Rain in Islam is a blessed event, and it rained slightly today on ‘Election Day’ (our third in over three years). Hopefully, it is a positive omen of things to come.

Voting took a maximum of ten minutes, including a detour by a Candidate (who gave the obligatory two minute campaign speech) on my way to voting.

It seemed very quiet this year, with reports of low voter turnouts from all the districts.

Let us hope the third time is the charm.

Here are a couple of previous stories: last year’s ‘Election Day’ (2008) post ‘Casting The Ballot In Kuwait’ and the prior post ‘It’s Over, I Voted’ (2006).

Remember.

One week to elections.

Please don’t vote for people who don’t respect women’s political rights, who court and fund foreign extremist elements, who auction their shoes for so-called ‘freedom fighters,’ who lambast the Prime Minister yet accept funds from him, who issue fatwas based on personal interests and who accept ‘campaign contributions’ from foreign citizens.

Here endeth the speech.

‘National Assembly’ Extension

May 16th, Election Day, is on the horizon.

People often ask what my personal criterion is in electing someone – some of it instinctual, most of it is real politik-based, in other words, candidates who perform their duties in a realistic, level-headed manner with the national interests at heart, devoid of extremist, foreign ideologies and immune to the vaults of riches and personal self-aggrandizement.

In many cases, however, there are candidates who are smart, educated, progressive but don’t particularly fit a ‘code,’ a set of questions that I mentally scrutinize concerning the candidate:

• Who will the candidate support as ‘Speaker of the Parliament’?

• Will the candidate accept a cabinet position?

• Does the candidate have any business interests with the state?

There are a couple of exceptional candidates, from both genders, look impressive on paper, but offering them a vote would be fruitless – they wouldn’t meet the aforementioned benchmarks. I don’t know about you, but I am not in the business of electing individuals interested in cabinet positions (or in individuals who enjoy the ‘status quo’) – to me those are wasted votes.

What are your personal benchmarks for the ideal candidate?

Political fatigue and cynicism are in the air. People aren’t even into election rallies. And the ones who are, hear the same tales of ‘If I am elected.’ Newspapers are tedious to read. Late night TV shows featuring candidates have become deja vu. There are some candidates who aren’t even running because they fear parliament might be disbanded again.

People fear even if they vote right, the government will deliberately hijack its own political process baiting the ‘Problem MP’s’ by imposing Defense Minister Sheik Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah as Prime Minister on them and that in itself will court trouble and controversy.

Even if the government doesn’t impose the Defence Minister on Parliament, the same schtick will occur: there will be a session or two of Parliament followed by a four month hiatus. They will reconvene in October, the government will hand in a lacklustre ‘cut and paste’ development program and the Parliament will go haywire. Then we all get hit by an ‘unconstitutional dissolution.‘

Will that stop me for voting? Of course not – after all I can spare an hour on May 16.

Do I think my vote will make a difference on Election Day? No.

The above shot is of the proposed Surra Co-op (under construction); it has a bold, futuristic vibe.

David Niven and ‘The Streaker.’

Mohammad Hayef Al-Mutairi, former MP, self-appointed ‘defender of public morality and public property’, a man who makes the Spanish Inquisition’s Tomás de Torquemada look like a member of the ‘Vienna Boys’ Choir,’ is at it again. Apparently his Parliamentary skills (or lack thereof) seem to revolve around a ‘weekly ‘insert item’ lambasting’ technique. One week it’s diwaniyas, another it’s public funds, followed by how the act of female officers saluting is ‘haram‘ and so forth. Now all of this would be fine and dandy if it were just hot air, but when he does it, governments collapse.

