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LOCAL ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, JUNE 28-29, 2019 4 A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION DIWANIYA Can anybody ignore what has been achieved by JDP? Conspiracy theories conceal our follies “THE Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, ‘I do consider myself as the servant of the Turkish people and the same goes with members of my party, and we don’t believe as leaders of the people because, I believe in the idea which says that anyone who serves the peo- ple is best human being’. “Nobody can deny the role that has been played by the Justice and Development Party led by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Er- dogan in the renaissance of Turkey, since the time he was the president of Istanbul Municipality. In this con- text, we say that the figures talk about his accomplish- ments to such an extent Turkey has been transformed into hub for investors and the country’s exports have increased at a tremendous pace,” columnist Abdulaziz Al-Kandari wrote for Al-Rai daily. “Not just that, under the rule of the Justice and Devel- opment Party, Turkey, joined the realm of the strongest economies in the world in addition to its progress in the field of military industries where the Turkish defense industries, have made a significant leap. “In this context, we say that Turkey which is currently in- volved in the manufacture of the ‘Attack model’ helicopter enjoys the offensive and detection might. Besides, the Turkish Tank of ‘Al- tai model’ where this occupies the top of the Turkish military indus- tries in addition to the launching of a Turkish satellite. “For his part, Erdogan says ‘since we have come to power, we have actually put at the top of our priorities how to produce all defensive equipment required by the Turkish armed forces. “This introduction is important and Erdogan has steered the Turkey to the safe side through projects covering all Turkish sectors, but the question is what happened after that? “In this connection, we say Erdogan who has mo- nopolized the power inside his party is reflected on the Turkish political life either on the government or the entire state to such an extent, he has appointed his son-in-law as minister of finance and this appointment has vehemently harmed the reputation of the party and resulted in many young men not working for the party. “In this context, we would like to cite what occurred with populist figures within the Justice and Develop- ment Party, namely the former prime minister and the former minister of foreign affairs Professor Ahmet Davutoğlu when Erdogan began interfering in his work and as a result the man resigned and this can be seen as the turning point that weakened the ruling party. “Following this development, Erdogan monopolized everything within the party and the affairs of the state simultaneously. Hence, the natural outcome was to see the ruling party losing the elections in the biggest Turk- ish cities including Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. “Given the above, we wonder where the youth of the Justice and Development Party are. And why the party nominated Binali Yaldrim for Istanbul election? As a matter of fact, although nobody can deny Yaldrim’s technical role in building the ruling party, he was one of the most prominent figures who had played a vital role in terms of warding off the military coup in Turkey against the rule of Erdogan, but the question here is, why the party leadership did not nominate one of the young members of the party. “However, it looks like this happened because the party has turned its back on its efficient youth and de- pended on the loyal elements at the expense of the ef- ficient members of the party and this is the nature of the parties and the institutions to promote some names who enjoy some kind of popularity even if they have failed on the political level and failed to rise to the contempo- rary developments. “Notwithstanding, the young ambitious opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu benefited from the poor pro- grams put forward by the Justice and Development Party and won the elections and this made a difference of nine percent vis-à-vis against the candidate of the Justice and Development Party and this made a very big difference. “Given the above, talking about the existence of for- eign parties which have conspired against the candidate of the Justice and Development Party, is a joke that doesn’t deserve any response, but it looks like this joke surfaced because we like and are fond of the conspiracy theories to conceal our follies and mistakes when we fail in the arena of reality.” Also: “Just for the sake of clarifying the picture in Turkey, it is inevitable for us to play the entire Turkish scenario from all aspects,” columnist Dr Homoud Al-Hattab wrote for Al-Seyassah daily. “However, it is extremely difficult to sum up the entire scenario in one article, because this actually re- quires a big research. In this context, we elucidate that Turkey prior to the reign of the Justice and Develop- ment Party was sinking in a sea of foreign debts and economic and developmental problems. “Turkey according to my previous information Tur- key owed the World Bank (WB) $40 billion, but this debt was paid within a short time and was reduced to zero. “Turkey remained drowned in foreign debts for 52 years before Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling party took over the reign of the country and paying the WB in full was considered a great achievement for this party. “Not just that, the World Bank itself later applied for a loan from Turkey and Ankara responded and gave a loan to this international organization and this means Turkey had transformed itself from a debtor to a creditor country within a short period and this could be deemed as a great achievement which the Turks still boast of.“Apart from the above, we say prior to the Justice and Development Party coming to power, Turkey had only 76 universities but the Justice and Development Party increased the number of these universities to 202, and another 15 universities will be completed soon. “In this connection, we say the volume of the educa- tion budget in Turkey according to the education of- ficials, is $47 billion. Such being the case, we wonder if anybody can ignore what has been achieved by the Justice and Development Party. “I think the Turks will not ignore that just because of the denial of the significant achievements doesn’t fall within the culture of the Turkish people and this was evident when the people encountered the coup attempt against Erdogan a few years ago where some people sacrificed their lives for the sake of protecting the rul- ing regime. “With regards to the achievements made in the area of transportation, communication, building bridges and tunnels in addition to building underwater bridges link- ing between Turkey and Europe, this requires to be de- scribed in detail, but here, I will give only a summary of achievements. “In the field of communication, the Turkish govern- ment led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has earmarked bil- lions of dollars for developing the infrastructure of this sector and as such we found the number of the tunnels in Turkey have increased from 50 to 188. “Not just that, this government has implemented a lot of major projects and bridges topped by the Phospho- rus Causeway, Othman