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Slow and steady, Kuwait embraces democracy
In a free and fair poll, voters in one of the few Arab states where democracy is entrenched, were able to choose from a raft of candidates representing different ideologies and programmes.
- By Amir Taheri, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:15 May 21, 2008
- Image Credit: Illustration: Nino Jose Heredia/Gulf News
While President George W. Bush was preaching the democratic gospel during his tour of the Middle East last week, people in at least one Arab country were practising it with mixed feelings.
On Saturday over 60 per cent of Kuwaitis voters turned up to choose a new 50-seat National Assembly in an election designed to break months of gridlock between the executive and the legislative.
By most standards, this was a fair and free election with voters able to choose from a raft of candidates representing different ideologies and programmes. This was also the second time that women, enfranchised recently, could vote and stand for election. (None of the women candidates won, although one reformist candidate came close.)
Previously, the tiny oil-rich state had been divided into 25 small constituencies, each with two seats. That enabled a candidate to win a seat with as few as 2,000 votes - votes that could come from tribal relatives or even be bought for around $500 each.
Under a new electoral law, the country is divided into five big constituencies, making it more difficult to win by clan connections or buying votes.
The results perfectly reflect Kuwait's political persona as one of the few Arab nations to understand the intricacies of unity in diversity. Kuwaiti identity has three principal ingredients: tribal, religious and national.
In the new parliament, 11 members would represent the tribal dimension, although tribes are fast disappearing in a rapidly urbanising society.
On the religious front, the conservative Sunni Salafis won 12 seats, a gain of one compared to the last parliament. To these, must be added 12 seats won by Shiite candidates and other avowedly religious figures. Some analysts have seen this as a victory for Islamists.
Nothing is further from the truth. The 24 religious winners represent different Islamic sensibilities, and are divided both by issues of faith and politics. On most key issues, the Shiite members are more likely to ally themselves with reformist secular colleagues rather than Sunni Salafi figures in the new parliament.
The pan-Arab, or "national" aspect of the Kuwaiti identity would be represented by four seats, one fewer than the last parliament. Of the remaining seats, seven go to moderate and modernisers, who also end up losing one seat. Independents, who side with different groups on different issues, captured four seats.
The Emir, Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, had hoped that the new election would produce the solid majority needed to push his reform package through the legislature at top speed. He will be disappointed.
While Kuwaitis complain about democracy slowing down their economic and political life, most of them seem reluctant to give the green light for speeding ahead in any particular direction.
Reforms
Kuwaitis complain that their country is falling behind other Gulf states because of a constant tug of war between the parliament and the government. They are envious of the dazzling development projects that have sprung up in the UAE, Qatar and even oil-less Bahrain.
All this despite the fact that Kuwait, owning some 10 per cent of the world's known oil reserves, is potentially by far the richest Arab country after Saudi Arabia. Add to that the fact that Kuwait has an old, well-established and experienced merchant class that could turn it into the region's trading "superpower".
And, yet, the Kuwaiti economy continues to underperform, persuading many Kuwaitis that they are a nation of "underachievers".
Even the fact that the massive Iraqi market has been opened to Kuwaiti business since 2001 does not seem to have generated the boom that many had expected.
The projects, such as the one to develop the island of Bubyan into one of the world's biggest industrial parks, remain stuck in a cobweb of contradictory views and interests expressed in the parliament.
Even with oil prices at an all-time record high, Kuwait is not experiencing the gold-rush atmosphere evident elsewhere in the region.
Kuwaitis also complain about their parliament's penchant for "populism and demagoguery" as if this were an affliction peculiar to them.
Morally, the outgoing parliament hit the bottom last year when it tried to force the government to pay all the debts of private citizens, something the government of Prime Minister Shaikh Nasser Al Mohammad had to fight tooth and nail to stop.
Despite all that, few Kuwaitis are prepared to do away with their parliamentary system. Most seem to be genuinely attached to their "slow, lazy and inefficient" democracy and wouldn't change it for the world.
They are proud that Kuwait is one of the few Muslim countries where the opposition is in the parliament rather than in exile or prison. They are also proud of their free, although not always responsible, press, and the fact that more than half of all students at universities are women.
They seem pleased that Kuwait is the only Muslim country where parliament fixes the salary of the head of state (The Emir).
Finally, most Kuwaitis endorse their nation's "vision" which led it to create a Future Fund for the day, perhaps in the 22nd century, when the tiny state runs out of oil.
That fund is believed to have grown to almost a trillion dollars in global investments - an egg nest for the estimated 800,000 citizens of the state.
"Democracy is messy, slow, inefficient, and, at times, infuriating," says veteran parliamentarian Mohammad Jassem Al Saqar." But, by God, is the best of all systems imagined by man."
Amir Taheri is an Iranian writer based in Europe.
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