UAE widENS cRAckdOwN; MORE ISlAMiStS ... - Kuwait Times

kuwait digest
Opposition group
still together?
By Thaar Al-Rashidi
Let us start the subject from where N.A. Speaker
Jassem Al-Khorafi ended his declaration on
Monday at the National Assembly. In my opinion,
Abu Abdul Mohsan did nothing in his declaration
except include in it some “comic” sense, which is used
by the majority figures day and night.
The man only tried to joke with them by how they
embarrass their opponents in their own declarations.
But it seems that they did not like it, and it even made
them angry, and the proof is their reaction and criticism
of the new style which was not known before for
Abu Abdul Mohsan, and they forgot that he said very
important things. The necessity to protect the election
system constitutionally to avoid falling into constitutional
default, and this is demanded by everyone and
on top of them the majority, though some of its members
became angry by the speaker’s declaration, who
came back based on the government’s verdict.
Secondly, he explained the simple steps that he will
take later on which calls for convening the N.A. Council
if a quorum is incomplete. He will call for another convening
and again if a quorum is incomplete, he will
then take up the matter with His Highness the Amir, to
make a decision and this is what will happen and
everyone will call for it, including the majority members.
We like the majority, and some of the members of
the majority whom we like and respect their political
work are making jokes in their declarations. I don’t find
anything wrong in that, as everyone has his style in
declaring there are some who play around with words
and others who play around with the truth and some
who play around with the overall meaning of speeches,
similar to all politicians throughout the world. But
apparently they became very nervous when they were
faced with their own style, although I see among them
those who are more patient, especially those among
them who are experienced MPs.
“The majority is still together” is what is said by
some of its members. And I don’t know if their saying it
is truth or just political hope. Apparently, the majority
has lost some of its glory. But in my opinion the majority,
in the end, is popular again in its current shape and
should remain together. They are not simply an opposition
group, but they are a fence for any possible violations
and their staying together is something that
concerns us all.
Trying to offend the majority through some
rumours by the media is nothing more than the
attempt of children through telling stories about the
neighbor’s tree. They might get 20 to 30 fruits out of
the tree by their stories. But in the end, the tree
remains in the ground as it is the property of the
neighbors and the kids are nothing but small thieves,
and we laugh at them when we see them.
NOTE: It is very easy to spoil the image of someone
though a rumour, but if you use one thousand rumours,
you will not be able to improve your image, especially if
your political image is very bad. — Al-Anbaa
NO: 15524 RAMADAN 10, 1433 AH
11
The dawn prayer for Muslim called?
Fajr
Zhur
Mughrib
The ‘warning’ that Secretary General of the
National Democratic Alliance Khalid Al-Khalid
made to the cabinet against amending the
electoral constituencies system is perplexing. It is not
a secret that the NDA and other democratic groups
are the biggest losers from the current distribution of
constituencies, which was proven by the results of
the last elections. It seems unjustifiable that the NDA
would strongly push for keeping the current system;
not only due to a lack of interest, but also because
this system lacks legitimacy and constitutionality.
It’s common knowledge that the current distribution
of constituencies resulted from a governmental
ill-planned approach to take over the parliament that
started in 1981 (the year in which constituencies
were first expanded from 10 to 25). Lawmakers elected
via the altered distribution would normally be in
favor of keeping it. And since the MPs who were
elected through the 25 constituencies system made
the amendment to merge constituencies into five,
this automatically would make the current system a
product of an initial tampering with the initial 10constituencies
system, the only legal and constitu-
LOCAL
kuwait digest
The NDA’s questionable stance
By Abdullatif Al-Duaij
tional distribution of constituencies. The government
has for certain sought to change the electoral constituencies
system. Today, they reportedly seek to
amend the system once again. Some believe that the
government plans to alter the system even more in
order to control the results of upcoming elections.
