Kuwait: Al-Awadhi expresses her support for the bailout plan

Kuwait Times
Published Date: May 12, 2009
By Nisreen Zahreddine, Staff writer

KUWAIT: Third district candidate Aseel Al-Awadhi renewed her refusal to write off debt during an open debate at Ahmad Al-Adwani School in Al-Adailiya. In a statement to her supporters, Al-Awadhi defended the bail-out plan presented by the government and refused to describe it as a "Whales Law" and complained that the final grilling to the government by some MPs did not actually hold a valuable enough case to be worth it.

Al-Awadhi explained that there was no justice in debt write-off for the loans of citizens because they varied in value, furthermore it opened the door for similar steps later on and it would cause loss in government funds. She went further to remind the audience that if President Barack Obama implemented what he said about finding a new trend that doesn't depend totally on GCC oil, Kuwait would be one of the major countries facing a huge drop in revenues, tightening the government's budget. She advised peo
ple to save government money instead of thinking about how to spend it on them without referring to just laws organizing monetary issues.

At the same time, Al-Awadhi opposed calling the government stimulus plan a "Whales Law" and advised her supporters to be above personal interests for the sake of the public's interest. She explained that this plan would save the economy as a whole and that it did not aim to save certain companies. Moreover, the plan helps companies that have liquidity problems as a result of the drop in assets' value which is not a result of their bad performance but one of the effects of the global economic crisis on the
country's economy. Besides, this plan assists the banking sector and spares its drop, she said.

Regarding the grilling presented by MPs to the government, Al-Awadhi commented that those grillings were meaningless and empty and did not hold any valuable cause, though grilling is an MP right guaranteed by the Kuwaiti constitution. Al-Awadhi suggested establishing a parliamentary assembly called the "Values Assembly" which would watch the legislative corruption and suggest suitable punishments.

Al-Awadhi referred to some laws that are unfair regarding women and promised to work in the parliament to amend such laws to guarantee women's rights.