Dr Hassan Abbas

Observing the government and lawmakers' behavior, one can easily see that they are both at war with expatriates residing in Kuwait. The proposed list of costs for the Ministry of Health's healthcare services for expats is really frightening. I believe that whoever proposed them expects expats to leave the country, and cannot wait to see the last one of them out. We can easily see that this expulsion policy is adapted by both cabinet and parliament, and is most probably motivated by relatively old parliamentary enthusiasm on the topic; repeated statements made by former MP Abdullah Al-Tamimi come to mind.

Personally, I am neither with nor against expats because what really matters here is not residency in Kuwait, it is rather how useful those people are. So many expats are more honorable than a Kuwaiti traitor or thief. I believe we all know what happened during the Iraqi Invasion, and most of us have come across first or second hand experiences about expats who sacrificed their lives and possessions for Kuwait, whereas some Kuwaiti traitors helped the Baathi invaders or collaborated to rob their own country.

Dear members of the government and distinguished MPs, expats came to Kuwait upon official contracts and visas in order to rightfully earn a living as one of their rights, and in return respect the obligations in those contracts. Anything else is a violation for the contract agreed upon between Kuwaitis and foreigners. Well, I want to point out that both the government and lawmakers adopt a 'double-standards' and simpleminded view for both citizens and expats. In the case of Kuwaitis, one finds that the government categorizes them to classes A, B and so on, and according to the type of citizenship they hold, the way each category is dealt with varies. On the other hand, it equally views all expats the same, and classifies them all under one single category.

Things should be the other way round. A citizen must be merely viewed as one, while expats should be categorized. Instead of setting laws to deal with expats as one category and classifying them regardless of their levels and standards, they should be divided into those who had been in Kuwait for decades, for instance, those holding higher and rare degrees, marginal laborers, those married to Kuwaitis and have family relations with them, those who are not related to Kuwaitis, those who have had clean criminal records for years and those who do not, etc. Therefore, I heartily advise and beg legislators and those making hotshot and rocket-like proposals to be reasonable and up to their responsibilities.-Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Rai

By Dr Hassan Abbas