AFP – Kuwait’s new amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah yesterday criticised Parliament and Cabinet for harming national interests as he was formally sworn in before lawmakers as the country’s 17th ruler.
Officially taking over from his half-brother Sheikh Nawaf, who passed away on Saturday, Sheikh Meshal is faced with the task of pulling the country out of longstanding political paralysis and reforming a bloated public sector that have turned Kuwait into one of the Gulf’s most laggard states.
“I have stressed in my previous speeches that there are national obligations that must be fulfilled,” the 83-year-old ruler told lawmakers after he took the oath of office.
But “we have not noticed any change or correction” from Parliament and Cabinet, he added. Instead, the two entities have “harmed the interests of the people and the country”, he said. His predecessor’s short-lived rule was marked by a protracted political standoff that saw successive Parliament dissolutions and Cabinet resignations.
Sheikh Meshal further pointed to public appointments and promotions that “don’t meet the simplest standards of justice and fairness”.
He pledged to temporarily halt promotions and new appointments, after already signing a decree on December 5 ordering a three-month pause in state hiring that is open to extension.
“We have warned on many occasions that crises, challenges and dangers surround us,” Sheikh Meshal said, underscoring “the necessity to reconsider our current reality in all its aspects”.
Shortly after the speech, the government submitted its resignation in a procedural step to allow for the naming of a new prime minister.
Kuwait, which borders Saudi Arabia and Iraq, is home to seven per cent of the world’s crude reserves. It has little debt and one of the strongest sovereign wealth funds in the world.
