NEWS ANALYSIS : Kuwaiti Government’s Dissolution: A Risky Bid to Defuse Anger : Persian Gulf: Despite the political gamble, renewed confidence in the leadership is not expected soon.

The dissolution of Kuwait’s newly restored government is a political gamble designed to defuse growing public anger at apparent government paralysis and increasing demands for democracy in this long-closed society, diplomats and analysts said here Wednesday.

But the mass resignation of 22 Cabinet ministers, announced here Wednesday afternoon, is unlikely to restore confidence in leaders still unable to provide water, electricity or security three weeks after liberation.

Indeed, the inevitable confusion from changing so many portfolios may well delay delivery of services, exacerbating tension further. A new government may not be named for two weeks, officials said.

“They cannot afford to be seen as totally dead in the water any longer,” said a senior Western diplomat. “Seen in that light, this is a deliberate act of suicide.”

Analysts said the Cabinet is taking the fall for what now appears to have been grossly inadequate planning and preparation during the government’s seven months in exile.

“They came here after seven months and they brought nothing,” the diplomat said. “No plans, no action and no ideas.”

In a worrisome sign of sensitivity to criticism, however, officials suspended publication Tuesday of the only newspaper currently published in Kuwait after it called for a new administration.

The paper, named “February 26” after the day the allies drove out Iraq’s occupation army, had run an editorial citing government incompetence and saying that only a new administration could meet the challenge of rebuilding the shattered country.

For now, analysts said, the criticism doesn’t appear to threaten Kuwait’s emir, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah, the 13th member of a dynasty that has ruled the oil-rich emirate since 1756. The prime minister and seven Cabinet ministers are members of the ruling Sabah family.

“The captain stays and the crew changes,” said Suleiman Mutawa, the outgoing minister of planning. “That’s all.”

Even opposition members, who have been the most vocal in demanding democracy, are not calling for an overthrow of the usually benign oligarchic regime.

“We never proposed toppling the Sabah family,” said Khaled Wasini, a former member of the National Assembly, which was abolished in 1986.

But Wasini said a Cabinet shake-up is meaningless since the current government is “unconstitutional” until Parliament is restored. “There is no trust,” he said.

Crown Prince Saad al Abdullah al Sabah, who is also prime minister and martial-law administrator, announced last week that new elections will be held in six months to a year, although other officials have suggested that elections may be delayed much longer.

Under the 1962 constitution, only men whose families lived in Kuwait before 1930, or before oil was discovered, may vote. That limits suffrage to 62,000 people in a prewar population of about 1.7 million. Women do not have the right to vote.

But resistance members and others who survived the brutal Iraqi occupation are openly resentful of the wealthy families who fled to Saudi Arabia or London and who now are trying to regain their positions of power.

“I think if you talked to any Kuwaiti who stayed here, you could consider him a member of the opposition,” said Khalid Nasser al Sabah, himself a member of the ruling family.

“We deserve democracy now,” the 31-year-old investment banker added. “We lived through seven months of hell. We deserve to have our voices heard. We don’t deserve to have Big Brother telling us what to read and what not to read.”

The prime minister secretly dissolved the government Tuesday morning but asked the ministers to stay on in a caretaker capacity until their replacements can be named.

The move was first announced by Kuwait’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York late Tuesday. Diplomats here were briefed at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

No public announcement was made until 4 p.m., however. People huddled around radios, but there was little visible public reaction.

“It’s a political game,” said Hamad Tuweijri, a hotel owner and former member of Parliament. “A lot of people are complaining about many things. Now the people will talk about the Cabinet for the next 10 days. That’s my assessment.”

The sharpest criticism has focused on the ministers of defense, interior and foreign affairs. All three are members of the ruling family.

Many blame the defense minister, Sheik Nawaf al Ahmed al Sabah, for keeping Kuwait’s troops in their barracks as Iraq massed its army on the border last July. Rogue military units are now blamed for beating and torturing Palestinians and others suspected of collaboration.

The interior minister, Sheik Salim al Sabah al Sabah, also is blamed for the continuing reprisals and for a heavy-handed use of police armed with stun grenades and tear gas to break up public gatherings before the war.

Diplomats have little respect for the foreign minister, Sheik Sabah al Ahmed al Sabah. He is the emir’s younger brother and said to be his closest confidant.

Analysts expect that these and other Cabinet ministers will be replaced by younger, more technocratic officials from here and abroad, better able to cope with the current crisis and long-term reconstruction.

The appointments “should be based on merit, not on nepotism,” said the investment banker. “It’s a newborn society. It’s a newborn Kuwait.”

Restoring electricity remains the top priority. American, British and Saudi engineers are working nonstop to repair power plants and transmission lines damaged by allied bombers and Iraqi sabotage during the Gulf War.

But Jim Parker, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman, said Wednesday that at least three weeks more will be needed to restore partial power to the city.

The government has said it will provide electric generators so banks can open Sunday for the first time since last August. The banks will be stocked with redesigned currency, since Iraq stole more than $2 billion in gold bullion and newly minted currency notes.

“That’s very, very important,” said Saoud Abhool, deputy general manager of the Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East. “People have no money.”

For now, the only visible government presence seems to be ubiquitous checkpoints, manned by armed soldiers and civilians. And with hot weather approaching, concern is growing about huge mounds of garbage on most streets and the still-damaged sewage system.

“People are expecting a radical change,” said Mutawa. “People want a government of change.”