Others, in the meantime, argue that the government
could be seeking to correct the mistakes made
before. While I personally wouldn’t bet on the second
scenario, there’s still a chance that it could be true. I
am concerned, however, about the probability of further
tampering in the constituencies distribution
which haven’t been corrected since 1981 - and
apparently the NDA is trying hard to keep it that way.
The safest way for the NDA to avoid public criticism
was to call for the issue pertaining to the electoral
system to be left to the court to handle. Their recent
stance is naive and puts them in an unnecessary battle
through which not only they are going to be hurt,
but so are all democratic groups and the country as a
whole. On the other hand, the only party benefiting
from this stance is the tribal-religious coalition of
oppositionists. —- Al-Qabas
kuwait digest
Our political
absurdity!
By Dr Shamlan Yousif Al-Essa
At a time when the government is trying hard to
find a legal and constitutional way out of the crisis
that started with the constitutional court’s
verdict on annulling the 2012 parliament and dissolving
it, the majority is holding intensive meetings and its
leaders are issuing daily statements with threats to the
PM and his cabinet. They simply refuse to amend the
five electoral constituency system and the number of
votes, on the ground that this would only serve the
government and its allies, which is against their wish to
return to the upcoming parliament with a majority bloc
of 40 MPs that is, itself, full of contradictions and competition
amongst the oppositions MPs. How can one
ensure the winning of the same bloc again with all its
diverse elements, including the Muslim Brethren,
Salafis, Tribes, public powers and the development
group?
During the last meeting of the opposition majority
at Ahmed Al-Sadoun’s diwaniya, youth groups decided
to launch a signature collection campaign to seek signatures
on a memo declaring their intent to boycott
the coming parliamentary elections if the law is
amended by a necessity decree in the absence of the
parliament. The question is: If the young people and
those who support and encourage them really believe
in the constitution and institutional work, why then do
they jump to conclusions, throw accusations around
and declare they will boycott the elections before
knowing what the constitutional court will have to say
once the government referred the law to it on Monday
(today)? HH the Amir and the government will decide
the next move according to the constitutional court
ruling, which means that the government is more
transparent and keener to ensure the constitutionality
of the coming elections in order to avoid previous mistakes,
especially when there were many cases filed with
the constitutional court contesting the constitutionality
of the five electoral constituency system with
unequal number of voters in each, namely in the fourth
and fifth constituencies with over 120,000 voters, while
the second constituency has less than 50,000 voters. So
what’s wrong with the rational measures taken by the
government so far in the course of executing the constitutional
court verdict? What’s wrong with waiting till
everything is clear about whether the coming elections
will be constitutional or not?
We wished that the opposition’s icons would offer
their legal and constitutional view on how to get out of
the current crisis, instead of insisting on keeping things
as they are despite the problems. Why on earth have
they called to collect signatures and boycott the elections
after hearing what the constitutional court has to
say?
Will boycotting the elections stop democracy in
Kuwait? Why are they so afraid of the court ruling and
decreasing the number of votes from four to one per
voter, the way all the countries throughout the world
do? The sure thing is that the coming elections will
have winners and losers; the opposition might win or
lose, which is normal in all democracies. Do you want
to always win as all the oppressive Arab regimes do?
Come on, be democratic....the whole world is changing!
— Al-Watan
MONDAY, JULY 30, 2012
kuwait digest
Majority Bloc
wasting time
By Omar Al-Tabtabaei
After youth activists ended their pressure on
lawmakers who claimed commitment to
achieving reform as being their top priority,
and MPs were left without motivation to achieve
these demands or at least attempt to, this led to the
majority position MPs obtained in parliament to be
exploited for their electoral benefits.
During the months in which the 2012 parliament
was in session, the majority opposition did nothing
more than infighting, as well as submit a number of
‘embarrassing’ proposals that hurt the block’s position
and reputation. Moreover, controlling the majority
number of seats led some Majority Bloc members
to count on the numbers game by giving priority to
personal aspects, ahead of public demands.
