I was elected as a member of the National Assembly in 1992 with a group of prominent political figures of the country. Six among us were chosen as ministers in the post-election government, as a clear message of the failure of the abhorrent pre-Saddam-occupation governments.
I had assumed the position of Minister of Oil from October 1992 to April 1994, and I came out of it to take up membership in the National Assembly. I did not regret any decision that I took during my short tenure in the ministry, and I was happy to return to the parliamentary seat that the voters took me to.
The second reason for my happiness is that, when you are a minister, you must react in a proper manner, and choose proper words when responding to MPs who use abusive words. Despite my professional capacity as a defense lawyer, I preferred not to use their words when responding to them. Therefore, after returning to the parliamentary seat, I was more than ready to respond to those who dared and crossed the limits when I was a minister.
The first thing I did as an MP was to try to fill some legal gaps and loopholes in the national legislation. The first gap, in my opinion as an observer and political activist, was to establish a body or entity to monitor the wrong actions of MPs.
The Ethics Committee is present in all parliaments of the world, except for the parliament of the State of Kuwait, although the big majority of the members of the National Assembly at that time can be considered angels when comparing them with those who came after them, in terms of misbehavior, dishonesty , bribery, nepotism, employment of their supporters and relatives with parachutes to the highest positions that they did not dream of all their lives, and distribution of agricultural, pastoral and industrial holdings to their families.
I insisted on bridging the legislative gap, so I met the ambassadors of great countries such as the United States, England and France, and asked them to help fill that shameful parliamentary legislative gap.
They provided me with copies of their parliamentary legislation in this regard, which are the articles of the law of the ethics committee of their parliaments. After that, it took some time to prepare a bill with the National Assembly advisors.
The draft law was referred to the Legislative Committee, which discussed it in my presence. However, it was kept in the shelves and remained there until it was presented by the active young MP Dr. Hisham Al-Saleh. We hope that the luck of his law in seeing the light will be better than my luck, God willing.
By Ali Ahmed Al-Baghli
Former Minister of Oil
