THE current Cabinet comes after 32 governments that have passed through Kuwait since liberation, with approximately 400 ministers, some of whom only lasted a few hours in office while some others lasted for about a month or two. This confirms the fact that there is political and administrative instability in the country.

This is also what prompted many of those ministers to be ignorant about what is happening in their ministries except in their offices. They sought to exploit their short time in office on frivolous endeavors, either in appointing their kinfolks and cronies, or hooking up their electoral keys, or parachuting people into positions they did not deserve, or squandering public funds.

This is what His Highness the Amir referred to in his lofty speech during the oath-taking ceremony. Among its outcomes were the many cases of corruption that became evident in the current situation that Kuwait is suffering from as a result of its decline in all fields. In fact, it became the world’s talk as a typical example of corruption.

Kuwait was also plagued by parliamentarians who, to say the least, were not up to national responsibility, as they sought to close down the country through strict laws.

It has reached the point of even controlling people’s behavior in their homes, and differentiating Kuwaitis based on where they are originally from or using discriminative statements such as “whether he is from outside the fence or inside the fence” and others. All this confirms that the goal is not only electoral gain, but rather to change the culture of society, which today is in dire need of unity in light of the sensitive circumstances that the region is experiencing.

It has led to an exodus of experienced people, and investments, in addition to the quest to make money for personal interest at the expense of public money, which made the state fall under a huge deficit.

This has been confirmed several times from the sovereign wealth fund classification, which at one stage reached a point where the late Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad had to ring the alarm bell in this regard. The classification still requires great efforts today to reach levels that will ensure the provision of many economic opportunities to Kuwait.

Here, it must be emphasized that what is established in management science regarding “what the subordinate is to the boss.” That is, if the decision maker has a degree of determination and a clear vision for the interest of the nation, and has no fear, hesitation, or confusion, then his team will work according to his directives.

In this regard, there is no point in using democracy or the Constitution as an excuse because the former is the pursuit of the advancement of society, and the latter is based on the principle of securing the interests that serve the people, through a set of principles for organizing the state authorities, which guarantee the rights of the rulers and the ruled. This is achieved through leadership directives to be a process of integration of visions that serve the ultimate goal, which is the advancement of society and the strength of the state.

Therefore, if the head of the Cabinet says, “We want Kuwait to be advanced and rising economically and socially like the rest of the Arabian Gulf states and developed countries”, then the ministers must implement it. If they resolve to do so, the state of the institutions will improve.

However, if the vision is shortsighted, and if the head of the Cabinet and the ministers focus on inspecting people’s intentions and preventing any citizen from shedding light on the shortcomings, and if the state agencies devote themselves to holding accountable every word that is being uttered, then they become like an ostrich that buries its head in the ground and fail to see the hunter. The state hence becomes the victim.
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times