Your Highness the PM, decide and go for it … hesitation disappoints

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FOR nearly three decades, Kuwait has been experiencing one crisis after another. As soon as a crisis comes to light and occupies the public opinion, another one emerges and makes people forget the first crisis.

Through it all, the solutions remain suspended on the rope of escalation, especially when they have a political, electoral, or administration need for a larger problem. This means that the state is living in a vicious circle.

From diversifying the sources of income, the housing issue, salaries, and the systematic plundering of public funds in most departments, bodies and funds, all the way to the Bedoun issue, the national identity card, the forgers of nationalities and certificates, and the dual citizenship, all of these problems indicate a defect in the joints of administration and executive decision.

This is especially after the matter was left to the parliamentarians, some ministers, undersecretaries, and even department directors. No firm decisions were issued to resolve these crises, and it reached the extent where Kuwait seemed to be living on the crater of volcanoes, and not a single volcano.

Today, Kuwaitis are preoccupied with scandals related to national IDs, forgeries, and dual citizenship. There are doubts being raised about 300,000 to 400,000 nationality files, which means a third of Kuwaitis are under suspicion.

Here we beg to ask – If a person acquired his Kuwaiti nationality fraudulently, was it by adding his name to a Kuwaiti family registry, or through suspicious data forty or thirty years ago, and now this person died, but left behind offsprings, some of whom have become ministers, deputies, ambassadors or undersecretaries, doctors, engineers, and officers in the army, police, and National Guard? In this case, who is at fault here? The one who committed the fraud or those who acquired nationality through dependency and have been living as Kuwaitis all along?

If their nationalities are withdrawn, they will be considered as Bedoun residents, which means an increase in a problem that has remained unresolved for about 60 years. If the law is applied to dual citizens, will they be told to give up one of the two nationalities?

As for the Bedoun issue, which is worsening day after day in Kuwait, there are many countries that have resolved it easily. Although we do not want to enumerate them, it is clearly visible, and many of us have referred to it in previous articles, except that it increases the number of stateless people.

This is not right. In fact, it is creating a new crisis. Therefore, dealing with this issue must be characterized by wisdom and deliberation. Otherwise, it is nothing more than an increase in crises. Does Kuwait need more of these crises?

It seems there are no priorities. Should we prioritize diversifying income sources, rather than solely relying on oil revenue, which leaves us vulnerable to fluctuations in its prices? Or should we revive the nation by launching development projects and opening up opportunities, akin to other Gulf nations?

All indicators highlight that salaries will be a major burden on the state budget, which today constitute a large deficit. Will the government consider improving the life of the citizen who has not had an increase in his salary for 16 years, or solve the housing or education problem?

Every day we wake up to a new crisis and sleep on another. It is clear that there is no national priority program that would save the country from this confusion. Is this how countries are managed?

In countries where governments are rational and wise, there is a huge team of national advisors and others who do not have any personal ambitions, and make plans for everything, which are implemented by the governments.

The matter is not left to a minister, representative, or agent, like the way it happens in Kuwait. Here, as soon as we crawl out of a hole, we fall into a bigger one.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

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