Wajhat Watan: Dear Citizen... Do Not Complain!

The Kuwait Ministry of Citizens’ Affairs and cooperative society members are being urged to submit complaints, observations, and reports of violations and excesses through a dedicated WhatsApp number or by appearing in person. This is a poor invitation, as it reflects the weakness of institutions and oversight tools, despite their multiplicity and complexity within the executive branch, as well as their costs, salaries, and benefits.

In its statement, the Ministry of Citizens’ Affairs says that receiving reports is in implementation of Minister Muthanna Al-Hawila’s directives to strengthen oversight of the cooperative sector and protect the rights of shareholders and consumers. Regardless of the fact that oversight and protection are core responsibilities of the Minister of Citizens’ Affairs and do not require her directives, Kuwait has an inflated number of oversight, follow-up, and supervisory institutions, as well as ministries and authorities endowed with judicial police powers, and oversight and inspection committees. All of these are inherently tasked with enforcing the necessary oversight and protection in the cooperative sector to benefit shareholders and consumers.

What can a shareholder or consumer reveal that, for example, the Court of Audit could not, if asked to examine the cooperative sector? What is the role of the Ministries of Citizens’ Affairs and Commerce, the Municipality, the Food Authority, the Competition Protection Authority, the Labor Authority, the Financial Investigations Unit, and their equivalents—teams with judicial police powers and others responsible for inspection rounds—if citizens are to uncover violations and excesses? Or is the Ministry of Citizens’ Affairs’ objective to shift the burden of uncovering any potential corruption in the cooperative sector onto society, thereby easing the load on entities that should be responsible for oversight and protection in matters concerning the preservation of state funds and public interests?

Some may argue that “every citizen is a watchdog.” In my view, this statement is inaccurate and misleading, even though many government entities that interact with society encourage people to “report violations.” The concept of a citizen watchdog theoretically implies someone striving to apply the law with honesty, responsibility, sound judgment, gravity, and rationality—along with other ideals that may not be present in practice or reality. Such efforts may be met with malice, envy, limited knowledge and expertise, and even delusions. In any case, oversight duties belong to specialized, professional government or independent bodies, not to individuals who lack authority or perhaps even the minimum competence and ability to evaluate.

Given the existence of all these institutions tasked with oversight and follow-up, which possess broad powers to investigate, open files and records, suspend, and refer cases to judicial authorities, and in light of the absence of periodic reports from these bodies detailing their efforts and activities with figures and percentages, citizen reporting of any violation or excess is closer to snitching, or as tribal members say, “balasa” (informing). Therefore, dear citizen: do not report!