Rethinking Kuwait’s Parliamentary Model

On the first day of the second session of the 16th legislative term of the National Assembly on Tuesday last week, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al Sabah along with ministers of his newly-minted 15-member Cabinet took their constitutional oath.

On cue, some lawmakers marched out of the ceremony in protest against, of all things, the new government’s constitutional oath-taking procedures. What next; protest against the color of dishdasha they are wearing, or the angle at which their ghatreh was positioned? In addition, and true to form, one lawmaker filed the quintessential grilling motion, this time against the Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah.

The five-point grilling motion by lawmaker Hamdan Al-Azmi stemmed from the minister’s decision to “involve women in army”, for “not acknowledging the State Audit Bureau’s remarks on a Eurofighter deal”, for “failing to cooperate with regulatory agencies or replying promptly to parliamentary queries”, for “failing to safeguard state-owned lands”, and for “non-compliance with cabinet decrees on recruitments”. All these are no doubt ‘serious shortcomings’ for which the minister needs to be grilled. However, for a change, the defense minister has stated that he would ascend the podium and refute the charges levied against him by the lawmaker.

The drama aside, the first day of the second session also witnessed lawmakers holding elections to fill vacancies in parliamentary committees. The MPs examined letters by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah in which he expressed his appreciation and gratitude for the MPs for congratulating him on the first anniversary of his assumption of power, and his safe return to the country after a private vacation. They also approved a proposal to allocate the next day’s sitting to discuss His Highness the Amir’s speech at the opening of the new parliamentary session, and to allocate the 18 and 18 January sittings to deliberate the government’s future plan of actions until 2024.

For its part, the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs suggested amending the law boycotting Israel, and suggested a new law banning dealing with or normalizing the Zionist entity and its institutions. The human resources committee proposed new laws on ‘Kuwaitization’ of jobs in the public sector, as well as suggested adding articles and amending civil services law. The internal affairs and defense committee proposed amending the arrangement of constituencies and including several new areas to the electoral schedule.

The parliamentarians also concurred on setting up a committee to study recent murders and find solutions from legal, religious, social and psychological perspectives; and agreed to build labor towns and ensure workers’ rights in line with relevant international conventions. They also consented to issuing a new law to establish a public company to observe increases in meat prices and combat the monopoly over commodities in the market. They even delegated Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim to talk with MP Yousif Al-Fadhala to persuade him to withdraw his resignation from the parliament.

Many would probably consider parliamentary deliberations on such mundane matters as boring and insipid, without any of the excitement and noisy riveting ruckus of insinuating accusations, or the media-attention grabbing theatrics of walkouts and grillings. Nevertheless, these humdrum matters are the hallmarks of how democratic parliaments function; they underscore the prosaic processes involved in parliamentary proceedings, and often discussions that lead to acceptance or rejection of policies, plans and procedures put forward by the government.

Monitoring plans and performances of the government, engaging in debates and discourses that eventually lead to a consensus, or at least an agreement to disagree, on the various strategies or issues facing the country, form the core functions of a parliament in a democracy. These parliamentary activities emphasize the need for, and importance of, shared responsibilities, concerted efforts, collaborations and consultations between the executive and legislative arms of the government. The focus and primary goal of these coordinations should be on furthering growth and development of the country, and on the social and cultural progress and wellbeing of people.

The walkout by a section of parliamentarians, the grilling motion filed by a lawmaker during the opening session are probably only token gestures meant to win applause from their supporter base. Similarly, the statement issued a day later by some parliamentarians they will strongly oppose any economic reforms that involve imposing taxes on citizens, or their criticism of the government for the delay in distributing monetary rewards to frontline workers, and calls to reduce the price of PCR test, after the authorities had already done so, are perhaps symbolic actions aimed to show followers that the MPs continue to be guardians of their interests, and remain opposed to the government and its policies.

Unsurprisingly, there has so far been no mention by these so-called ‘opposition’ MPs to their previous overzealous fiery slogan of, ‘no parliamentary proceedings without premier taking the podium’. During several sittings of past parliamentary sessions, the opposition had obstructed and disrupted proceedings in the National Assembly demanding that the prime minister take the podium and face their grilling motion.

The premier’s staunch refusal to concede to the opposition demand, citing a parliamentary decision to grant him immunity from questioning until the end of 2022, had led to altercations in the National Assembly that eventually led to the Cabinet submitting its resignation in January of last year. However, the opposition continued its confrontational approach when a reshuffled government was formed in March and persisted in these actions until the Cabinet once again tendered its resignation in November, in an overt bid to end the standoff and reconcile with parliament.

A behind-the-scenes deal reached between the government and the opposition, reported to be linked to the Amiri pardon granted to several political dissidents in self-imposed exile outside the country, had evidently led to a quid-pro-quo from the opposition to shelve their demand to grill the premier. It has now become blatantly clear that the opposition’s aggressive strategies and truculent tactics that held parliament and the country hostage for over an year, did not emanate from any principled stance or idealistic belief, or from their objections to the premier’s actions, or grievances on the workings of the government.

It was nothing more than just an unabashed ploy designed to achieve the narrow parochial and sectional interests of a handful of legislators. The feigned demands and opportunistic actions in parliament throughout the past year were solely for the selfish and exiguous purpose of compelling the government to recommend an amnesty for their compatriots abroad. They were totally unconcerned about the harm their maneuvers inflicted on the country or people.

