Kuwait Abrogates Much of Its Democracy--With Only Muted Reaction

Kuwait’s democracy died on July 3 last year, but there has been hardly a whimper of protest.

Faced with an economic crisis, the Iran-Iraq War literally lapping at its beaches and increasing terrorism at home, Kuwait’s emir, Sheik Jaber al Ahmad al Sabah, went on national television to announce the closing of the National Assembly and the imposition of press censorship.

In one stroke, the Persian Gulf’s only freely elected Parliament and perhaps the liveliest press in the Arab world were muzzled.

“I have seen democracy shaken,” the emir declared to his countrymen, “and its practices decline. This has been accompanied by a loosening of the inherited cohesion of Kuwaiti society.”

In many Western countries, the suspension of an elected national legislature and strict regulation of a free press might be expected to touch off protests, perhaps a revolution. But the reaction in Kuwait has been distinctly muted.

“It’s as if nothing has happened,” a Western diplomat commented. “While many Kuwaitis regret the death of the National Assembly, even opposition figures concede that it dug its own grave.”

On “newspaper row” on the outskirts of the city of Kuwait, a censor now sits next to the editor of every major newspaper, excising virtually every item about Kuwaiti politics and controversial news about Kuwait’s neighbors in Saudi Arabia and other gulf states.

“You cannot criticize the government or King Fahd (in Saudi Arabia) or even attack the Iranians,” one editor said. “But you can say what you want about Lebanon.”

34 Journalists Deported

In addition to censorship of the press, the government has deported 34 foreign journalists from Kuwait, apparently because they were closely identified with political causes outside the country.

Censorship is now so strict that Al Anba, a conservative daily, carried a blank front page recently to protest the removal of an editorial against terrorism.

“You used to have to read about six papers every day to do your job properly,” a Western diplomat said. “Now you only need to read one paper, because the news is exactly the same in all of them, and it’s not very interesting. There is no press in Kuwait any more.”

Oddly, since censorship was imposed, circulation at the big dailies has increased. Some have resorted to running color photographs of women--faces only--which are considered risque in this conservative Muslim society.

Western diplomats and Kuwaitis disagree on why there has not been more criticism of the government’s measures, but few will say that the move was unpopular.

The 50-member National Assembly had been dissolved once before, in 1976, when the emir expressed concern about the “Le banization of Kuwait,” referring to the civil war that had erupted in Lebanon among religious factions. About 40% of Kuwaitis are Shia Muslim, as in Iran, and the remainder are Sunni Muslims.

After it was reopened in 1981, the National Assembly served for four years. There were elections in 1985, which brought several leading nationalists to power, as well as six Islamic fundamentalists. Under Kuwait’s election rules, only about 70,000 males in a population of 1.7 million are eligible to vote.

The new assembly was as outspoken as any in the West, forcing the resignation of the justice minister and questioning the conduct of other government officials, who had been relatively immune from public criticism.

The education minister was pilloried by nationalists for limiting free speech at the university and attacked by fundamentalists for reducing Islam’s influence in the schools. The oil minister came under attack for alleged insider trading when Kuwait bought an American oil firm at what was widely considered an inflated price.

“Parliament came to be regarded not as the loyal opposition but as the disloyal opposition,” a diplomat said. “Ministers complained that governing the country was impossible. The reaction of most people was ‘Thank God we got rid of these idiots.’ ”

The press had been accused of being in collusion with the assembly, since by printing speeches that were protected by legislative immunity the newspapers could go further than ever before.

“There are undesirable elements in the press who misused the freedom of expression in order to achieve specific goals,” the crown prince, Sheik Saad al Abdullah al Sabah, told editors in October.

“The business of Kuwait is business,” said one Western envoy, explaining the lack of public outrage at the loss of civil liberties.

“It’s a society given over to the making of money . . . It’s not a politicized place,” the envoy added.

At the same time the emir was suspending the National Assembly, the government was spreading around considerable largesse to help the country through an economic crisis brought on by the decline of oil prices and a stock market collapse in which an estimated $90 billion was lost.

One popular move was to set aside $2 billion for land expropriation, and owners of relatively worthless land were given huge subsidies by the government. Worthless shares in companies are being bought up, and a program of forgiveness for bad loans has been announced.

With a gross national product that works out to $20,900 per capita, this oil-rich country already had one of the highest standards of living in the world.

Perhaps another reason Kuwaitis appear to have been lining up behind the ruling family is the continuing security situation in the country, which, in the words of one official, has “the entire country worried down to its knees.”

At night, the thud of explosions can be heard from the Iran-Iraq War front, less than an hour’s drive from the city of Kuwait.

Even more worrying, there has been a number of spectacular terrorist attacks here, apparently the work of pro-Iranian groups. Persian Iran has condemned Kuwait’s support of Arab Iraq, but Kuwait has nervously attempted to appear neutral in the fighting.

In December, 1983, terrorists sent car bombs into the U.S. and French embassies here and the following year pro-Iranian gunmen hijacked a Kuwaiti airliner to Tehran. But many Kuwaitis were more outraged by the bombing of seaside cafes in 1985--a number of security officials were killed--and the attempted car bombing of the emir in May the same year.

Resisting demands that terrorists in Kuwaiti prisons be exchanged for foreign hostages in Lebanon, the emir insisted earlier this month that Kuwait’s “mature and rational society will uphold the scales of justice and let no criminal go unpunished.”

The sense of insecurity, brought to a head by bomb attacks before last month’s Islamic summit conference here, has also caused friction among the people. Kuwait has a population of 1 million and has imported about 700,000 foreigners to make the country work.

Police sweeps of residential areas have become commonplace, and midday traffic is held up for hours by roadblocks where police scrutinize identity cards.

Although there are no official statistics available, diplomatic estimates suggest that between 10,000 and 20,000 Shias of various nationality have been deported and that 10,000 Palestinians “have been encouraged to leave.”