By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: Many new candidates are running in the Dec 5 National Assembly elections, especially from the third constituency, which has a large number of registered candidates. Young people hope they will be able to bring some changes to improve the country. Kuwait Times met Dr Abdulaziz Al-Souqobi, a teacher at the College of Architecture at Kuwait University, who is running for the first time. The slogan of his election campaign is 'Survival of a Nation'.

"We have chosen this slogan as it reflects the present situation in Kuwait. Unfortunately, today we are going through a state of regression from a political point of view, and this became mostly clear during the pandemic. This crisis revealed many unresolved issues, which are very sensitive and may affect the existence of this country. So the purpose of these elections is to save our country and shape its future," Souqobi told Kuwait Times.

The pandemic exposed various problems in many fields. "It revealed the decline in education and the imbalances in demographics, with its negative repercussions on the security, economic and health systems. Furthermore, it revealed a huge number of corruption cases, which showed the defect in the political system, which is not working properly to combat corruption. These and other issues have been pending for years - their effects were not clear to people but were revealed during this crisis," he said.

Make a change
"Many others and I decided to run in the elections as we hope to make a change, even if it's just partial. We felt the danger, and due to our national responsibility, we decided to help in resolving these issues. This crisis also revealed the unstable economic situation and the mysterious financial situation in the country. Will we face bankruptcy after 20 years as many economists have predicted? Or is the economic situation stable, and there is merely a problem in managing finances and wastage of money?" Souqobi wondered.

"Based on these issues, we set certain plans. For over five years, I was considering running in the elections and was waiting for the proper opportunity to do so, even when I was still studying. When I was working on my PhD, I was looking for the cause of the problems that we have in Kuwait, especially those related to my field. For instance the housing issue, which is a troubling issue for young people, particularly public housing, which is my specialization," he pointed out.

"Demographics is also part of my study, including the categories of communities. I made many studies on this topic and presented a complete initiative on resolving the demography. I explained that resolving this problem can't be limited to figures. Proposals by some MPs to flip the current ratio of 30 percent citizens to 70 percent expats are not realistic, and were only for political gain and media consumption. This is why I didn't set numbers in my initiative; instead I included eight practical projects coving all aspects of this issue, to be changed gradually over years to not affect businesses. This will result in some logical change in the percentage after 10 or 15 years," stressed Souqobi.

Only 4 percent
Today, there are 1.7 million jobs in the private sector, but Kuwaitis make up only 4 percent of this number, which is a huge defect. "Kuwaitis refuse to work in low-wage jobs, but 428,000 jobs out of 1.7 million are technical and administrative jobs, which Kuwaitis can do, but they only make up 13 percent (57,000) of this workforce. We should apply job priority that compels an employer to employ citizens first, then expats. We should also apply diversity in nationalities, rather than having 52 percent of expats from just two nationalities. We need diversified experiences from other countries," he said.

"I have a suggestion to encourage Kuwaitis to work in the private sector - employment support. Both the employer and employee are not interested in employing Kuwaitis. Kuwaitis demand high salaries - an employer can employ three expats instead. A Kuwaiti is also not interested in working long hours with no job security. The labor law was issued 20 years ago, but the percentage of Kuwaitis in the private sector only increased from 2 percent to 4 percent, which means the law is not successful," Souqobi pointed out.

"I suggest the government should pay 80 percent of a Kuwaiti employee's salary for the first two years, then 60 percent in the next two years, till it reaches 20 percent after eight years, with training courses paid for by the government. So after 10 years, a Kuwaiti engineer for instance will be experienced and skilled, and more qualified than other engineers from abroad with almost the same salary. Also, there should be a limit on the number of new employees hired from abroad - this doesn't mean banning expats from working here, but only to organize the process," he explained.

Regulating the residence of expats is one of the solutions of the demographic problem. "For instance, more than 328,000 people live over 8 square kilometers in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, which is not acceptable from the human, health, security or social perspectives. The situation is so bad that some laborers rent a bed to sleep for a few hours, then other people rent it. So we need to change this situation to meet international criteria and basic requirements for decent living. The civil ID number should be connected to the address to ensure that all laborers live in proper accommodations. I also proposed a plan for establishing labor cities to ensure housing for over one million expat workers," Souqobi said.

Corruption exposed
Corruption is another issue Souqobi is focusing on in his agenda. "Many cases of corruption were exposed recently. All the abovementioned issues of demographics, education, housing and others can't be resolved if we don't organize the political system, stop squandering of funds, stop corruption and bribery, and so on. Changing the voting law is one of my priorities," he told Kuwait Times.

"The Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) was founded in 2016, yet since that year Kuwait's position on the Corruption Perceptions Index is worsening every year - from 75 to 85 worldwide. I researched why anti-corruption authorities worldwide are successful, and found there are certain criteria like independency, accountability and public participation," Souqobi noted.

"Nazaha was formed by the Cabinet, so it's not independent. How can it judge the authority that supervises it? In countries where watchdogs have been successful, they were formed by the parliament or elected by the people. There is no accountability - Nazaha only collects papers and takes it to the prosecutor, which any person can do by themselves.

Other countries have special courts for anti-corruption cases and have real power. People are also not exercising their role in fighting corruption, as protection of whistleblowers is not for real. Whistleblowers' information is not confidential, although Nazaha claims it is. This makes people avoid reporting something," concluded Souqobi.

Souqobi represents the Islamic Constitutional Movement and believes in teamwork. His family is supporting him financially, morally and logistically. He is campaigning on social media and through personal contacts by calling voters or visiting them while respecting social distancing and health recommendations.