03/01/2023
37456 times read
03/01/2023
37456 times read
SINCE the state did not perform its duty as expected, the Al-Manakh Stock Market crash in the first half of 1980s caused the national economy to deteriorate. When the state sought treatment, it took the wrong path. Unfortunately, most of our governments have been making the same mistakes from that time until today.
![](https://www.arabtimesonline.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ahmad-jarallah.jpg)
This is due to the fact that they operate according to the will of the influential who benefit from the tragedies of a significant segment of Kuwaitis whose difficult circumstances forced them to borrow but they ended up defaulting due to the tough requirements of life and other pressures.
Today, it seems that the current government is not aware of the reality of the enormity of the crisis, which has snowballed. It bargains in this regard to achieve goals that are far from this humanitarian issue. Unfortunately, successive governments annually record interests on bad debts that were suspended since 1984 as a result of the Al-Manakh stock market crisis, which have reached about eight billion dinars today.
The majority of debtors have died, and even many of their heirs died, but public accounting still records a deficit in the state budget annually. Governments have tried to invest in this imaginary deficit to the fullest extent, and the current one is working based on the same method, as it is trying to maintain the crisis. This is a big mistake. Nonetheless, the number of defaulters is increasing.
They now constitute about 12 percent of Kuwaitis. Their official transactions have been suspended and they have been banned from traveling. Some of them owe debts that do not exceed KD 1,000. Therefore, we ask - Is this not against the humanity that Kuwait praises, where physical and moral coercion is imposed against the debtor, and where before the bankruptcy law was issued, arrest and habeas corpus are issued against him, something that is not practiced in any other country in the world?!
The government does not realize the dire consequences of this issue. It continues to take into account the opinion of the groups that are investing in people’s suffering under the slogan “social justice”. If the government does not want to cancel the loans that are less than two billion dinars, it can buy the interest if there are interest, or reschedule it and make it payable within 25 or 30 years, with the guarantee of the state. However, if it is unable to do all this, it can learn from the current Brazilian president who worked in his first term to solve the debt crisis of the poor in his country by imposing taxes on the rich, merchants, and industrialists, and paying the debts of the poor.
He also granted those who were subject to tax large commercial and industrial facilities. He was thus able to reduce the poverty rate in his country, and revive the economy through the liquidity that was pumped into the markets, as well as revitalize the economic cycle by reviving the trade and industry sectors. There are many solutions that the government can resort to if it seeks justice for a significant segment of the people. However, if it continues to succumb to misers and envious people, the country will continue to suffer from crises until Allah fulfills a matter already ordained.
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
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