Your Highness the Prime Minister, Kuwait needs an awakening

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CAN a country like Kuwait sustain itself by merely waiting and indulging in extravagance instead of addressing its problems?

This question has been raised in diwaniyas from the time of the announcement of the current Council of Ministers, and the short period during which the two authorities were working together. From that time until today, everything is suspended. All we witness are showboatings either by the government or candidates.

It is worth highlighting that waiting for the outcome of the general elections does not prevent the Council of Ministers from actively working and devising solutions to the problems that Kuwait is suffering from.

Whether it is the decline in national productivity, the failure in the revitalization of the key sectors, or the urgent need to address the infrastructure crisis, action is imperative, especially since the country is engulfed in rhetoric that does not ride on the rainbow.

There is a lot of muscle-flexing in the electoral campaigns, but they are nothing more than air bubbles. On the other hand, the Council of Ministers contented itself with the timid conquest of the country which neither nourishes nor avails against hunger.

It also worked to stimulate the so-called national identity, which has its merits but also poses significant drawbacks.

Revoking citizenship could potentially exacerbate the number of stateless residents (Bedouns), thus perpetuating a longstanding problem that has been characterized either by procrastination or temporary measures instead of a genuine commitment to resolving the issue. This unresolved matter continues to draw negative attention towards Kuwait in international forums.

Withdrawing citizenship will today constitute a more complicated factor, because those who lose their citizenship will be added to the 100,000 Bedouns residents. These people cannot be expelled abroad, as they will claim that they have nowhere to go. No country will be willing to receive them, because it will simply say “They are not among our citizens.”

Dual citizenship is another problem, but its solution is simple, which is to give the person the choice between Kuwaiti nationality, or the other nationality he holds.

Your Highness the Prime Minister, everyone knows that there are no secrets in Kuwait, because there are about 4,000 diwaniyas in the country where everything is discussed.

If we were to attribute this issue to the inherent nature of governance, it does not imply waiting forever to address people’s concerns. This applies not only to nationality issues and the need to find effective solutions that alleviate Kuwait’s numerous challenges but also to the urgent matters that affect the public. These include salaries, strengthening the industrial sector and having a reliable base in this regard, solving the crisis of disguised unemployment, improving roads and services, opening the country to serve the national economy, diversifying the sources of income, and solving the problem of subsidies and widespread corruption in all institutions.

These aforementioned matters can be resolved without waiting for the National Assembly, because many of them only require a ministerial decision. However, laws can wait until the parliament convenes.

While it is true that we must wait for the election results and the dynamics between the executive and legislative authorities, there is a saying that “a book can be judged by its cover”, suggesting that the upcoming stage may be more complicated than the previous one.

This makes it imperative for the Council of Ministers to perform its work instead of wasting time, as it did in past years. This is because, in light of the complex international and regional circumstances and wars today, what is required is for Kuwait to keep its money inside, like the saying “charity begins at home”.

It should initiate large-scale development projects to mitigate the impact of oil price fluctuations and break free from the cycle of manufactured crisis. It must follow the example of other nations that have long prepared for such challenges, so that we can finally say “Kuwait needs an awakening”.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

This news has been read 1591 times!