the constitution.

About two years ago, everyone was talking about the correct measures that the two authorities – legislative and executive – must take to save what remains, but they are indifferent about the level that the country has reached, due to which the matter is getting worse.

The National Assembly, which is supposed to be the voice of the people, became the voice of the minority reformers, religious and political merchants, as well as those fleeing justice, and not the power of legislation. It became clear that the MPs in the new parliament, armed with political bankruptcy, do not realize the magnitude of the crisis that the country is going through, and the negative consequences of the pandemic and its impact on the nation and its people.

Unfortunately, they use the situation as a wager to score fake heroism at the expense of the people in a session similar to that of the Byzantine debate.

The life of the people of the cave that Kuwait is currently living, in addition to the indifference exercised by the government towards its role, and the unproductivity of the parliament which is now on a bickering mode, have made the solutions, which were being developed during the past two years, either imaginary, incapacitating, unimplementable, and incomplete, or serving a specific group of people.

Such solutions do not benefit the financial and economic situation, even with the precautionary measures to confront the COVID-19 pandemic. At least the decisions that were issued are serving the economies of our neighbors while devastating our several sectors. It could have been an opportunity to revive and serve the local economy, but these decisions are tantamount to the spring that nourishes those living far from it, while those close to it suffer with thirst.

Indeed, Kuwait will wake up from the slumber of the people of the cave to realize the cost it has incurred due to lack of better planning and management.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

This news has been read 24326 times!