How the Bedoon Problem

Tribalism/Sectarianism are Reshaping Kuwait’s Future

by: Najeeba Johar Hayat

Middletown,

Connecticut

In my previous article, I painted a picture of the historical background to two problems Kuwait faces today: the Bedoon problem and the problem of increasing tribalism/sectarianism. I place tribalism and sectarianism in one category because tribalism and sectarianism both are reshaping Kuwait’s future by ripping apart the social fabric of Kuwaiti citizens while the Bedoon problem deals with people who are going to shape Kuwait’s future outside the definition of citizenship. I do not distinguish between tribalism and sectarianism in this article because they both ultimately serve to tear the social fabric, a topic i deal with in this piece. I will explain here how these two problems relate to the Government and where this will lead us in the future.

A Delusional Government

The Government is of the opinion that one day it will wake up and see that all 100,000 plus Bedoon in Kuwait have miraculously disappeared. Reality check: they are not going away. Despite the fact that they have been systematically ostracized and abused (most severely since 1985) by Kuwaiti citizenship regulation and Ministry of Interior bullying, over 100,000 remain. If indeed, as a former Minister of Interior claimed in the nineties, "ninety percent of them are liars", then why have people who are unable to renew parking licences, unable to send their children to school, unable to find legal employment, unable to even be recognized as legal residents not left yet? Reality check #2: they have nowhere else to go. Consult my historical record of governmental behavior toward the Bedoon and citizenship regulation and you will see that this problem is indeed our fault. Their current situation is the result of governmental mismanagement and most of all, misdirected historical xenophobia. This xenophobia coupled with the very warped, membership-club idea of citizenship that most Kuwaitis posses (consult my article "WHO ARE WE?" in previous issue) has resulted in most Kuwaiti’s allergic reaction to the word "tajnees" or naturalization.

Why Kuwaitis Don’t Want the Bedoon

Despite the fact that these people fairly should be legal citizens, despite the fact that the government had promised them citizenship since the 1948 census, despite the fact that they basically made up the entire rank-and-file of the military prior to the Invasion and despite the fact that despite all of this they actually STAYED in this country, we don’t want to let them in. Why? The simple answer is that we have a vast array of privileges that we get without giving anything back to the government and due to our overextended budget, bloated bureaucracy and undiversified economy, letting these people in will mean no longer having access to these privileges. Not only is the problem economic, but the Hathar are afraid of another "change in demographics" (this is just xenophobia and fear of diminishing power once more) and the Badu are generally satisfied with current arrangements and have made no substantative effort to push the Government on this issue.

A Problem Arises Out of the Stalemate

In sum, the issue of the Bedoon is not going anywhere. The granting of citizenship is done by way of a secret panel within the Ministry of Interior and the topic of citizenship does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Judiciary. The Bedoon see that this problem is not going anywhere and the younger generations, deprived and alienated, are getting restless. There has been an explosion of crime and violence in Bedoon-inhabited areas. In reaction, the Kuwaiti public has become even more anti-"tajnees", locking the issue in a self-reinforcing downward spiral. Children do not grow up wanting to be criminals. These children and teenagers become violent because they live in a country with one of the highest standards of living on earth and they have to worry about having enough food at the end of the day. They have to worry about paying for hospitals when their parents get sick. They have to worry about getting caught on the street by police for selling fruit and seeds to pay for their squalid rented apartments. They have to worry about transportation because they have no chance of ever getting a driver’s license. They have to worry about the summer heat because they cannot afford air conditioners and even if they have moeny to travel, they would not be allowed back in to the country again. These children become violent because they are desperate and don’t understand why Kuwaitis treat them so badly. Crime is a result of desperation and when our xenophobia increases, crime will increase and due to the increase in crime, our xenophobia will increase. Do you see where i am going here? It is an endless spiral of more and more crime within an ever-growing population.

Possible Scenarios When the Government Chooses to Act on the Issue

The crime will reach a point where the Government will take action. Do not doubt this. It has a range of options: one, declare the Bedoon problem a matter of national security and not a humanitarian issue (oh, im sorry, the Government has already done this!). Two, the government will restrict civil liberties. Judging on precendent, the government has had a great deal of experience restricting civil liberties. Just ask anybody alive during the late eighties and early nineties about government crackdowns on private citizens and private, peaceful political gatherings. Three, (and this is the most extreme case), the Government can choose to impose martial law. This would be the demise of the State of Kuwait as we know it. Parliament will be indefinitely suspended (whether the Government finds this favorable or not i will leave to you to judge from recent headlines). The National Guard will control citizens’ every move. The Bedoon will probably once again experience severe crackdowns and will be placed in something similar to infamous Talha Deportation Center of 1993. Kuwaiti citizens will no longer have a voice and our lived will be subject to the whims of the Government since during this "martial law" stage, we will be subjected to an unconstitutional arrangement where the government is completely and absolutely unaccountable for its actions. And there will be absolutely nothing we can do about it. At that point I ask you, what will be left of Kuwait? Who are we and what do we stand for? Everything that we hold dear will be out of our hands because at that point the balance of power will have shifted irreversibly. Is this what we want?

