MEDIA REACTION: Kuwait April 5, 2006

UNCLAS KUWAIT 001206 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ARPI, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, NEA/PI, INR/NESA, R/MR, I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN LONDON FOR TSOU PARIS FOR ZEYA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO PREL KDEM PGOV KU SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: Kuwait April 5, 2006 Major Issues -------------- -- Restriction of Personal Rights in Kuwait -- Women's participation in elections -- Secretary's Visit to Iraq Block Quotes -------------- -- Al-Seyassah, a daily political newspaper published an Op-Ed on April 2, 2006 by Dr. Shamlan Al-Issa, a columnist and a professor at Kuwait University, in which he wrote: 'The recent decision by the Minister of Education to ban Prom parties at private schools was a shocking surprise to students, parents, liberals, human rights activist, and promoters of freedom and democracy in Kuwait. Here is my question to the Minister; do you consider Prom parties at private schools a disturbance to our society? If you answer yes, then we ought to cancel all similar celebrations. However, no logic or law supports this premise... Until when are we going to allow political Islamist groups to control our government? Until when are we going to give in to their restrictions of our freedoms?' -- Under the headline 'Candidate-Voter Paradox' Jinan Bushihri, a political activist and a runner in the current municipal elections in Kuwait, wrote in Al-Seyassah on April 1, 2006: 'In the not too far past the democratic process in Kuwait was restricted to men in our society, and it also included many electoral districts. Now, things have changed once women entered the political arena. With women running for seats in the municipal election and the general tendency to reduce the number of electoral districts, each district is going to include more voters. Now it is difficult for both voters and candidates to follow the same old practices. The candidate-voter paradox consists of two parts; first, if a candidate followed the old rules in the election process, when men were the only qualified voters, he is going to lose the support of a large number of voters. Second, if voters sat in their Diwaniyas waiting for candidates to come and announce their election plan, they would have isolated themselves because women candidates cannot visit many of these Diwaniyas.' -- Al-Seyassah, a daily political newspaper published an Op-Ed on April 5, 2006 by Mohammed Zain, in which he said: 'When U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart Jack SIPDIS Straw arrive in Iraq suddenly and surprisingly, this only means that the masters are upset with the Iraqi leadership. This sudden visit carried a single message, which says the role of the current Iraqi leadership is over. Members of this leadership must offer an opportunity for new people who would be able to form a national government.' Mr. Zaid concluded his article by saying, 'The time has come for Al-Jafari and all the Iraqi leaderships that have surfaced after the fall of Baghdad to leave. They have failed to understand the meaning of a new Iraq, which was supposed to become a country of multi-party government and a democratic system.' ********************************************* * For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ ********************************************* * TUELLER