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Kuwait
Politics
The invasion also changed the dynamics of Kuwaiti politics. The
crisis of invasion, occupation, and exile further solidified the
Kuwaiti opposition, which had begun emerging in the Constitutional
Movement before the invasion. During the invasion, much of the
opposition and the government regrouped in exile in Saudi Arabia.
There, opposition leaders reiterated their preinvasion concerns
and called on the amir to promise a return to a more democratic
system in restored Kuwait.
The showdown came in October 1990 when the ruler met with 1,200
opposition leaders in Saudi Arabia and publicly promised liberalization
following liberation. The elite opposition, however, finally unified
just as it was losing its popular base to the resistance groups
inside Kuwait. Kuwaitis who spent months fighting the occupation
had little need for those who spent the war in relatively comfortable
exile. To them, opposition leaders in exile became figures as
distant as the amir. These divisions surfaced as goods waited
in warehouses while resistance leaders argued with returned administrators
over the right to feed the population. The opposition, so briefly
united, redivided. Several identifiable factions emerged. These
included the Democratic Forum, representing the liberal progressives.
In defiance of the law, the Democratic Forum declared itself a
political party in 1991. The Sunni Islamist opposition broke into
the historically Muslim Brotherhood-oriented Islamic Constitutional
Movement and the Islamic Alliance. The National Islamic Coalition
represented Shia.
Had the amir returned quickly to Kuwait, stood above the factions,
and appealed to the natural desire of a population tired by war
to retreat from politics to the private world of reunited families,
he might have scuttled the prodemocracy movement and reimposed
a relatively benign authoritarianism. Instead, the amir hesitated
and unwittingly forged a broad united prodemocratic front that
could truly challenge his rule. Instead of fracturing, the Kuwaiti
opposition came together, voicing a unified demand for a more
open, participatory political system. The amir finally agreed
to hold elections for the National Assembly in October 1992 (see
Legislature , this ch.). In the interim, the National Council
continued to meet.
There is little postwar change in the ruling family's dominant
position in the country, although probably more grumbling occurs
in private about the family's behavior. The Al Sabah continue
to control the highest posts, although there have been changes
in personnel. In April 1991, the government announced a new cabinet.
Whereas the overall presence of the ruling family changed little,
the number of cabinet members from the Salim branch rather than
the Jabir branch increased, a shift that usually had occurred
only after a succession. In the cabinet, Sabah al Ahmad Al Sabah,
minister of foreign affairs since the 1960s, was replaced by Salim
as Salim Al Sabah, formerly minister of interior. In addition,
Minister of Finance Ali al Khalifa Al Sabah stepped down, and
Minister of Defense Nawwaf al Ahmad Al Sabah was appointed to
the less significant post of minister of social affairs and labor.
The opposition hoped that the primary check on the royal family
and the cabinet would be the National Assembly. Following the
October 1992 election, the Salim and Jabir branches' representation
in the cabinet became more balanced.
In 1993 the government continued to express a profound ambivalence
about political liberalization. Although it lifted press censorship
in January 1992, journalists face some continuing restrictions
and criticism of political coverage and debate by the government.
The government has banned several public meetings by opposition
groups and private associations. The October 1992 election revealed
the basic forces that are likely to continue to shape Kuwait's
political future into the twenty-first century. The first force
is an historically grounded and popular impulse toward political
liberalization. Although the prodemocracy movement may experience
times of relative quiescence as it has in the past, it is unlikely
to be extinguished. The second is what appeared in the immediate
postinvasion period to be a growing impulse toward more authoritarian
rule. Whereas Kuwait historically has not experienced heavy-handed
government, pockets of its population (some foreigners and Shia)
have felt the heavier hand of the state at times. The amir's efforts
to develop a larger internal security apparatus to use first against
the resident Palestinian population and then against the national
opposition threatens Kuwait's prodemocracy movement. These efforts
also ran into strong opposition when the National Assembly convened
in October 1992. Like the prodemocracy movement, the new security
force will not vanish unless compelled to do so. The invasion
thus appears to have activated both a more authoritarian impulse
in the government and a more prodemocratic impulse among the population.
The postinvasion period has seen the struggle between these two
forces.
* * *
Ahmad Abu-Hakima's Modern History of Kuwait provides
a good historical overview. Jill Crystal's Kuwait: The Transformation
of an Oil State offers a general overview of Kuwait; her
Oil and Politics in the Gulf provides a more analytical
survey of Kuwaiti politics. On politics, Hassan Ibrahim's Kuwait:
a Political Study and J.E. Peterson's The Arab Gulf States
are helpful. On the ruling family, a most useful book is Alan
Rush's Al-Sabah: Genealogy and History of Kuwait's Ruling
Family, 1752-1987. The best general introduction to Kuwait's
foreign policy environment is Abdul-Reda Assiri's Kuwait's
Foreign Policy.
A general sociological introduction to Kuwait is found in Jacqueline
Ismael's Kuwait: Social Change in Historical Perspective.
Suad al-Sabah's Development Planning in an Oil Economy and
the Role of the Woman looks at women's issues in Kuwait.
With regard to expatriates, Shamlan Alessa's The Manpower
Problem in Kuwait is helpful.
Books on Kuwait's economy include M.W. Khouja and P.G. Sadler's
The Economy of Kuwait; Y.S.F. al-Sabah's The Oil
Economy of Kuwait; Ragaei El Mallakh and Jacob Atta's The
Absorptive Capacity of Kuwait; and Suad al-Sabah's Kuwait:
Anatomy of a Crisis Economy. Fida Darwiche covers the stock
market crash in The Gulf Stock Exchange Crash.
A wealth of statistical information is available in the annual
reports put out by the Kuwait Ministry of Planning's Central Statistical
Office in its Annual Statistical Abstract. Current economic
events can be followed in the Middle East Economic Digest,
Economist, Wall Street Journal, and Financial
Times (which usually surveys Kuwait in February). (For further
information and complete citations, see Bibliography.)
Data as of January 1993
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