Hisham Aldiwan
Special to the Daily Star

KUWAIT:  The fate of Kuwait’s National Assembly ­ the only elected legislature in the Gulf ­ is likely to be decided on June 10 or few days later.
It would appear to hinge on whether lawmakers planning to cross-examine Finance Minister Youssef al-Ibrahim, one of the most important Cabinet members other than those hailing from the ruling al-Sabah family, go as far as tabling a no-confidence motion in the minister.
If they do, the emir, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, is expected to dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections.
Kuwait’s parliamentary life thus hangs in the balance once again and, as on previous occasions, the underlying cause is allegations of abuse of power and misappropriation of public funds by senior office-holders belonging to the ruling family.
Although senior officials say the executive authorities would be highly reluctant to dissolve parliament because of the delicate political circumstances prevailing in the region as a whole, they add that dissolution cannot be ruled out. Indeed, they indicate it will become inevitable if legislators attempt to slander senior figures or “cross red lines” ­ and questioning the ruling family’s financial probity is getting dangerously close to such a line.
The same has happened on three previous occasions ­ in 1976, 1986 and 1999 ­ and, on the first two, the executive authorities ended up suspending the legislature for some years before eventually calling fresh elections. The other available options for handling the current situation are for the minister in question to be removed from his post, for the government to be dismissed and reconstituted, or for a deal to be done that satisfies the would-be cross-examiners and prompts them to withdraw their motion.
June 10 is the date that was set by Parliament Speaker Jasem
al-Khorafi for MP Ibrahim’s cross-examination, which was demanded by Islamist legislators Musallam al-Barrak and Mubarak al-Duweila. But the minister is entitled to request that the questioning be deferred for up to two weeks.
Barrak and Duweila’s move reflects a broader sense of public discontent with the management of state finances. This was also the case in 1986 and 1999, when Parliament was disbanded after legislators sought to use the questioning of ministers as a vehicle for incriminating other senior Cabinet ministers who were also ruling-family members.
Ironically, Khorafi, who is well-known throughout the Gulf as a businessman and political figure, was himself finance minister during the 1986 crisis, when lawmakers’ attempts to force him to reveal details of payments made by his predecessor prompted the emir to dissolve the legislature.
The current attempt to subject the finance minister to a parliamentary interrogation is supported by the Islamist group and a bloc of independent deputies, who between them occupy half the National Assembly’s 50 elected seats. Their undeclared aim is to get the minister to officially acknowledge that senior ruling family members authorized the expenditure of public funds totaling billions of dollars without the supervision of the Audit Bureau, the legislature’s watchdog for monitoring state finances.
Formally, the two MPs want to question Ibrahim about a wide range of matters relating to the management of public finances and possible irregularities. They also accuse him of behaving unconstitutionally by invoking banking secrecy to refuse to reveal sums paid by the Central Bank to various government departments and agencies.
In addition, the former speaker, Ahmad Saadoun, wants to quiz Ibrahim about allegations that public money was illegally used to support particular candidates in parliamentary election campaigns.
In recent weeks Ibrahim has also been heavily criticized over alleged irregularities within the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the government agency that manages some $60 billion worth of funds invested overseas. He is also charged with failing to deliver on earlier promises to reform the KIA and other institutions under his ministry’s control.
A number of National Assembly members also oppose Ibrahim’s plans to set aside 50 percent of the money Kuwait obtains in the form of UN-mandated war reparations from Iraq ­ which are ultimately expected to total many billions of dollars ­ in a special fund earmarked for infrastructural development.
Critics accuse the minister of generally pursuing policies that benefit the wealthy elites in society, and also berate him over government plans to slash generous social security and retirement pension entitlements.
The government has supported the minister to the hilt, and threatened to resign en masse if a confidence motion is tabled against him ­ which if supported by a simple majority of legislators would force him to quit. The MPs concerned have denied that they have preconceived plans to oust Ibrahim from office, while insisting they have a constitutional right to do so should they deem that appropriate in light of the answers he provides to their questions.
Barrak was adamant last week that the move to cross-examine the minister was motivated by a desire to protect public money, but would not “necessarily” culminate in a confidence motion.
Yet the government’s threat to resign was reiterated by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad. He is Kuwait’s de facto ruler and prime minister, given the incapacity through age and infirmity of both the emir, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad, and the crown prince and prime minister, Sheikh Saad al-Abdallah. His stance has raised the stakes hugely in a political standoff, which he has accused MPs of deliberately trying to turn into a crisis.
“We in Kuwait,” he remarked last week, “are capable of creating a crisis out of nothing.”

Hisham Aldiwan, a specialist on Gulf and Arabian Peninsula affairs, is editor in chief of the independent London-based pan-Arab weekly magazine Al-Mushahid Assiyasi

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