For more than three decades, ministers have been MPs’ Trojan horses

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ONE of the most vital elements of the administration’s success is the selection of assistants. This is an art that cannot be mastered by a moron, or someone who relies on “wasta”, especially when it comes to the executive administration of the state, given that it is his duty to achieve several elements. These elements include enacting laws that serve the future, striving for advancement through industrial and food self-sufficiency, preventing abuse of authority, and ensuring the state is open to others in order to benefit from their expertise and economics, until the state achieves social stability.

Therefore, the most important element that the executive leader relies on is doing the right thing so that the administrative system becomes sound. Unfortunately, this has been lacking in the State of Kuwait for about 30 years, especially in recent years when the encroachment of parliamentarians on the powers of the Council of Ministers worsened.

This is why we saw “wasta” become the upperhand of the leaders who followed what the parliamentarians dictated for them, instead of serving the interests of the state and society.

On this basis, let us consider the example of the law that was imposed to ban co-education. It was aimed at “purifying” society based on a backward and outdated ideological plan, which is an attempt to transfer the “Qandahari-Taliban” experience to Kuwait. This was helped by the weakness of successive Cabinets, which worked to establish strict legislation, including the so-called negative phenomena, prohibiting parties and occasions of joy, and demolishing entertainment facilities and preventing the construction of new ones.

This also led to the exodus of millions of money to neighboring countries during each holiday in order for people to enjoy a joyous moment that is forbidden to them in Kuwait. On the other hand, crimes, social violence, the rate of people addicted to drugs, travel bans and physical coercion in the name of preserving rights have increased.

Citizens no longer have an outlet to release their stress. For instance, it is a laughing matter that Kuwaiti physical education teachers in government schools are the highest in number but the rate of obesity among Kuwaiti children is also the highest in the world due to the lack of facilities that will help them in finding entertainment.

The rate in music lessons is close to its sports counterpart but the law prohibits musical concerts. As for the numbers in Islamic education, it is almost close to the two above mentioned rates.

Also, we have the highest rate of certificate forgery in the world. Fraud is almost sweeping through all Kuwaiti schools. Employee attrition and lack of employee productivity are prevalent in most government institutions.

This indicates a systematic industry of backwardness that was established by the fanatic movement when it took control of the laws and made the ministers its Trojan horses to work according to its visions.

This is why the most important rule of successful leadership has been absent from successive governments, which is – “Do not wait for leadership to be given to you; rather train and learn how to bear responsibility.”

This is what it has failed to do in the past three decades, because it did not train officials to take responsibility and be creative at work, but was just content with “this is our son” and with appointing cronies.

Because of all this, when any observer looks at Kuwait and compares its condition today with the condition prior to the Iraqi invasion, they will realize that Kuwait is today a country that is isolated from the world, closed to the people, and lacks social or even national immunity.

This is due to the fact that when a society closes in on itself, sectarian and tribal diseases, bribery and quotas begin to take root. This is because the citizens fall under material and moral pressure as a result of the deprivation of one of their basic rights, which was imposed on them by a law that is completely contrary to nature.

For all this, the most important rule for reform is to choose a good team of assistants, as well as for people to choose parliamentarians who are not saboteurs who destroy Kuwait.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

This news has been read 1179 times!