Kuwait: Parliament Stormed, Warnings Of Growing Political Crisis

[High_Gravity]

Kuwait: Parliament Stormed, Warnings Of Growing Political Crisis

KUWAIT CITY -- Opposition lawmakers warned Wednesday of a growing political crisis after dozens of anti-government protesters muscled their way into Kuwait's parliament during debate over efforts to question the prime minister about corruption allegations.

Local media reported the demonstrators briefly chanted before being forced out as hundreds of others protested outside.

Opposition parliament members have sought to question Prime Minister Sheik Nasser Al Mohammad Al Sabah over claims that government officials illegally transferred money to accounts outside the Gulf country. Last month, Kuwait's foreign minister resigned as the scandal grew.

Pro-government lawmakers managed to vote down a request for the questioning, but opposition groups filed another motion to force another debate later this month.

Kuwait's key affairs are run by the ruling Al Sabah family, but it has one of the region's most politically active parliaments.

The prime minister has survived votes of confidence in parliament in the past and Kuwait's ruling system does not appear in jeopardy from the opposition groups, which include Islamist parties and others.

But it highlights the rising political tensions inside the strategic Western ally, which could host thousands more U.S. soldiers under a Pentagon proposal to strengthen Gulf forces following the withdrawal from Iraq.

Last months, Kuwait was hit by a wave of strikes that grounded the state airline and threatened to disrupt oil shipments.

Kuwait has not been hit by major pro-reform demonstrations inspired by Arab uprisings, but the tiny Gulf nation stands out in the region because of its hardball political atmosphere. Kuwait's parliament has the most powers of any elected body in the Gulf, and opposition lawmakers openly criticize the ruling family.

In January, Kuwait's emir, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, ordered 1,000 dinar ($3,559) grants and free food coupons for every Kuwaiti. Those handouts have been since dwarfed by other Gulf rulers trying to use their riches to dampen calls for political reform. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has pledged about $93 billion for more government sector jobs and services. Last month, Qatar announced pay and benefit hikes of 60 percent for public employees and up to 120 percent for some military officers.

Kuwait: Parliament Stormed, Warnings Of Growing Political Crisis

 

[JStone]

Let them kill each other.

 

[High_Gravity]

Kuwait Government Resigns, Opposition Lawmakers Say

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Kuwait's ruler has accepted the resignation of the government, but has asked the Cabinet to remain in a caretaker role.

The decision by the emir, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, to keep the Cabinet in office is likely to anger opposition groups that have pressed for the dismissal of his prime minister amid a growing crisis over corruption accusations.

The report Monday on the state-run Kuwait News Agency did not give a timetable for how long the caretaker Cabinet could remain before possible elections in the oil-rich nation.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Kuwait faced a fresh bout of political uncertainty on Monday after opposition lawmakers said the government has submitted its resignation to the Gulf nation's ruler amid a growing crisis over corruption accusations.

However, there was no official word on such a move, which could lead to parliament being dissolved and new elections – if it's accepted by Kuwait's emir.

One opposition lawmaker, Khaled al-Sultan, told reporters that the Cabinet tendered the resignations just hours before a major protest rally was set to begin Monday.

The oil-rich nation has been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute between the government and opposition groups demanding the prime minister's resignation. Protesters stormed parliament earlier in November to decry claims that officials transferred state funds to bank accounts abroad.

The unrest comes against the backdrop of widespread and sometimes violent protests that have roiled the Arab world this year.

Yet there is little sign the tumult could seriously challenge Kuwait's political system – a constitutional monarchy whose parliament has the most powers of any elected body in the Gulf.

Kuwait's political uncertainty is nonetheless a cause for concern among its Western allies. The OPEC member nation could host thousands more American forces under a Pentagon-drafted plan to boost troop strength in the Gulf after the U.S. withdraws from Iraq.

Although the battles in recent weeks have been over the corruption allegations, Kuwait's prime minister, Sheik Nasser Al Mohammad Al Sabah, has long been a lightning rod for the opposition. Sheik Nasser – a nephew of the emir – has survived three no-confidence motions in parliament, most recently in June, and was scheduled to appear before the chamber on Tuesday for more questioning about government affairs.