This week Hayef’s hang-up involves a naked man on KTV3. According to the ‘Arab Times’:

“Urging the ministry to immediately open an investigation on the issue, Al-Mutairi asked about the role of the committee tasked to edit shows before airing them. He also inquired about the procedures taken to identify those who committed the mistake and prevent its recurrence in the future.According to the source, Kuwait TV Channel 3, on Tuesday evening showed a completely naked man – one of the participants in a European Ski Tournament. Al-Mutairi pointed out there is no room for indecent images in a conservative country like Kuwait. “We prohibit the publication of immoral photographs or showing of pornographic films in the country, how much more the airing of a naked man in television,” he asserted. “

First of all, the former MP’s biggest mistake was promoting KTV – is there anyone in their right mind who still watches it? And when I say ‘right mind’ I mean people who don’t think ‘Moby Dick’ is a venereal disease or who think Charlton Heston kissing a female ape is heretical.

Sometimes you just gotta let things go. We need more David Nivens in Kuwait and less Hayefs.

At the outset, I would like to thank all bloggers and writers who have so far contributed pieces to ‘Hilaliya,’ elevating it from a personal blog to a community blog (which I am proud of). Moreover, the ‘Diwaniya’ concept has also allowed certain bloggers the flexibility of posting about issues they were passionate here, as opposed to their own blogs, due to demographic constraints or otherwise.

Special thanks to Don Veto, Intlxpatr, 4th Ring Road, Forzaq8, Aggz the Aggressor, Daggero, فتح الخير and Hanan Al-Hajeri for their exclusive pieces all of which highlighted their own smarts, style and interests.

A big thanks to you, our frequent reader and commenter, for your feedback and support.

Additional bloggers (and writers) have jumped onto the ‘Blogging Diwaniya’ bandwagon, so expect some great new posts the coming weeks.

According to Al-Watan Newspaper the official inauguration of Jaber Stadium has been knocked back a year and a half:

“The official inauguration of the Jaber Stadium is expected to be delayed by about a year and a half; official sources said. The Public Authority for Youth and Sports argued that the delay in signing tenders for equipping the stadium is attributed to insufficient storage facilities. Some observers have however slammed such an excuse as ”feeble,” considering the fact that the Audit Bureau had already endorsed the tenders. They pointed out to the fact that the authority could have rented storage facilities to store the equipment instead. Earlier on, the opening of the stadium was delayed on the excuse that it lacked local toilets.”

We heard horror stories about this project: last minute modifications, lack of elevators for the Emiri VIP section (added later on), not enough parking spaces and so forth (I’d really like to see 65,000 Kuwaitis carpool their way there – cause let’s be honest 6,500 parking spots ain’t gonna cut the mustard in Kuwait).

Why don’t the different bodies in Kuwait (Tenders Committee, Municipality, Authority for Youth and Sports ETC) get together at the initial stages and then agree on the terms, conditions and specs of the project before it is built?

No, wait a minute – If they did that contractors wouldn’t be able to make more dough from ‘variations.‘

I am beginning to think anything with the name ‘Jaber’ in it (Jaber Hospital, Jaber Airport, Jaber Bridge etc) is cursed.

Received this via email this afternoon – the sign: “We won’t be welcoming Parliamentary candidates.”

Young professional Kuwaitis – with exceptions of course – tend to be more honest, transparent and tougher in implementing regulations; they come from a ‘cleaner’ generation, many are reformers who wouldn’t hesitate to battle corruption; sending scores from within their own ministries to the Public Prosecution, and in general burn bureaucratic and official bridges for the sake of reforming the system.

But the ruling elites don’t like dealing with them because young professionals are ‘harder to control’: they are mavericks, they think and act independently and they don’t kiss ass. You won’t see them sitting mildly outside the PM’s office holding their paperwork, waiting for approval (they would be too busy cleaning house).

Most of the suggestions concerning young ministerial candidates given to the PM or the Government are almost always turned down – they prefer a crowd they can control, a crowd that has mutual interests with the government, a crowd that has a track record with the government; another reason why you often see the resurrection of dinosaurs from the 1980s and beyond to new cabinet positions. They are not interested in other Dr. Anas Al-Rushaid types.

We don’t just need new young blood in Parliament, we also need it at the ‘Council of Ministers.’ However, the ‘rinse and repeat’ modus operandi of cabinet positions is not bound to change anytime soon.