We are happy over the time our new ministers took the ministerial oath in front of His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. All of them were wearing the one-color (white) clothing called ‘bisht’.
‘Bisht’ is the formal clothing worn over the ‘dishdasha’. I am talking about the ‘bisht’ in this article as the son of a ‘bisht’ seller – my family and other Kuwaiti families – had been famous in this industry for decades.
It was surprising to witness the unification of the color white ministers who took the constitutional oath for the first time. I am sitting in my office now and on the side is a picture of ministers in 1992. In the picture, I see every minister wearing a ‘bisht’ in the color he likes or prefers.
When I thought about it, I said to myself that the action of ministers on Aug 2, 2022 could be as per the instruction of our Crown Prince – may God prolong his life. It could be a message to the Kuwaiti people who have been stifled by corruption stories from all sides.
Many of the ‘heroes’ of corruption served as ministers, or the ministers merely watched corruption ravaging their ministries. They stood idly, fearing from their chairs that they would be overthrown by the hands of the ‘heroes’ of the deep State that wrought havoc and participated in unprecedented corruption in Kuwait over the past decades!
His Highness, the faithful Crown Prince, tells us through such action that we are starting a new, white phase like the ‘bisht’ of the new ministers.
We hope that His Highness the Prime Minister will impose on the ‘White Bisht’ ministers what he imposed on the employees under his leadership when he served as deputy head of the National Guard. At the time, he prohibited the mention of the ‘tribe’ after the name of anyone affiliated with the National Guard in order to prevent feuds, abhorrent tribal fanaticism and perpetuation of backwardness.
I would like to tell those who insist on putting his tribe after his name that we all belong to tribes like you. I, for example, belong to the ‘harb’ tribe, but I have never added my tribe to my name just to show I am proud of them.
We thank God that His Highness our Prime Minister changed the chair of our dear friend Issa Al-Kandari from the Ministry of Endowments (which is unnecessary) to another ministry.
Al-Kandari, may God prolong his life, did not see the problems of the ministry that was given to the extremist Salafi movement whose ideas and literature are very similar to al-Qaeda, Taliban, ISIS and other bloody criminal movements in our time.
We hope that our colleague Al-Jalawi, the new minister, will cut the wings of this ministry and end its problems by granting thousands of expatriates KD 650 to teach each of their six children residing with them in Kuwait.
On the other hand, our rational government grants only KD 200 per month to a Kuwaiti university student with academic qualifications; in addition to dozens of other bills like the luxurious building, and the Salafist movement affiliates’ demand for the governmental deluxe pilgrimage at our expense, using our public money.
By Ali Ahmed Al-Baghli
Former Minister of Oil
