STUDENT UNION DEFENDS MINISTER OF HEALTH GRILLING

UNCLAS KUWAIT 000277 SIPDIS SIPDIS, SENSITIVE FOR NEA/ARP, LONDON FOR TSOU, PARIS FOR WALLER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL KISL KU ISLAMISTS SUBJECT: STUDENT UNION DEFENDS MINISTER OF HEALTH GRILLING REF: KUWAIT 258 KUWAIT 195 KUWAIT 56 Sensitive But Unclassified; not for Internet distribution. ¶1. (SBU) In a February 17 statement, the President of the Kuwait branch of the National Union of Kuwait Students (NUKS),Maath Al-Duwaila, said that questioning Ministers, commonly referred to here as "grillings," is a right guaranteed by the Constitution and a means for reform. Al-Duwaila defended the grilling of the Health Minister, which took place February 19 (ref A),arguing that it would help prevent administrative corruption and medical malpractice due to official negligence. He said grillings were designed to hold the executive authority accountable for its performance. "Therefore, the Government should cooperate with the National Assembly and should not be frightened of grillings," he argued. Al-Duwaila continued: "Grillings submitted by the people's representatives should not be depicted as a tool used against the interest of the country," apparently responding to criticism that some MPs were using the grilling to elicit concessions from the Government. ¶2. (SBU) NUKS leaders have taken a public position on both internal and external political issues in the past. Their views generally reflect those of the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM),the political arm of the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood (KMB),which has dominated the student organization since 1979. At times, NUKS leaders have even organized seminars and rallies to promote their stance on a particular political issue. The organization often invites ICM representatives to deliver speeches on these occasions. While NUKS officially represents the Kuwait University student body to the faculty and administration, on political issues its leaders do not speak for the student body. Indeed, many Kuwait University students disagree with the political views of NUKS leaders. In a February 24 editorial, Dr. Shamlan Al-Issa, the Director of the Center for Strategic and Future Studies and a liberal Political Science Professor at Kuwait University, argued that "it is unacceptable that [NUKS], which is remotely controlled by the [ICM], plays a role in politics outside the walls of the university compound." Background on NUKS -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The splits that emerged in the Arab nationalist movement after the Six Days War in 1967 contributed to the rise of the Islamist current in Kuwait. Since then, Islamists and liberals have competed for influence on Kuwait's university campuses. In 1979, the KMB gained control of the Kuwait University branch of NUKS, the largest branch of the student organization in the world. The KMB has dominated NUKS ever since due to its strong presence on campus, effective organization, and the continuing rift between two competing liberal and independent student parties. The KMB also dominates the influential Kuwait Teachers Association and has considerable influence in the Kuwait Trade Union Federation. At the time, the Kuwaiti leadership welcomed the Arab nationalists' relative loss of political power in the country and, after the 1976 dissolution of Parliament, found the religious current an effective vehicle for countering the influence of nationalist and leftist groups, which represented the primary opposition to the ruling regime from the mid-1930s until the end of the 1970s. ********************************************* * 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/ ********************************************* *