Unfortunately, such actions were not stopped or
even criticized by the Majority Bloc, which became
more concerned about keeping their numerical
advantage than to realizing priorities that, if
achieved, might benefit all. Said attitude also resulted
in strange appeasements with the Cabinet of Sheikh
Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, which brought nothing
new to the table and did not even have a timetable
for work.
All of the above led the Majority Bloc to implode.
The pressure that youth activists put on the opposition
to give top priority to achieving public demands
was the glue that kept members of the Majority Bloc
together.
Of course, there are other factors that prevented
the Majority Bloc from achieving public demands,
including the short life of the 2012 parliament, as
well as the Cabinet’s ability to create obstacles while
mastering the art of ‘playing by the book’. However,
this doesn’t give the opposition any excuses for failing
to create a proper way to manage the process of
presenting public demands, as well as exerting all
efforts to achieve them, instead of wasting time on
increasing their popularity among voters. The
Majority Bloc had a golden opportunity to accomplish
achievements that would change the image
people have about lawmakers; that they give priority
to their personal interests before that of the public
good.
The Majority Bloc failed to predict the public’s
reaction after the Constitutional Court made its ruling
that annulled the dissolution of the 2009 parliament.
They then pushed this verdict into the headlines
in an attempt to take people’s attention away
from their breakdown, and put the blame for the
political crisis entirely on the government. While I do
not try to defend the Cabinet, I believe that the
Majority Bloc’s failures are not better than the governments’.
Exploiting people’s enthusiasm to achieve
personal gains is a crime that is equal to corruption.
The Majority Bloc should have come up with a
timetable for achieving priorities, and then follow it
strictly through productive work, instead of being
motivated by vengeance. They ought to avoid presenting
draft laws that damage national unity, such
as certain constitutional amendments, as well as
respect the different opinions expressed inside the
parliament building. They were supposed to focus
more on internal problems, as a struggling country
cannot help solve other countries’ problems.
Members of the Majority Bloc should have done
away with ‘campaigning’ once elections were over,
and instead adopted a political speech that points to
the framework of dealing with the present issues.
Most importantly, the opposition should have maintained
a decent level of dialogue.
When people defended the Majority Bloc during
their tenure in the 2012 parliament, they were actually
defending their demands, which they hoped MPs
would realize. This is exactly why the same people are
criticizing the bloc now; because they are defending
their demands. Therefore, the opposition should never
think that they could use the people as a tool to
fight the government whenever they like. On the contrary,
the opposition is the tool by which the people
can outline their blueprint for a better future. — Al-Rai
kuwait digest
Government’s
mismanagement
Dr. Yaqoub Al-Sharrah
Accounting is one of the most important
aspects of management science that helps
improve quality of performance.
Accounting means holding each party responsible
for direct or indirect negligence of duties or violations
of law and regulations. It is, therefore, an
effective means to correct mistakes and avoid mistakes
in the future, as well as to correct negative
behaviors in society.
Although everything mentioned above is common
sense, I felt the need to write this introduction
before talking about the situation of management
in Kuwait which has been deteriorating in all
fields for a long time. Management is the key in
each profession which organizes the work of individuals,
administrations, finances, etc. Several
aspects of advancement in our lives can be attributed
to the presence of the quality of the management
behind it; while poor management is mostly
found behind the regression in development.
Errors in Kuwait’s governmental departments
are countless due to their complexity and effects.
Errors in systems and administrative regulations
lead to hurting employees’ motivations to carry
out productive work, thus hurting the organization’s
general productivity level. Unproductive
labor forces in the public sector - or what is known
locally as masked unemployment - squanders
public funds and leaves negative influences on the
role of productive employees. Therefore, management
science experts believe that in order for
management to be successful, the quality of all
aspects in a department must equally be maintained.
This means that not only should the quality
of employees’ performances be maintained, but
also the quality of regulations running the process
of work. — Al-Rai