Middle East Focus: Kuwait Elections: Pro-Saudi Islamic Extremists and Tribes in, Women and Liberals out………

Arabia Deserta

Kuwait Elections: Pro-Saudi Islamic Extremists and Tribes in, Women and Liberals out………

Rattlesnake Ridge

BFF

The Kuwait elections were held in an atmosphere of unprecedented sectarian and tribal polarization. With the flames of the Arab Spring reaching next door in Bahrain and Qatif (Saudi Arabia), local politics were strongly influenced by regional events. Saudi and Bahrain official and semi-official media played a role in escalating Shi’s-Sunni tensions in the country, promoting their strongly pro-Saudi Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood allies. In addition, domestic political infighting among the ruling “elite” also helped exacerbate tribal tensions. The day before the voting mobs from one tribe (al Mutair that also has strong Saudi roots) attacked and burned one candidate’s election headquarters and stormed a television station that was airing a debate they did not like. Trolls were all over the internet social media spreading rumors and counter-rumors. The voting itself was quite peaceful.

Women and liberals were the biggest losers: Islamic fundamentalists of the Wahhabi stripe were the biggest winners. Women lost all their four seats, the liberals’ few seats shrank to historic levels, Islamic extremists and their tribal allies now will dominate the new assembly. Look for more domestic and regional tensions, as they push their fundamentalist (and in some cases sectarian) agenda. The following possibilities are worrisome:

Look for stupid proposals like blood tests for citizens arriving at airports for alcohol and drugs.
Look for more books banned.
Look for proposals to make women retire from work at age 35, with full pay. That would be great for the polygamous types (four wives to bed + four salaries to spend).
Look for attempts to replace the constitution with the Quran to be interpreted by Salafi shaikhs (a la Taliban).
Look for proposals to import from Saudi Arabia the practice of public beheading for sorcery and magic .
Look for canonization of the Saudi princes into saints (okay, the Salafi version of saints).
Look for attempts to establish a local branch of the Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Vice (Haia, Religious Police).
Look for more sectarian tensions within the country as the Fundamentalists to try to restrict the freedoms of others, just to be in line with the degree of political and religious “freedoms’ enjoyed in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Look for more political disruptions as outside influences try to paint a negative picture of the electoral process and the idea of democracy (as compared to the tribal joys of an absolute monarchy, like the rest of the neighborhood).
Look for wise heads (very few left) to try and force a degree of moderation.

People always vote with the clan and the tribe and the sect, always in that order. That is the way it is in all tribal societies. Within these bounds, there is room for political convictions.
Negotiating the new political-sectarian-tribal minefield would require unusual wisdom, the kind of wisdom I suspect may not exist anymore.
My prediction: this assembly will not last the four years.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com