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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
LOCAL Liberal bloc divided over swear-in ceremony Al-Omair slams ‘quitters’ By A Saleh KUWAIT: The National Action Bloc members are divided over whether to take part in any demonstrations following the Cabinet’s swearing-in event on Tuesday of the reinstated 2009 parliament, according to sources close to the liberal group. The main point of conflict pertains to whether to vote on any bills that can be produced during the session, or walk out immediately after ministers finish taking the oath. On that regard, sources explained that “MP Saleh Al-Mullah strongly pushes for walking out right after the Cabinet’s swearing-in.” The lawmaker further informed his colleagues about his intention to resign following the ceremony, or if the session is not held due to lack of quorum, said the sources. The remaining bloc members believe that they should wait and see if the Cabinet presents a request to refer the electoral system to the Constitutional Court “and vote in approval of said request,” sources added. Neutral stance MP Ali Al-Omair criticized lawmakers who announce plans to resign from the 2009 parliament “but fail to live up to their promises.” “Lawmakers refusing to take part in the 2009 parliament are advised to resign from their posts and give up their immunity and all other privileges that the MP’s position provides,” Al-Omair told reporters who attended a ghabqa he hosted Saturday for third constituency voters. And while announcing his ‘neutral’ stance at a potential request by the government to preside over the dispute of the current electoral system - an action that the opposition highly opposes, Al- Omair indicated that he plans to attend tomorrow’s session “if that would help the government continue with constitutional procedures.” Constitutional Court’s rulings MP Adnan Al-Abdulsamad criticized oppositionist lawmakers for often using the word ‘tampering’ to describe a potential step of the Cabinet to verify the constitutionality of the current fiveconstituency electoral system by referring it to the Constitutional Court. “Opinions about constituencies or votes must be kept within constitutional framework that are built on studies instead of statements,” Al-Abdulsamad said in a statement released yesterday. “Using the term tampering to refer to a verdict made within the frameworks of the Constitution as a violation of the Constitution itself,” Al-Abdulsamad explained, further insisting that “the 2009 Parliament is legal and constitutional.” Al-Abdulsamad also announced that he will not be attending tomorrow’s session, and warned the Cabinet against “submitting to pressure in order to take steps outside the legal and constitutional framework.” Salafists look for replacement The Islamic Salafist Assembly plans to nominate former MP Fahad Al-Khannah as a candidate in the second constituency, while they are still looking for another candidate to replace Khalid Al-Sultan and Abdullatif Al-Omairi. Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources indicated that the assembly looks to convince former lawmaker and minster Ahmad Baqer to run for Parliament “because he currently does not appear to be planning to contest elections.” Meanwhile, sources confirmed that Al-Sultan and Al-Omairi “will run as independents” in the upcoming elections. ‘Where else can we seek justice?’ Lawmakers from the annulled 2012 parliament, Nabil Al-Fadhl stressed that real reform should start by altering the electoral constituencies and allowing a voter to choose only one candidate instead of four. “The four vote-system is susceptible to forgery, the nation’s will,” he stressed. Furthermore, Al-Fadhl pointed out that the call made by the majority MPs to boycott elections will not change the situation. “In the previous elections, 40 percent of voters failed to take part. With the opposition MPs, it will hardly be 41,” he underlined. “If the constituencies are amended and the one vote system is used, the only MP who will not run for the elections will be Ahmed Al-Saadoun. He would know that he does not stand a chance,” added Al-Fadhl expressing surprise at the rejection of the majority MPs to go to the Constitutional Court. “If they refuse to move the Constitutional Court, where else should we go to achieve justice?” he concluded. Dashti sues Al-Harbash’s son Attorney and lawmaker of the annulled 2012 parliament Abdulhameed Dashti filed a lawsuit against citizen Abdullah Jamaan Al-Harbash, son of MP Dr Jamaan Al-Harbash, in the parliament storming case that took place late last year. In a petition filed with the Attorney General yesterday, Dashti argues that there is “photographic evidence” as well as testimonies of eye witnesses which level the same accusations against Al- Harbash which 68 suspects face in a case filed after the incident. KTUF demands leave on 50 C days The Kuwait Trade Union Federation(KTUF) demanded that employees be given “paid leaves during days on which temperatures exceed 50 degrees Celsius,” in a statement released yesterday. The KTUF based its demand on regulations “which ban work in unsuitable weather conditions for safety reasons”, adding that “the difficulty of working during fasting hours throughout Ramadan adds to the need for taking this decision.” 