"Democracy has failed in Kuwait-" I hear this sentence a lot these days, the other most common sentiment is "I hope they dissolve the Parliament for ever."
I find this strange, it is illogical, to buy into with the above statement since we have not even tasted democracy in Kuwait for that long. Now some may say "Kuwait has had a Parliament since 1963" which would make it 46 years but let us look at its age and productivity.
1963 - 1967 8 members resign in protests.
1967 - 1971 Vote rigging by Government - 7 members refuse seat in protest.
1971 - 1975
1975 - 1976 Dissolved
1981 - 1986 Districts modified from 10 to 25
1985 - 1986 Dissolved
1992 - 1996
1996 - 1999 Dissolved
1999 - 2003
2003 - 2006 Dissolved
2006 - 2008 Dissolved
In other words, we have a gap during 1976-1981 (5 years) and 1986 - 1992 (6 years) with no parliament - a total of 11 years. We have only had 3 full Parliamentary sessions without any 'government intervention.'
We are young. We have not even completed 50 years of democracy, how the hell do we want democracy to mature if we keep treating like as a fad? The democratic experiment cannot be called a "failure" this fast, considering its young age. We must be patient.
اتفق معاك تماما...فعلا الديمقراطية ما خذت حقها عندنا بس يا ليت يفهمون اعضاء عدس وأهل الكبسة والمندي
Parliament provides checks and balances for our government, and even during the period of no parliament we did not have ANY progress. People have this false sense that the work will flow and projects will take place once that parliament is out of the way.
The only thing that is going to happen is that corruption will spread even more and our men in governments will have deeper pockets. And as usual nobody will be held accountable for it.
very well said!
Marzouq -
I do agree with you about keeping checks and balances but that doesn't mean that some MP's are not just as corrupt or worse. Not all men in Government will have deeper pockets!
There is a certain party (the Al-Sabah) that cannot control the greed of their members to illegally milk oil, and the feuds between the different cousins to grab the cow's tits!
That is the real source of our problems. The Council is a race between them for each side to get in -through different forms of bribery- the maximum number of MP's.
Marzouq is absolutely correct. Sure there are corrupt MP's, but who is greasing their pockets in the first place?
No, democracy will never mature here as long as the Assembly is treated as a convenience store; opened and closed at the whim of its owner.
"Marzouq is absolutely correct. Sure there are corrupt MP's, but who is greasing their pockets in the first place?"
That is it in a nutshell.
Good post!
Fully agree.
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