Christopher Davidson - After the Sheikhs - The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies

As with Saudi Arabia, the Kuwaiti government’s instinctive response to this mounting opposition was massively to increase public spending. An announcement was made that free food coupons would be issued to all Kuwait nationals for a period of 14 months, and that each citizen — including newborn babies — would receive a one-off payment of about $3500. As such those Kuwaiti families with several children received lump sums of $15,000 or more. Although carefully timed to coincide with the emirate’s celebration of fifty years of independence, the spending package — which was estimated to have cost over $4 billion [916] 120. The Peninsula , 18 January 2011. —was widely viewed as a quick remedy to keep poorer Kuwaiti nationals off the streets. In parallel to the increased spending the government also began using defamation suits and other legal mechanisms to pursue the more vocal members of the opposition movements. In June 2011, for example, two Kuwaiti nationals were arrested and put on trial for using Twitter to ‘harm the state’s interests’ and allegedly insult the Kuwaiti ruling family along with the ruling families of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. [917] 121. Al-Arabiya , 28 June 2011. Similarly, a young female Kuwaiti national of half-British descent was believed to have been arrested for tweeting that ‘Sheikh Sabah should give us our money and don’t bother coming back’ in reference to the Kuwaiti ruler’s [918] 122. Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jabar Al-Sabah. absence in London receiving health care. Most worryingly, a Kuwaiti journalist working for a daily newspaper was subjected to a gun attack in a northern suburb of Kuwait City. After confirming that there were bullet holes in his car the matter was reported to the Kuwait Journalists’ Association which stated that ‘we hope to have [some information] about the identity of the person who fired the bullet and the motives’ and that ‘we are not used to using firearms in Kuwait to express our views. We have always opted for dialogue to communicate, regardless of our differences’. [919] 123. Gulf News , 14 April 2011.

As with its neighbours, the mixture of largesse and increased repression was not enough to curtail protests in Kuwait, and the latter part of 2011 saw major developments as opposition movements continued to gather strength. Despite the military intervention in Bahrain having taken place under the guise of the GCC, a large number of sympathetic Kuwaiti nationals were believed to have funded the Bahraini opposition, with some having even visited Bahrain to take part in the protests. Indeed, the Bahraini authorities stated that ‘we have full knowledge about their support [for the opposition], for them this was an ideological support, and there were figures who visited, including businessmen and those of influence’ and explained that this was ‘the reason behind our calls through official channels to prevent them from entering Bahrain and they are not welcomed and added to the blacklist’. [920] 124. Bahrain News Agency press release, 2 May 2011. More worryingly for the Kuwaiti ruling family, by summer 2011 further protests were held in an effort to force the prime minister’s resignation and investigate his alleged corruption. In June, for example, around 5,000 Kuwaiti nationals, including a delegation from the Kuwaiti Lawyers’ Society, rallied outside the parliamentary building under the banner of ‘For the sake of Kuwait’. Shouting ‘Leave, leave Nasser, we don’t want to see you tomorrow’ and ‘Leave, Kuwait deserves something better than you’, they demanded the removal of the prime minister, his deputy, and several of the ministers. Addressing the gathering, one activist accused some MPs of being ‘government mercenaries’ while a former MP claimed that the prime minister was trying to ‘empty the constitution of its contents’. Most damningly, other protestors claimed that the prime minister’s reign was ‘full of corruption and that citizens were being killed at police stations under interrogation’ and that parliament had been ‘abducted during his premierships… with honest MPs being prosecuted for saying the truth’. [921] 125. Kuwait Times , 5 June 2011.

With the prime minister refusing to acknowledge the protestors’ demands, more extensive rallies were held in September 2011 following what was dubbed ‘People’s Day’ when banners were unfurled calling for an elected prime minister with no connection to the ruling family. Chanting ‘the people want to topple the prime minister’, and claiming that more than $350 million of public funds had been used to buy off MPs, protestors argued that Kuwait needed to be transferred urgently from being ‘a family state into a state of the people’. In particular they proposed that Kuwait became a constitutional monarchy, with the ruling family stepping out of government and only retaining the ceremonial posts of emir and crown prince. [922] 126. Agence France Presse, 17 September 2011. Most dramatically, in mid-November dozens of activists broke into the parliamentary building where they began singing the national anthem, while thousands reportedly marched on the prime minister’s house. [923] 127. BBC News, 16 November 2011. With a government spokesmen having describing the protestors as ‘traitors who aim at toppling the regime’ [924] 128. Agence France Presse, 17 September 2011. and with the ruler having publicly stated that he would not dismiss the prime minister or dissolve the parliament, it appeared that the emirate had reached an impasse. Indeed, amid a crackdown on those who took part in the marches and the arrests of dozens of activists, the ruler told the opposition that ‘you held demonstrations and insulted people, using expressions that are alien to the Kuwaiti society’ and stated that ‘what happened was a crime against Kuwait and the law will be fully applied against those who stormed the parliament. We will not forgive’. [925] 129. Gulf News , 21 November 2011.

Yet by the end of November and just days after the ruler’s condemnation the prime minister finally resigned, following the largest protests ever seen in a Gulf monarchy — since dubbed the ‘Kuwaiti Spring’. Claiming that he wanted ‘to comply with the national interest’ and was responding to ‘the danger the situation had reached’, [926] 130. BBC News, 28 November 2011. the prime minister had clearly become an unacceptable liability for the ruling family and the wider power elite in Kuwait. Given the public humiliation incurred by the ruler in having so speedily to make a u-turn, the episode has greatly tarnished the legitimacy of the ruling family. Moreover, even though the new prime minister [927] 131. Jabar Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. is also a member of the ruling family and is similarly unelected, having been the former minister for defence, a fresh parliamentary election held in February 2012 saw opposition blocs making significant gains and winning the majority of seats. [928] 132. BBC News, 3 February 2011. This led to renewed investigations of corruption and further calls for an elected prime minister and a constitutional monarchy. An attempt was also made to block the government’s proposed $111 billion four year spending plan, on the grounds that it was ‘unrealistic’. [929] 133. Bloomberg , 26 April 2012.

As another small, wealthy state the UAE has yet to face street protests, however its seven ruling families are now finally being challenged directly by citizens, some of whom are publicly calling for regime change. This is because the UAE currently suffers from some of the heaviest restrictions on free speech and the media in the region, and there has been mounting frustration among the more educated sections of the population, especially with regards to corruption, lack of transparency, human rights abuses, and some of the government’s more questionable policies. Moreover, as discussed, there is a widening wealth gap in the UAE and not all of its national population are being provided with adequate economic opportunities. This is leading to many of its less educated citizens — especially in the northern emirates — also beginning to voice their discontent. Thus, even though the UAE embarked on a massive Saudi-style spending splurge in the wake of the Arab Spring in order to appease the national population, this has not always been enough, with 2011 and 2012 witnessing the unprecedented detaining of dozens political prisoners along with a marked tightening of civil society.