First of all, let me note that the people of Kuwait fully agree on the qibla, the direction in which they stand to pray. But I would say that they disagree on everything else after that. Contentious issues surface mostly in the election season. I quote below from Kuwaiti newspapers (I have all the references in keeping) with a quick comment or opinion, and sometimes without noting the name of the person behind the quote to avoid disagreements. Thus I read: - Al-Minbar renews call for boycott: The one-vote per person has entrenched sectarianism and factionalism. - The one-vote per person is an opportunity for wider participation by all segments of society. - The one-vote per person must be reconsidered. - The one-vote per person has appeased the minority and destroyed the majority. - The one-vote per person has eliminated sectarianism. - The one-vote per person has boosted vote purchasing. - One MP in the defunct parliament: We will continue to boycott the election, both in nominations and votes, out of a patriotic standpoint and the interests of Kuwait, because the one-vote per person is unconstitutional. I say that the one-vote per person rule was upheld by the Constitutional Court, but it seems that a former MP thinks he knows better than the top judges in the land. I would also like to note, once again, that electoral democracy by definition is one man (or one person) one vote, and anyone who claims otherwise is basically saying that he does not understand democracy and does not practice it. Moving on to bribery in elections, I choose the following quotes: - We will not vacate the stage for pilferers of public money and the corrupt. - Unfettered vote-buying in the third district. - Bribery the highest in the history of elections. - Did the interior ministry relax its grip on vote buyers? - Vote-buying in the fourth district in women gatherings. - Suspects in vote-buying all released. - Minister of Information Sheikh Salman Al Hamoud: vote-buying took place in individual cases without a significant effect. - Interior ministry: Irregular items seized with suspects in vote-buying cases. When I bade farewell to my adolescent years in Lebanon and reached the voting age, a vote would sell at around 100 L.L. Today, I am reading that the price of a vote in Kuwait is 1,000 to 2,000 Kuwait dinars or more. So is this what explains this enthusiasm for the previous one man four votes system, instead of the current one-vote per person system? If a voter sells his vote for 2,000 dinars four times, he would be able to get up to 8,000 dinars or $30,000. Since elections take place in Kuwait every six months or so, such voters could make up to $60,000 a year, leaving their jobs and focusing on being career-voters. Finally, I conclude with a ‘dissenting tune'; I read: - The Kuwaiti people deserve their country's wealth more than others. - The government refused a 75 dinar allowance for your children, but gave Egypt $4 billion. There was also a cartoon in the same sense. But I say that Kuwait owes Egypt since before independence, and until Iraq occupation and to this day. Kuwait can help, and Egypt deserves to be helped in its current crisis. Furthermore, Kuwaiti aid has always been the most successful among all Arab aid, and we want it to continue. Understood? [email protected]
