Local newspapersreported last week that the government is willing to listen to citizens'proposals to support the country's development plans. But this simple newscreated a fuss. It occupied headlines and social media between those who triedto analyze the issue of citizen proposals and others who found this moveinteresting, as the government does not need suggestions or ideas because itknows all of our problems.
The local presspublished reports that the Cabinet has formed a joint team comprising of anumber of government agencies and entrepreneurs to receive initiatives andideas supporting development plans in the country. The government will alsowelcome proposals from citizens. The team should present its report every six monthsto the Council of Ministers, including the total initiatives that weresubmitted and the number of proposals accepted and denied.
I think the ideais beautiful, but as usual, the fear of a lack of implementation is justified.Moreover, which proposals will be accepted and which will be rejected? Can theproposer object to the team's opinion? Who will review initiatives and what aretheir commercial and scientific backgrounds to consider the initiatives andmake decisions?
For example, thereports said that there is a proposal calling for readying a comprehensiveemployee who is able to complete all transactions in a single review session,and that such a comprehensive employee could be an official or an ordinaryemployee.
I think this is knownas the modern management system. So a manager, for example, should not have alarge staff of secretaries to answer the phone, print a letter, make anappointment or respond to inquiries because he can do this all by himself or atleast with one assistant and not an army of staff.
But this meansthat the employee should have strong administrative efficiency and not beappointed by wasta or be ignorant about the basic principles of the use ofcomputers. It is expected that such an employee will be able to complete thetransactions of people with record speed!
I believe manypeople and not only Kuwaitis want an initiative aimed at ending papertransactions and going electronic to overcome bureaucratic obstacles and redtape. We are also heading towards the rainy season in few months' time, andpeople have the right to be worried about what is in store for them. Also, areschools really ready to receive students in this heat? There are many questionsand concerns that we should not have in the first place in a country likeKuwait. This is a good initiative, but we need action. The question remains -how much time do we need to become a productive and satisfied society?
By Muna Al-Fuzai
muna@kuwaittimes.net