From Kuwait Elections for Parliament to American primaries-a Landscape of News, Self-Censorship, Non-sense, and the Outrageous-along with Governments & Societies Needing Reform
By Kevin Stoda in, the on-line opponent to John McCain and others
After watching the U.S. media make a fuss about Barack Obama's bad bowling this past week, it was refreshing to read some of Kuwait's daily English papers this last weekend.
That is to say--despite some self-censorship and occasional official censorship in this Gulf state, all three daily English newspapers do a better job of reporting a wider spectrum of local and international news and view than over 75 to 85 percent of the various U.S. papers I have ever read.
One article that stands out in the midst of Kuwait's national parliamentary election season was a well-written and critical diatribe from a Kuwait Times editorialist who took on the national government for recently creating an apartheid-like law in the past month, whereby a non-Kuwaiti can be kicked out of the country for driving through a red light.
KICKED OUT OF KUWAIT FOR A RED LIGHT?
The politically timely editorial by Abdallah Al-Otaibi was entitled "Red Light: A Nightmare that Haunts Expats". It appeared in the April 20, 2008 Kuwait Times. The article was targeted at both Kuwaiti citizenry and to the government in support of the 67% of the population who don't hold Kuwait citizenship. The article was in response to an event last week, whereby a Syrian citizen was deported from Kuwait for running a red light.
As far as anyone in Kuwait can tell this new law was passed and implemented by the Kuwaiti government after the Emir of Kuwait closed down the National Assembly in mid-March and called for new national parliamentary elections, now set for the 17th of May.
Worse still, according to some disapproving security personnel, overzealous Kuwait Ministry of the Interior (MOI) personnel implemented that law and exported the first violator of the new law 72 hours "before the new rule should have taken effect".
Two days ago, a report in the Friday Times shared, "A senior Kuwait security official defended yesterday the deportation of foreigners who may run red traffic lights as a legal right of the interior ministry."
Maj. Gen. Thabet Al-Mahanna, assistant undersecretary of the Interior Ministry for Traffic, based his claim on "Article 17 of the law 17 for 1959 as to foreigners' residency, the interior minister can deport any foreigners as long as this serves public interest or security".
The rationale for the change in practices is also based on a request from Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Khalid Al-Sabah to oversee that "necessary measures" are "to be taken in order to oblige citizens and foreigners to observe traffic rules by means of imposing strict penalties."
One major obviously unanswered question by the MOI statements is how deporting only foreigners for traffic violations will stop the majority of Kuwaiti national drivers from breaking the law with impunity. In short, it simply reeks of xenophobia or racism.
This is where the Kuwait Times editorialist, Abdallah Al-Otaibi, entered the fray with a bold article this Sunday aimed at the government, which had closed down the National Assembly--only to begin to implement such draconian laws or procedures in the interim.
Al-Otaibi intoned, "If the Interior Ministry seeks to deter violators, it must target Kuwaitis first. They flout most of the laws, be it traffic or otherwise. It is time to stop singling out peaceful expatriates, who are already intimidated by the law. [Moreover] Looks like traffic accidents will increase at intersections because expatriates will be extremely cautious while slowing down, especially at traffic lights."
Without noting one obvious fact, namely that already in the past three years the Kuwaiti ministries have more than twice created increasingly stronger (anti-lower class and anti-foreigner) apartheid-like rules in Kuwait concerning access to driving license for foreigners by first stating in 2005 that one needed to earn 850 dollars-a-month to obtain a license and raising it again this year to over 1300 dollars a month, Al-Otaibi tells readers tongue and cheek:
