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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Books Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Kuwait pitches for a new parliament
By Sherine BahaaShortly after Sheikh Jaber Al-Sabah decided last week to dissolve Kuwait's National Assembly (parliament), saying that its members hindered government activities, candidates for the upcoming 3 July elections started pitching their air-conditioned tents throughout the emirate as venues for the public to meet their prospective MPs. Candidates submitted their names as early as Monday in order to meet the nomination deadline in 10 days time. Sources expect more than 200 candidates to run for the 50-seat parliament.
In Kuwait the parliament is usually regarded as the opposition even if the majority of its members are pro-government and loyal to the ruling Sabah family, as was the case with the parliament dissolved last week. The last elections were held in June 1996 and new elections were not scheduled until the year 2000. Why the decision to move them forward?
The reasons behind the Emiri decree are the subject of heated debate in Kuwaiti diwaniyas, or traditional all-male meeting places, where everyday affairs are discussed.
"People sense there is a scheme underway," one Kuwaiti businessman told Al-Ahram Weekly without specifying what that might be. Some describe the dissolution as an exit strategy for a government under siege after misprints were discovered in copies of the Qur'an that were printed by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and distributed at home and abroad. During a stormy session MPs sharply attacked Ahmed Al-Kuleib, the minister responsible, and 20 of them supported a no-confidence motion against him. The cabinet pledged its support for Kuleib and said it would throw its political and moral weight behind the minister. This version of events sees the decision to dissolve the Assembly as preventing a showdown between the government and MPs. However, sceptics do not accept this and say that it was to avoid setting a precedent in which Assembly members removed a minister.
On previous occasions when ministers were subject to cross-questioning by MPs and risked a vote of no-confidence the cabinet resigned. The same minister was then either re-appointed or, after a minor reshuffle, given a different portfolio in the cabinet. This strategy has raised suspicion among many Kuwaitis that the misprint controversy is a pretext being used by the government to rid itself of the Assembly described by Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sabah Al-Ahmed as "uncooperative". Dissolution, critics of the Kuwaiti government claimed, will give the cabinet two months during which it can advance laws and deals to buy weapons which would otherwise have been blocked by the "uncooperative parliament". A statement issued by the Kuwaiti cabinet after its regular meeting on Sunday said that the government will concentrate in the upcoming stage on "economic reforms, reviving commercial activities, housing projects, and supporting the national work force".
Abdallah Al-Nibari, a prominent MP and fearless critic of the government who barely escaped assassination two years ago after raising questions regarding corruption in the Assembly, denied in an interview with the Weekly that the Assembly had blocked any laws or projects proposed by the government. "There are no projects that were presented by the government and rejected by the legislature. If there had been any, that would have been mentioned in the dissolution decree." In Kuwait, he added, "there is always the threat to dissolve the Assembly once any of the issues which are unacceptable to the cabinet are raised for discussion." For him the Al-Kuleib misprint controversy is a cloak for "the government's inability to accommodate a democratic society". A highly sceptical Nibari says that both the Assembly and the parliamentary committees that scrutinise government actions are under the control of the government. He sees no reason why the Emir should dissolve an Assembly in which a third of its members are from the cabinet and where support for the government is secure.
One Kuwaiti legal expert accused the government of over-reacting and commented that the "government should not get upset when MPs exercise their constitutional right and question the executive authority". However, he praised the fact that, for the first time, the government had respected the constitution relating to the dissolution of the Assembly. In the decree issued by Sheikh Jaber, a date was set for new elections in two months. On previous occasions years might elapse before new elections were held and then it was the government that decided the date.
This is the third time that the National Assembly has been dissolved in the past 25 years. Four years elapsed after the first dissolution in 1976 before new elections were held. The second dissolution in 1986 occurred after a row between three MPs and the minister of justice when, to avoid a vote of no-confidence in the government, Sheikh Jaber sacked the Assembly. They remained in the political wilderness for six years.
This time round the dissolution was not accompanied by censorship of the press or special security measures. Ahmed Saadoun, speaker of the dissolved parliament, together with a number of MPs, was allowed into the Assembly to get his belongings. Indeed such signs that the Emir is abiding by the constitution brought a sigh of relief from Kuwaiti citizens as well as lawmakers. In any case, most of the old Assembly MPs are planning to enter the upcoming elections in almost the same electoral lists which would mean a new parliament with old faces.
Abdallah Al-Nibari persists in his criticism of the decision to dissolve the Assembly. "There is a general feeling now among Kuwaitis that if the government's mentality does not change, such crises will persist. This is the third time to dissolve the Assembly and each time the government says it is extending the limits of its administrative prerogatives." To reinforce his point, he added that "in 25 years the Assembly has been dissolved three times and the cabinet not once".
To Al-Nibari the fact that the Emir has been more fastidious in his observation of the constitutional niceties regarding the dissolution is attributable to the influence of international circumstances. "Conditions have changed in a way that prevents the government from ignoring the constitution or the democratic aspect of our life," declared Al-Nibari.