27 oppositionists to boycott ‘amended’ elections KUWAIT: While several lawmakers announced plans to boycott a session of the 2009 parliament next Tuesday, the Cabinet looks to take part “as a step to implement the Constitutional Court verdict” that reinstated the dissolved parliament. This was revealed by a government insider who indicated that a recommendation in that regard made by the Cabinet’s legal committee is expected to be viewed during the Cabinet’s weekly meeting today. Meanwhile, 27 members of the 35-member coalition of oppositionists which formed the Majority Bloc in the annulled 2012 parliament have reportedly signed a petition to boycott upcoming elections if the state’s current 5-constituencies electoral system is amended. Those signing include 13 members from the 2009 parliament, according to sources close to the bloc, who indicated that members Shaya Al-Shaya, Abbdullatif Al-Omairi, Mohammad Al-Kandari and Ammar Al-Ajmi remain undecided on the decision to boycott. And while MP Saadoun Hammad announced plans to boycott Tuesday’s session, citing “the Cabinet’s inability to resolve an unconstitutional electoral situation”, sources with knowledge of the Shiite MP’s thinking believe that Dr. Yousuf Al-Zalzalah, Faisal Al-Duwaisan, Husain Al-Qallaf, Massouma Al- Mubarak, Saleh Ashour and Adnan Al-Mutawa’a have decided to boycott the session as well, while MPs Adnan Al-Abdulsamad and Dr. Hassan Jowhar haven’t made a similar decision. In the meantime, opposition lawmaker Dr. Waleed Al-Tabtabaei argued that the current Cabinet would become null and void if the Constitutional Court ruled the current electoral system as being unconstitutional on the grounds that such a verdict would automatically annul both the 2008 and 2009 parliaments. In that regard, constitutional expert Mohammad Al-Muqate’a agreed that the verdict would deem the 2009 parliament null and void, and automatically return the 25-constituencies electoral system through which a citizen has two votes instead of the four votes given by the 5-constituencies system. KUWAIT: Kuwait Dive Team of the Environmental Voluntary Foundation made a comprehensive survey in the North of Kubbar Island to clean up waste harmful to the marine environment and reefs. Walid Al-Shatti, in charge of marine operations of the team, said in a statement that the team has been examining the reefs for the last 20 years to protect them against adverse effects, in addition to submitting periodic reports about their condition to the research center of University of Queensland, Australia. MONDAY, JULY 30, 2012 Kuwait Dive Team cleans up location north of Kubbar isle KUWAIT: The court order annulling the 2012 parliament and reinstating the 2009 one has greatly impacted investigations at the Public Prosecution Office where some MPs’ bank accounts are under scrutiny over millions-worth cash deposits. This is, of course, a procedure that requires lifting the parliamentary immunity of the lawmakers under scanner. A number of accused MPs’ lawyers made official requests to Public Prosecutor Dherar Al-Assousi, asking him to stop investigations and contact the National Assembly, requesting that parliamentary immunity be lifted before proceeding with the investigation. Meanwhile, Kuwait University law professor, Dr Redha Al-Feeli stressed that The team lifted damaged fishing iron cages from coral reef sites, threatening the marine organisms underwater, Al-Shatti said. Placing the iron cages at these natural sites constitutes violation of laws of the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and fish resources, Al-Shatti said, explaining that the reefs are considered as natural reserves. He also explained that fishing with cages or other means is prohibited within a three-mile-long radius around the islands. — KUNA Lawmakers insist on enjoying immunity the Public Prosecution Department would have to lift the immunity of accused MPs before interrogating them because they are now members of the revived 2009 parliament. Some legal sources asserted that the previous investigations conducted were void because they were interrogated without lifting parliamentary immunity. Other high-ranking sources stressed the legality of the previous investigations on the ground that they were conducted when the parliament was annulled. “However, resumption of investigations under current circumstance will call for lifting their immunity since the 2009 parliament was reinstated,” stressed sources.
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UAE widENS cRAckdOwN; MORE ISlAMiStS ... - Kuwait Times

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