Whether the current detente witnessed in relations between the executive and opposition legislatures is a temporary truce, or a refreshing restart in relations will become clear in the coming days and weeks of the ongoing parliamentary session.
If parliamentary belligerence reemerges once the dissident leaders are back in the country, it could be to the detriment of Kuwait and its future prospects. On the other hand, if the opposition bloc works with the government to enact and implement meaningful and much needed reforms and laws, it could usher in a new era in the country’s political environment.

A realignment in relations between the two vital elements in parliament could also mark a positive turn in the democratic and parliamentary way of governance that Kuwait chose to follow since its independence in 1961. The decision on which way the relations will proceed lies in the hands of our legislators and the government. The choice they make in the days ahead will determine the future of the country and the welfare of its citizens now and for generations to come.

Given the continued political, economic and governance challenges that the country confronts, several constitutional experts, as well as social and civic scientists and ordinary citizens are calling for a rethink on the country’s political environment, and the parliamentary model as practised in Kuwait. They point to the imperfections, weaknesses and limitations of the current legislative and governance framework, which highlights among others the inadequacy of our legislators to effectively tackle the issues confronting the country. There is clearly a need for more efficient, effective and qualified representatives in parliament.

Currently, all it takes for a person to make it to parliament as an elected representative is to be a Kuwaiti citizen by origin, over the age of 30, with the ability to read and write Arabic, and to be eligible as an elector in accordance with the electoral law. No experience is needed, no skills are required, no talent is tested. These minimalist qualifications could have sufficed in an era gone by; but they are grossly inadequate for today’s world. Lawmakers who are called upon and entrusted to steer the country through the unique challenges posed by a 21st century world, definitely need to be better qualified and equipped.

Piddling electoral law requirements that allow any eligible citizen to find a seat in the National Assembly, based only on their popularity among the electorate, or political arrangements among factions in their constituency, should no longer be the criteria when people stand for elections, or get nominated to the National Assembly. This is especially so, considering that parliamentarians hold the power during their four-year term to enact or retract laws that could have far-reaching consequences for the growth and development of the country, the progress and advancement of society, and the wellbeing of citizens now and in future.

It is quite apparent that today’s parliamentarians need to be equipped with the right tools and techniques, and have the knowledge to use them adroitly, in order to enable them to effectively safeguard the interests of citizens and the country in a rapidly changing world. They need to be able to come up with productive and progressive plans and policies for the country’s growth and development, and be able to articulate these ideas in a clear and concise manner in parliament, as well as be capable of participating effectively and constructively in parliamentary proceedings.

Kuwait clearly needs an institute or center that imparts objective and effective training to our lawmakers, which qualifies them to efficaciously represent the nation in parliament. A graduation from such an institute should be made a minimum mandatory requirement for all eligible citizens seeking to represent the people in parliament. Qualified parliamentarians will not only be able to better represent the people and perform their duties effectively in parliament, while adhering to their constitutional responsibilities, they will also help burnish the country’s democratic credentials, and ensure that Kuwait glows as a beacon to other nations in the region and to the wider Arab world.

The country could easily come up with an institute on the lines of the Kuwait Diplomatic Institute (KDI) that has been providing remarkable service to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in training Kuwait’s diplomatic corps and furthering the country’s forgeign policy. Established in 2008, the KDI was renamed in 2012 as the Sheikh Saud Nasser AlSabah Diplomatic Institute, in honor of the country’s former erudite statesman and astute ambassador Sheikh Saud Nasser Al-Sabah.

The institute was established in response to Kuwait’s growing diplomatic needs and its increasing engagement in diplomacy on the international stage. It provides an effective supervision and training tool that enables Kuwait’s diplomatic personnel to adapt and be effective in a rapidly changing international diplomatic environment. The institute imparts an extensive year-long training to new diplomatic recruits that covers all the necessary skills for excelling in diplomacy while representing the country abroad during their tenure with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, the institute also meets the training and qualifying needs of foreign ministry personnel, Kuwait embassy workers, and military attaches stationed abroad. Over the years the institute has become renowned for its professional programs and currently even trains foreign nationals as part of special arrangements with their governments.

The absence of a similar institute or center to train lawmakers is clearly visible in the mediocre performance of many of our parliamentarians, who at times appear to have no clue of their rights or responsibilities, or their commitment to the oath of office they swore when elected as a lawmaker. The constitutional oath calls upon both lawmakers and ministers “to respect the Constitution and the laws of the State, to defend the liberties, interests, and properties of the people, and to discharge their duties honestly and truthfully”. The constitution also clearly stipulates that though they are elected by a small coterie of the population from their respective constituencies, on being elected as a parliamentarian the lawmakers represent the interests of the whole nation, and not just their tribe, sect or electorate.

The current parliamentary model of having an appointed executive and an elected legislature perpetually at odds with each other, at the expense of the country and its future, obviously needs to change. The prevailing calm interlude in parliament is unlikely to last, and a return to the belligerent norm between the government and opposition is only to be expected. Legislative analysts have repeatedly pointed out political appeasements in the past have invariably failed, and they usually only lead to a strengthening and entrenching of opposition stances, and invariably to an escalation in demands. This will probably become evident in the immediate future. In the meantime, the country and its people can be thankful for the respite from having to witness or read about the antics of their elected representatives and appointed executives in parliament; at least, for a short while.

 

 

 

SOURCE   TIMESKUWAIT

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