KUWAIT: MPsyesterday urged the government to swiftly find a solution to the decades-oldproblem of bedoons or stateless people and warned against the demographicimbalance that has made the Indian and Egyptian communities as large as that ofKuwaitis. Debating HH the Amir's speech that he delivered at the start of thecurrent term, lawmakers also continued to threaten to grill ministers, mainlythe new Oil Minister Khaled Al-Fadhel if he fails to take measures to rectifyviolations committed by the former administration.
MP HamdanAl-Azemi blamed lawmakers and the Assembly speaker for making the Assemblyweaker, "because 30 out of 50 MPs want to become ministers and try toappease the speaker, because he has reserved seats in the Cabinet". MPMohammad Hayef threatened to use constitutional tools because of the bedoonissue, which has remained unresolved for a very long time. He said that Kuwaitmust retain its Islamic identity, adding this issue must remain Kuwait's toppriority.
Hayef complainedthat his colleagues in the opposition have been sentenced to 42 months in jailfor entering the National Assembly building, in reference to MPs JamaanAl-Harbash and Waleed Al-Tabtabaei. The lawmaker also warned that thegovernment will be held to account for rampant corruption and criticized thegovernment for not returning the citizenship revoked from several oppositionfigures.
MP Saleh Ashourcriticized the government's foreign aid policy, saying that it has donated $1.2billion to Jordan and $2 billion to Bahrain and several millions to manycountries, while Kuwaiti citizens are suffering from huge loans and a badstandard of living, claiming that the government has not submitted any law thatserves citizens. He criticized the demographic policy, saying that the size ofthe Indian and Egyptian communities has become equal to that of Kuwaitis.
MP Khalil Abulclaimed Kuwait has become a country of eight merchant families and charged thatsectarianism is being practiced in some agencies. He threatened to grill thenew oil minister after two months if he does not take the necessary measures toend violations and squandering of public funds.
MP OmarAl-Tabtabaei criticized the repeated use of grillings, saying it has lost itsvalue and charged that some MPs give priority in grillings to their tribes,families or sects ahead of national interests. He also blasted those who wantthe Assembly dissolved because the prime minister is not good with them. Healso criticized what he called infighting within the ruling family.
MP OsamaAl-Shaheen said there is a need to review the constitutional court law in orderto re-establish the political equilibrium introduced by the constitution,adding that grillings and parliamentary immunity have been weakened by recentrulings by the constitutional court. As a result, the legislature has becomethe weakest authority, he said. MP Abdulkareem Al-Kandari said it is the rightof lawmakers to debate the constitutional court's rulings after theconstitutional vacuum created by the latest verdict, adding that a new draftcharter for the Assembly will be submitted soon.
By B Izzak