A local daily recently published a report about a proposal that will make many citizens happy. The report which appeared in Al-Rai daily states that a legislator has suggested that KD 3,000 be granted to each citizen annually from 10 percent of the annual profit made at the end of each fiscal year.

It appears that lawmakers cannot contribute in any way to Kuwait’s future. They have no suggestions to make to improve the educational, health, economic and social conditions, and to tackle the traffic problem, corruption, overconsumption of electricity and water and many other issues. Instead, he has come up with the proposal that no other country, democratic or otherwise, poor or rich, has ever thought of implementing!

I am not going to lie; I cannot stop myself from laughing while commenting on this subject. It reminds me of the good old grandma stories, like the one about a very rich man who owns a large field and makes a large profit everyday by selling his harvest. Each day, the man met his expenses and distributed the remaining money to his children. The children lived a happy life and loved their father so much for his generosity. This continued, until one day, drought destroyed his crops. Without anything left to give, the man watched his children struggle to cope and deal with the present situation without having any experience in life.

I do not know how lawmakers can devise such ‘ingenious’ ideas. A budget surplus they seek to distribute to citizens can be used to fund profitable projects for the future like diversifying sources of income to provide security in case oil income declines. This scenario could be a reality sooner than we think. We must think of future generations who will appreciate any effort of wealth saving we can do today.

If, God forbid, this proposal is passed, Kuwait will have created history for its lack of vision, ignorance and inability to make use of a depleting (I repeat, depleting) source of income. I would like to congratulate such MPs, who should soon travel abroad and present seminars about ‘How to Become Underdeveloped.’ – Al-Qabas