Kuwait: Bloggers React to the PM's Seventh Cabinet

Kuwaiti bloggers continue to discuss how their government is run this week, following the naming of a new cabinet by Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah.

In a previous post, I wrote about how the Prime Minister was reappointed despite getting questioned by the parliament, alongside his various ministers. A few days ago, the new Kuwaiti cabinet pledged their oaths in front of the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah after 38 days of waiting since the previous cabinet submitted its resignation because the parliament wanted to question two ministers of the Al-Sabah ruling family.

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheik Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah. Image by Flickr user Kuwait-Ra'ed Qutena (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheik Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah. Image by Flickr user Kuwait-Ra'ed Qutena (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Kuwaiti bloggers wrote posts and comments on the 27th cabinet in the history of the country. Dahim Al-Qahtani, a blogger and political activist, wrote a post saying [ar]:

حكومة تلد أخرى، وبرلمان يلد آخر وهكذا يواجه النظام السياسي في الكويت عقبات متجددة بسبب إهمال السياسيين للإصلاحات التي لا يستمر نظام سياسي بالفاعلية من دونها

Each cabinet gives birth to another, and every parliament to another, and thus, the political system in Kuwait faces new obstacles because of politicians neglecting reforms, despite the fact that no political system can effectively survive without them.

Another blogger, who calls himself 5alif, made his comments [ar] on the new cabinet, most importantly the two ministers of the ruling family, who were going to face parliamentary questioning before the cabinet's resignation. He analyzes the meaning behind bringing back those two ministers in the new cabinet despite what had happened earlier:

عودة الوزراء الشيوخ في مناصبهم مؤشر على تعقيد الموقف داخل الأسرة وأيضاً على قوة كل طرف، فالرئيس بعد أكثر من شهر يعيدهم في مناصبهم وهو ما يدل على عدم إمكانية اقصاء أحدهم مهما شكل من خطر على مستقبل الحكومة

The return of the two Al-Sabah ministers to the new cabinet is a sign of the complicated situation inside the ruling family and the power of each of them because the prime minister, after more than one month, puts them back in their positions which tells us that he is incapable of excluding them despite the danger they bring to the future of this government.

Sharif Roma, a Kuwaiti blogger writing under a nickname, wrote a post in bullet points to make his comments on the new cabinet saying [ar]:

المواجهات في البرلمان لن تقف أو تخف لأن اصل المواجهة والاحتقان بسبب سمو الرئيس لا وزرائه

The clashes in the parliament will not stop or decrease because the clashes and tension happened because of the prime minister, not his ministers.

Another Kuwaiti wrote in his blog, What's up [ar], a post on choosing Dr. Amani Bourisly as the trade and industry minister – which makes her the only female minister in the new cabinet:

تشكلت الحكومة الجديدة من ٣ ايام تقريباً، لا تغيير كبير ولكن التغيير الذي فعلاً خلاني أتفادل هو التغيير في وزارة التجارة والصناعة وتم تعيين الدكتورة أماني بورسلي وزيراً لها. في هذه الحكومة الجديدة حصلت امرأة واحدة على الوزارة، وأي امرأة؟ دكتورة التمويل والمنشآت المالية في كلية العلوم الإدارية جامعة الكويت أماني بورسلي، عقلية اقتصادية فذة ومميزة

The new cabinet did not change much but the only change that made me optimistic is the change at the ministry of trade and industry which saw the appointment of Dr. Amani Bourisly as its new minister. In the new cabinet, there is only one woman, but what a woman she is! Bourisly is a finance professor in Kuwait University's Business college. She has a unique and special economic mentality.

Kuwaiti blogger Hamad wrote a post about the prime minister and his new cabinet, and here is a quote [ar] from its introduction:

كم من الوقت ستهدر الحكومة القادمة او التعديل على حكومة تصريف العاجل اكثر مما اهدرته حكومات ناصر المحمد الست السابقة، فلا تغيير منهجي ولا هم يحزنون

How much time will the new cabinet waste more than what the former six cabinets of Nasser Al-Mohammed have wasted; There is just no methodical change.

Le Koweit, a blogger interested in local politics, wrote many posts on the Kuwaiti government, and one of the recent ones he posted was entitled “The Kuwaiti Holocaust” [ar]. In it he writes:

لدينا في الكويت هولوكست سياسي متخصص في حرق الوزراء وهو مجلس الوزراء، نعم لدينا هتلر كويتي قام ببناء هذا الهولوكست وقيادته على مدى خمس سنوات وهو الشيخ ناصر المحمد رئيس مجلس الوزراء من أجل حماية نفسه وكفالة بقائه أطول مدة ممكنة في الحكم

In Kuwait, we have a political Holocaust specialized in burning ministers, specifically the Council of Minister. Yes, we have a Kuwaiti Hitler who designed this Holocaust and led it in the past five years. He is the prime minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed who wants to protect himself and to guarantee the longest period he can possibly get to stay in his position.

2 comments

Join the conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.