Throw in Tribalism/Sectarianism

Now consider this problem combined with the Tribalism/Sectarianism crisis. Firstly, what people must understand is that a plurality of ideas and beliefs is necessary for the growth and survival of any society. What would we do without different points of view? How would we put our own ideas into perspective? However, when these different views polarize, when they try to affect policy and vilify and marginalize the other, when they are divisive, that is when they become a problem. These divisions are tearing apart our social fabric. Each faction claims ownership of "Kuwaitiness" over the other. If you are not with me, then you are not a Kuwaiti. If you do not believe this, then you are not Kuwaiti. So on and so forth. This is dangerous. What keeps us together as a country, as a people and as Kuwaitis is our belief in our unity. It is a belief that we all belong. When the definition of "Kuwiati" is cheapened by factional, tribal and sectarian rhetoric, the country starts coming apart at the seams. I wonder if the MPs who encourage these divisions and their supporters realize this.

Problem Cocktail

Take the problem of split citizenship that I expanded upon in my article "WHO ARE WE?" and combine it with the escalating crime from the Bedoon problem and the destruction of national unity taking place right now because of the tribal/sectarian crisis and you get a recipe for disaster. One, a rapidly growing crime problem makes it easy for a government to turn the country into a security state and restrict civil liberties. Two, the petty factional conflicts that dominate Parliament have rendered it largely ineffective and turned it into a sorry theater dominated by bad actors playing out the tragedy of this nation’s demise. People no longer have faith in Parliament. Therefore there will not be too much opposition if the Government decides to shut it down. Three, the social fabric has been torn, leaving no solid counterbalance to Governmental hegemony. Four, the split idea of citizenship leaves the majority of the population without any serious attachment to the civil liberties so brilliantly outlined in our constitution.

This is all very real. It very well could happen. Imagine this: a government with no accountability, a government with total control over you. At that point we will blend in with our neighbors. Everything that has ever set Kuwait apart: the value the constitution placed in each citizen, the rights and freedoms it granted each of us, the balance of power it put in place to guarantee that these freedoms and rights will not be taken away… all of these will be gone. What the constitution of 1962 assumes is that every human being has worth. Nobody deserves to be dominated by anyone, be it a person (slavery), entity or government (as under an authoritarian regime). It assumes that each individual deserves to have their voice heard because their concerns are legitimate. The aggregate of their concerns is the national concern. After all, that is a what a government is for: to protect, nurture and organize the lives of its citizens and the people within its borders. All of these assumptions of value, worth, human dignity and rights will be gone if we continue down the track we are currently on. Your children will not live in the same Kuwait you have lived in.

Understand and Support

It is crucial for every Kuwaiti to understand this and understand where we are headed if we do not correct these problems. We must launch an enormous campaign to redefine citizenship. We must understand what is means to be Kuwaiti first and foremost before we claim that label as exclusively ours. We must push the government to begin naturalizing the Bedoon (I will explain my ideas for a full solution in my next article in next month’s issue), we must eliminate Tribal and Sectarian issues from the Parliament. The MPs sit in the parliament as representatives of the state of Kuwait and inside the parliament, they must represent their country before anything else and we must remind them of this! We must reconfigure government policy towards the bureaucracy (reduce its size and make it more efficient and transparent), undertake serious initiatives to build the private sector, eliminate water and electricity subsidies, and impose minimal taxes on all non-essential goods so that we can accommodate our Bedoon brothers and sisters without risking the government complaining of insufficient funds. All this will be elaborated upon inshallah in my next article.

For now, I say to all of you Kuwaitis that i count on your support and understanding. I count on you to understand the danger that we are in we continue down this path. I count on you to understand that, in our region, we are exceptional and don’t you forget that. We are the only hope for the Gulf. We were the political model, the future, the example of a progressive, modern Arab society. Today we are committing suicide. We cannot give up on our country and we must have the stomach to make drastic changes. Do not let the comforts of today fool you into thinking everything is fine. It isn’t. Support the changes I outlined above because you do not want to risk realizing one day that you might as well pack up and move to Saudi Arabia because your country is no different. If things get bad enough, i might just move to Riyadh and flash my ankles because I would rather do time in a Saudi jail than watch my country die in front of my eyes.