From the Kuwait Times, Sunday June 25, 2006
By Dr. Sami Alrabaa

Where on earth would you find a country where its citizens, rich and less rich, have the following benefits and more?

• Free medical care.
• Free housing.
• Citizens refuse to pay electricity and water bills.
• Debts are waived once in a while.
• Parents receive monthly child and wife allowance,
• Over 90% of the citizens are employed by state-controlled institutions.
• The country lacks accountability and citizens cannot be fired for laziness and wrongdoing,
• Citizens can retire after “working” for only 15 years.
• Newly wed citizens get a gift from the state of around $1000.
• Citizens do not pay taxes.
• Citizens are provided with cheap domestic workers,
• Laws are made to be ignored by citizens.
• Most citizens get away with violations of the law,
• Wasta (connections) and nepotism are a way of life.
• Expatriate workers have rights only on paper.
• Petrol is the cheapest in the world.
• The country is filthy rich, yet it cannot provide its citizens with enough running water in the summer.
• The county practices democracy whereby money and bribes, not programmes, play a major role in wooing voters.

Right! It is Kuwait. Kuwait is not only excessively living beyond its means, it is also spoiling its citizens. How on earth would this country survive after oil, which sooner or later is coming? If in affluent times it is incapable of providing its citizens with running water, what is going to happen when the oil revenues dry up? In other words, Kuwait with its zealous welfare system and lack of accountability, is digging it own grave.
I usually compare Kuwait to children upbringing. Parents who are too tolerant and too generous with their children and give them everything they want, whether they need it or not, whether they deserve it or not, they simply spoil their kids, they do not do them any good and eventually, these kids get nowhere. They grow up not appreciating the value of money and the value of hard work. They act according to the motto: easy coming, easy going. And this is exactly the kind of mentality which has been implanted in the heads of most Kuwaitis. It is certainly good to have social security and a welfare system that assists the needy. But a too generous welfare system may generate disincentive to hard work, justice, and efficiency. Why work hard and efficiently if I get what I want anyway? The German government, for example, revises its welfare system periodically. The latest reforms, called Hartz, are intended to pick out the parasites who unjustly live on the system. Society is a collective enterprise and everybody must do his/her share to make the system work properly.
Yet, the German newspaper Die Rheinische Post (June 9) is more optimistic about Kuwait. In an editorial, the paper says, Kuwait is a small rich Arab country, but it is, relatively speaking, the most democratic country in the region. Unlike some of its mediate and immediate neighbours, no body in Kuwait fears to be incarcerated for saying his/her opinion. The country enjoys a high level of freedom of speech and women have recently acquired their political rights. Despite tribal and sectarian allegiance and ban of parties, Kuwaitis are learning from the democratic process over the years. Their sense of democracy is improving. It is also true that Kuwait is split between Sunnis and Shiites. And each of these faith directions has its own voters. However, within each of these directions, Kuwaitis are polarized: the liberals and seculars, on the one hand, and the Islamists, on the other. Despite all differences, Kuwaitis, unlike Egyptians, for example, are exercising their electoral rights peacefully. It is also true that unlike its neighbours; Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, is not ruling all alone. In one way or another, he and his predecessors, have shared power with other influential families. No government is formed before the Amir and his prime minister consult with major heads of other families. This state of affairs and democracy are guarantors for sustainable peace in Kuwait. Democracy and power-sharing, at least on a consultative basis, have kept the country together and helped it make friends all over the world, particularly in the West.
I agree with the Rheinische Post. Of course, everything is relative and must be put in its own perspective. Compared to all Arab countries, democracy and freedom of speech in Kuwait remain the best, despite shortcomings. In Syria, for example, elections are orchestrated by the ruling Baath regime. Human rights activists, Michel Kilo and Anwar Al Bunni, have recently been arbitrarily arrested and tortured, In Jordan, critics of the regime of King Abdullah II are also abused. Husni Mabarak’s regime in Egypt cracks down on the opposition in the name emergency laws. In Saudi Arabia, women are not even allowed to drive cars, let alone vote. The other Arab regimes are not better off.