KUWAITI NOTABLES PRESS AMIR ON RATIONAL USE OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 001053 SIPDIS NEA/ARP, NEA/RA E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON KU SUBJECT: KUWAITI NOTABLES PRESS AMIR ON RATIONAL USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS Classified By: Political Counselor Pete O'Donohue for reasons 1.4 b and d ¶1. (U) Summary: Worried by a continued sense of drift in Kuwaiti political and economic life, a group of twenty-six prominent Kuwaiti "notables" -- known locally as the Group of 26, "G-26" -- took their concerns directly to the Amir on October 12 and, in a subsequent October 20 meeting, met with the Amir and senior GOK leadership, including the Crown Prince, PM, National Assembly Speaker and the Council of Ministers. In their discussions the G-26 emphasized the need for a clear five-year development plan, a crackdown on corruption and a halt to the squandering of public funds. The series of meetings attracted considerable media attention and managed to irritate some members of parliament, who viewed the group's meetings with the Amir and senior leadership as an end-run around Parliament's right to bring public concerns directly to the leadership. Many Kuwaitis approved of the G-26 initiative however, viewing the meeting between the Amir and his wisemen as fully within Arab tradition and a necessary measure to convey to the leadership the group's urgent conviction that an absence of sound development planning is costing Kuwait time and money and causing the country to be left in the dust by its more focused neighbors; few Kuwaitis count on Parliament to convey such a message effectively. G-26 members say that the group has no long-term organizational agenda; its sole purpose has been to impress upon the leadership the need for a coherent forward strategy. End Summary. ¶2. (C) The G-26 is a self-organized group comprised, primarily, of persons prominent in the business world but also including a number of former MPs and Ministers, academics and media personalities; members include representatives from Kuwait's diverse ethnic and ideological spectrum, including Sunnis and Shi'a, liberals and conservatives, united by a common sense that the country is drifting and heading into trouble. Despite the eclectic make-up of the group, the G-26's meetings with GOK leadership drew particular fire from Islamist and tribalist MPs, who viewed the group as an assembly of elitist "downtown" progressives who were seeking to trump parliament's role and undercut tribalist and Islamist influence. Islamist MP Dr. Dhaifullah Bu Ramiya publicly castigated the meetings, suggesting that the group's formation was instigated by Deputy PM for Economic Affairs Shaykh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al Sabah (the driving force behind a realistic development plan) as a way to "impoverish" the Kuwaiti people, a reference to the GOK's refusal to forgive or absorb private consumer debt, a stance that is supported by the G-26 but which is anathema to many Islamists and tribalists. Islamist MPs Dr. Walid Al-Tabtabaie and Dr. Mohammed Hayef Al-Mutairi also publicly criticized the meetings, arguing that Parliament alone has the right to counsel the leadership. Some MPs also queried whether the G-26 was being orchestrated by the GOK as a new kind of permanent pro-government PAC or lobbying entity. (Note: a number of Kuwaiti insiders lauded the G-26's effort and supported its message but, at the same time, believed that the group was instigated by the Amiri diwan itself. One prominent analyst, Zuhair Al-Mahmeed, Secretary General of the Islamic National Consensus Movement (a moderate, predominantly Shi'a think-tank),told PolCouns that he believed the Amiri diwan had given the group the "green light" to set the stage for Parliament's October 27 re-convening. Mahmeed believed the Amir's aim was to demonstrate that he has a significant part of the Kuwait public on his side and intends to use this as a stick with which to threaten a potentially obstructive Parliament. End Note.) ¶3. (C) Despite the hue and cry from some Islamist and tribalist MPs, many Kuwaitis appeared to welcome the intervention by a group of prominent citizens, noting that it was high time that distinguished Kuwaitis take public concerns directly to the top, rather than rely on a feckless and agenda-driven Parliament. By going to see the Amir as a group rather as a series of well-connected individuals, the G-26 also allay suspicions -- all too common in Kuwait -- that they are trying to work private "deals" with the Amir rather than attending to the public weal. During a recent diwaniyya (traditional Kuwaiti evening social gathering) attended by DCM and PolCouns, a G-26 participant told the gathering that the Amir had warmly received the group and had subsequently instructed Cabinet ministers to meet with them. Liberal attendees at the diwaniyya expressed their regret that the G-26 had dropped the ball on reaching out to the media, allowing disgruntled conservative MPs to steal a march on them and unfairly characterize the G-26 as an unelected, unrepresentative elite whose emergence threatened Kuwait's KUWAIT 00001053 002 OF 002 democracy and foreshadowed a possible dissolution of Parliament and a return to the unelected "majlis" (council of notables) of years past. At least one diwaniyya attendee, while lauding the concept, regretted that the G-26's members included prominent Islamist Ahmed Baqr, suggesting that Baqr would try to sow seeds of dissent and subvert the group from within. Apparently, this has not happened. ¶4. (C) Mohammed Al-Dallal, a prominent lawyer, member of the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM - Kuwait's version of the Muslim Brotherhood) and a leading member of the G-26, told PolCouns on November 2 that the G-26 was self-generated by a group of concerned citizens in September out of frustration with the ineffectiveness of Parliament, political groupings and civil society to counteract government drift and fiscal mismanagement. These activists felt that they had a better chance of getting their message to the senior leadership by going around Parliament and Kuwait's various contending and mutually antagonistic political "tendencies." As a consequence, Dallal said, the activists elected to nominate an ad hoc group of 26 respected persons (including 10-12 technical specialists) from Kuwait's political and religious spectrum who shared a common concern over Kuwait's direction and could agree to focus on a specific subject -- the better management of Kuwait's public funds. While the term "G-26" caught on in the media, the group initially called itself the "Group to Rationalize Spending and Halt the Squandering of Public Funds." Dallal said the group's simple message was to convince the GOK that it needs a comprehensive and coherent long-term plan in order to manage public funds transparently and effectively. Dallal denied that the group was instigated by the Amiri diwan or that it had any long-term organizational ambitions; the G-26 has largely done it's job and will disband soon. He dismissed the criticism of MPs that the G-26 had violated parliamentary prerogatives or was seeking to marginalize Parliament, but expressed the "hope" that MPs themselves would adopt the group's message and take more seriously the need for a coherent long-term development plan. ¶5. (C) Comment: Dallal's account of the genesis of the G-26 is partially accurate, but there can be no question but that the group received the private blessing of the Prime Minister -- and his chief nominal parliamentary whip Ahmed Al-Fahad -- before moving forward. Nonetheless, many Kuwaitis are legitimately concerned about wastage, perceived corruption and drift in government and disenchanted with the capacity of their Parliament -- dominated as it is by agenda-driven members of every stripe -- to support a comprehensive and coherent long-term development plan. Ironically, historical pushes to "protect public funds" have often masked rear-guard actions by well-connected business elements on the losing side of large government contracts -- the net result of which has been constant re-tendering and consequently greater wastage and delay. However, the G-26 appears to be raising the issue of corruption and incompetence more generally and for legitimate reasons; thus their effort to organize and articulate common concerns -- even if they had to first do a "mother may I" with the Al Sabah leadership -- still represents a positive step by Kuwaiti civil society to organize and articulate common concerns. Their welcoming reception by the Amir and other senior GOK leadership was clearly intended to send a message to Parliament, albeit one the Parliament will likely ignore; whether the Al Sabah leadership will pay any more attention to the G-26's message to them on the need for greater governmental vigor and accountability remains similarly in doubt. End Comment. ********************************************* ********* For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: visit Kuwait's Classified Website at: http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Kuwa it ********************************************* ********* JONES