The two faces of Kuwait

Anybody who visits Kuwait nowadays will easily realise that this country, which was once a role model of democracy and free civil society in the region, is suffering now from schizophrenia, which might require radical treatment to be healed. Kuwait is a state that has all the potential needed for development, yet it doesn't develop. It has all the political, economic and social foundations to progress, yet it achieves no progress. It is a state that reached the highest level of democracy, freedom and high standard political values, but some of its citizens are now acting as if they forgot the values their grandfathers were teaching to other countries - particularly on how to deal with the country's iconic leaders who sacrificed everything they have for the sake of their people and their homeland, and proved during the toughest conditions that they are truly reliable and responsible leaders. One who observes the demands raised in all the uprisings of the Arab Spring would realise these demands have only reached a quarter of what was achieved in Kuwait. The citizens have been enjoying a prosperous life, social justice, complete freedom and political openness since long ago. Despite this fact, we have been recently hearing some voices in Kuwait threatening to instigate a rebellion only because they don't like the proposed laws and regulations upon which the elections would be organised. In brief, Kuwait now has two faces, a face represented in the Emir Sabah al-Ahmad, who is currently chairing the first Asian Cooperation Dialogue summit held in Kuwait with participation of 32 countries. The other face is represented in some of the opposition factions, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, who are trying to incite rage amongst the Kuwaiti people, and using indecent parlance, which the Kuwaitis were never used to hear throughout their history. The Kuwaiti Emir wishes that the Asian summit will help his country to regain its old influent role in the region; he even wants Kuwait's influence to go further reaching the Far East. The opposition, meanwhile, is breaking new grounds in their indecent parlance, which saw them accusing the country's iconic leaders of treason in order to stir tension in the streets which they hope will escalate in the coming days and weeks. The Asian Cooperation summit shaped up what Emir Sabah wished for his country; to be an economic and trade centre point in the region. When he was still a prime minister, Sabah visited almost all the Asian countries. He went to the factories, saw the advanced railways, attended lectures in the best technology institutes and learnt about the modern techniques of building bridges, digging tunnels and cultivating desert lands. His travels inspired him to achieve a lot of breakthroughs in his country, but his efforts were hindered by the consecutive political crises that took place between the government and the parliament. The latter in particular refused to approve a lot of projects that - if were achieved - would have made the Emir's dreams for his country come true. Of course many other projects were achieved in cooperation between Kuwait and other Asian countries, particularly in the sectors of oil, petrochemical industries and construction, but Emir Sabah is still looking beyond this barrier, he still aims to establish a new Asian network in which Kuwait will be the centre point. Emir Sabah aims to push Kuwait to a front position where it deserves to be, considering its reach experience. But reaching this position requires a higher level of awareness from the Kuwaiti political parties, who insist on sticking to an expired electoral law, which allowed the sectarian and tribal rifts to plunge the parliament into endless conflicts. Kuwait will never fulfil its potential without getting over the constant tension between the Sunnis and the Shia, or even between two rival tribes. The nation that looked united while facing the Iraqi invasion in the early nineties is now urged to restore the same unity, instead of exploiting democracy to cripple any move forward in the country. Nobody in Kuwait will benefit from crippling the aspirations of Kuwait's ambitious Emir. These aspirations will never come true unless a modern electoral law is adopted in the country, in order to find new basis for a productive relation between the government and the parliament, instead of converting the parliament to an arena for shouting for meaningless slogans - regardless whether these slogans are religious or secular. However, even if the electoral wouldn't change, things like the Asian Cooperation summit still give us hope that Kuwait - under the leadership of Emir Sabah - will keep trying to get over the schizophrenia it was afflicted of.   -- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.