Al-Anjeri commended the government’s development plan, which was submitted in the beginning of the parliamentary term. "As a parliamentarian, I see this as a very positive step. For the first time since 1986, the government actually submits a development plan for the country. This means that for the first time since the mid-eighties, the Parliament and the government can performing their duty; they can discuss this plan and monitor its implementation.
This plainly means that the Parliament and the government are finally set on track to do the job they are supposed to do in accordance with the Constitution," said the MP. He explained that in the past years, the government and the Parliament have not been doing their duty to Kuwait, instead of getting into personal debates, at the expense of Kuwait and its people.
MP Marzouq Al-Ghanim asserted that Kuwait is going through a rough patch due to the increasing number of grilling requests submitted in the Parliament. "People generally view grilling requests as a national catastrophe, and that is not the way we should view them. The number of interpellation requests should not intimidate us; we need to face them. We need to listen to the questions presented by the MP, and listen to the answers of the minister, and take it from there. We should not judge before the grill
ing takes place," he said.
He said that facing the grilling is the only thing that the government can do if it really means to get over this obstacle. "The previous solutions it resorted to lead us nowhere. If the Cabinet resigns, or the parliament gets dissolved, we will go back to square one. And so far, the Cabinet has resigned six times in the period of six years and it never solved anything," he said, emphasizing that confrontation is the only way to deal with the situation.
Lawmaker Khaled Al-Tahous said in his speech that there have been numerous attempts to dissolve the Parliament an unconstitutional dissolution. However, he stated that this will never happen as long as Kuwait has loyal parliamentarians whose only interest is to take Kuwait forward. "I was attending an event a while back, and among the crowd was an old gentleman who told me that back in 1986 when the Parliament was dissolved, he was one of the people who were enthusiastic about the decision.
He told me that this decision pushed Kuwait to a dark tunnel. After that decision was made, Kuwait was invaded and robbed, and a case of financial embezzlement took place at the Kuwait Oil Tank Company (KOTC) occurred. This was all because there was no Parliament guarding the country’s decisions, he said to me. So here I am saying: Let us not let go of the Parliament. It is a constitutional right and we need to hold on to it with all our might," said Al-Tahous.
Saleh Al-Mulla, MP and member of the Democratic Forum said that Kuwait faces various issues, and they are not only concerned with the interpellation requests alone. "We see that the government is unable to be in control. It does not know how to be in charge, it does not have the strength to make things happen. Which is why there is a lot of corruption in this country. In this Cabinet, we do not know who to talk to when anything goes wrong because we feel like there are two governments; that of Sheikh Nasse
r Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, the prime minister, and that of our Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Development Affairs and Minister of State for Housing Affairs Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah. With such a long title, we no longer know who is in charge. We don’t know if we should talk to Sheikh Nasser or Sheikh Ahmad," remarked Al-Mulla jokingly as the audience laughed.
We suggest that the government deal with the interpellations. It does not need to push for other solutions. We need the Prime Minister to face the questions so that we can move on. We don’t want to remain stuck on grilling issues, we need confrontation and we need the government to begin taking action against corruption. We need it to prove to us that it is not afraid of questions," he said.