Kuwait's opposition – ranging from Islamists to liberals – have accused authorities of trying to limit political openness and using heavy-handed measures such as raids and arrests to silence dissenting voices.

But the Cabinet resignation may not even cool the political battles. There is widespread speculation that the emir, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, could reappoint Sheik Nasser as prime minister after new elections, which must be held within 60 days.

The latest political crisis has its roots in a corruption scandal that emerged over the summer. Allegations were made that the prime minister was connected to bribes paid to pro-government parliament members, who were then accused of transferring the money to foreign accounts. The country's long-serving foreign minister stepped down last month after claims that the transfers were routed through his ministry.

Despite the turmoil, there have been no calls for a removal of the ruling Al Sabah family. Instead, generous subsidies and a cradle-to-grave welfare system have helped the government resist calls for reforms until recently.

But a stalled out economy – despite 12 consecutive years of multibillion dollar budget surpluses – has left many frustrated as Kuwait has been overshadowed by fast-growing Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in the past 20 years.

Kuwait Government Resigns, Opposition Lawmakers Say

 

[JStone]

The Economist Magazine: Arab World Self-Doomed To Failure

WHAT went wrong with the Arab world? Why is it so stuck behind the times? It is not an obviously unlucky region. Fatly endowed with oil, and with its people sharing a rich cultural, religious and linguistic heritage, it is faced neither with endemic poverty nor with ethnic conflict. But, with barely an exception, its autocratic rulers, whether presidents or kings, give up their authority only when they die; its elections are a sick joke; half its people are treated as lesser legal and economic beings, and more than half its young, burdened by joblessness and stifled by conservative religious tradition, are said to want to get out of the place as soon as they can.

One in five Arabs still live on less than $2 a day. And, over the past 20 years, growth in income per head, at an annual rate of 0.5%, was lower than anywhere else in the world except sub-Saharan Africa. At this rate, it will take the average Arab 140 years to double his income, a target that some regions are set to reach in less than ten years. Stagnant growth, together with a fast-rising population, means vanishing jobs. Around 12m people, or 15% of the labour force, are already unemployed, and on present trends the number could rise to 25m by 2010.

Freedom. This deficit explains many of the fundamental things that are wrong with the Arab world: the survival of absolute autocracies; the holding of bogus elections; confusion between the executive and the judiciary (the report points out the close linguistic link between the two in Arabic); constraints on the media and on civil society; and a patriarchal, intolerant, sometimes suffocating social environment. The great wave of democratisation that has opened up so much of the world over the past 15 years seems to have left the Arabs untouched. Democracy is occasionally offered, but as a concession, not as a right. Freedom of expression and freedom of association are both sharply limited. Freedom House, an American-based monitor of political and civil rights, records that no Arab country has genuinely free media, and only three have “partly free”. The rest are not free

Knowledge. “If God were to humiliate a human being,” wrote Imam Ali bin abi Taleb in the sixth century, “He would deny him knowledge.” Although the Arabs spend a higher percentage of GDP on education than any other developing region, it is not, it seems, well spent. The quality of education has deteriorated pitifully, and there is a severe mismatch between the labour market and the education system. Adult illiteracy rates have declined but are still very high: 65m adults are illiterate, almost two-thirds of them women. Some 10m children still have no schooling at all. One of the gravest results of their poor education is that the Arabs, who once led the world in science, are dropping ever further behind in scientific research and in information technology. Investment in research and development is less than one-seventh of the world average. Only 0.6% of the population uses the Internet, and 1.2% have personal computers.

Women's status. The one thing that every outsider knows about the Arab world is that it does not treat its women as full citizens. How can a society prosper when it stifles half its productive potential? After all, even though women's literacy rates have trebled in the past 30 years, one in every two Arab women still can neither read nor write. Their participation in their countries' political and economic life is the lowest in the world.

Arab development: Self-doomed to failure | The Economist