Gazi Bridge and Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge in addition to Jinak Fortress Causeway liking Eija Sea with the Sea of Marmara North West Turkey above Al-Dardanelle Strait which is the longest bridge in the world. “Anyway, I don’t like to talk about the other Turkish achievement including the health, the military industry including the missiles and the drones in addition to the shipbuilding, technology and precious metals and so on. “But with regard to the mistakes that have been com- mitted by the Justice and Development Party which you may wait for me to write about, these actually are very shallow and natural human mistakes vis-à-vis all the relevant achievements and keep in mind the fluctu- ated electoral nature of Istanbul on one hand and on the other hand the solid electoral base of this party in Istanbul itself where the party boasts of four million electorate. “As a matter of fact, Turkey chose Islam as a system for its life after its very long bitter experiments with secularism and as such Turkey will not return back – God willing – to what occurred recently through the Istanbul vote, which in my own opinion represents just a heavy weight joke only and a painful sting from the loving Turkish people.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Ha- mid Al-Azmi recently affirmed his keenness to develop the higher education sector and enhance educational opportunities for the youth to complete their university studies,” Abdulrahman Al-Awwad wrote for Al-Sabah daily. “When talking about the expansion of the higher education sector and opening doors for the sons of the country, this cannot be achieved in reality without tak- ing tangible steps. Minister Al-Azmi highlighted the continuous attempts being made to prepare and imple- ment the public universities law as soon as possible. “For a long time, all educators have been stressing the significance of expanding the higher education sec- tor, increasing the number of scholarships and finan- cial allocations for scientific researches, and approving the adoption of good universities, the accreditation of which was stopped earlier. “Minister of Education affirmed that expansion through establishment of governmental universities comes in the line with the development plans.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “The temperature in Kuwait this June reached 52 degrees Celsius, which increased the power load ex- ceeding the maximum limit recorded at the same time last year,” columnist Hamad Salem Al-Merri wrote for Al-Seyassah daily. “On June 10, 2018, the power load reached 13910 MW. On June 10, 2019, the load reached 14077 MW, an increase of 167 MW. We are still in the early sum- mer months and yet to reach the months of July and August when the heat is very high. “Before we talk about the reasons for the rise in pow- er loads despite readiness of the Ministry of Electric- ity and Water for the summer months, we want to talk about the idea of changing work timings in government and private sectors during the period, which has been suggested by several members of the National Assem- bly, writers and journalists. “Working hours in the country start from 7:30 am to 2:00 pm every day of the year both in winter and in summer. In winter, the sun rises at about 6.45 am, which means that employees are ready to go to work immediately after Fajr prayer, so they can reach their work in time without delay, although the temperature is low and may reach 10 degrees Celsius. The temperature gradually increases until it reaches about 20 degrees at 11 am, which is considered a beautiful atmosphere with no need for air conditioning. In summer, the sun rises at 4.45 am, two hours and 45 minutes before the start of work, while the temperature gradually increases to about 38 degrees or more at 7 am, then quickly rises to about 50 degrees or more before 11:00 am. Using air- conditioning is a paramount necessity at work, and this increases the electrical loads. “For this reason, we suggest changing the working hours from May 15 to August 31 each year. This is a hot summer season when working hours are supposed to be from 6 am to 12 pm in order to be close to work- ing hours during the winter months when it starts af- ter the sunrise by nearly an hour. This is the way to conserve electricity, as the peak temperature starts at 12 noon and continues until 4 pm, before starting to decline slightly during the evening. “I ask the State officials to study this proposal and other proposals related to the matter in order to take the appropriate decision to avoid the risk of rising loads and to provide comfort to citizens.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “Kuwait recently joined the media outcry between opposing views of citizens on the issue of ‘stray dog poisoning’. The first is to criticize animal rights and ig- nore human rights while children are at risk of the dogs, which in some cases lead to death in the absence of rapid treatment. The second point is that the killing of stray dogs is inhumane, columnist Basma Saud wrote for Al-Shahed daily. “It all started when a stray dog preyed on a Kuwaiti girl, which led to her admission into a hospital, due to her critical condition that prompted a sit-in by a group of citizens in Erada Square to protest against the poi- soning of stray dogs. A group of citizens in the new residential areas also complain about stray dogs threat- ening them as they walk to mosques. “This media escalation revealed neglect of the state represented by its governmental bodies, legislators and civil society, over the need to establish governmental groups to protect the animal shelter for cats and stray dogs. Those associations should be responsible for vac- cination, care and fertility control, while training them to serve the community. Through my research, I’ve dis- covered that veterinary medicine is neglected in Kuwait. “Finally, Kuwaiti government should pay attention to the safety of all citizens living in the new residential areas by providing necessary vaccine against dog paws as soon as possible. The government should establish specialized veterinary centers in each governorate to care for stray animals and reverse their fertility to avoid poisoning them, seeing they have been denied care right from birth.” — Compiled by Zaki Taleb Al-Kandari KUNA photo Kuwait’s Assistant FM for African Affairs meets Secretary-General of the Ministry of Planning of the Republic of Niger. Niger ‘commends’ Kuwait’s support to African continent Ambassador Al-Mashaan meets with Niger’s senior officials KUNA photo Ambassador Al-Mashaan meets minister of Higher Education of the Repub- lic of Niger. ecuted about 121 projects in water and road construction. It also provided loans worth USD 110 million to his country. The Niger official noted that Kuwait provided a loan for water resources to his country in January 1991, although the country was facing the Iraqi Inva- sion at that time. Meanwhile, Al-Mashaan also met with senior officials at Niger’s Min- istry of Public Health, who called on KFAED to financially support projects to develop the health sector in the coun- try. Moreover, Al-Mashaan met with senior education ministry officials to discuss a memorandum of understand- ing on higher education and scientific research. The ambassador noted that he had in- vited Niger’s education officials to visit Kuwait to sign the memorandum. Al-Mashaan’s visit is part of an Afri- can tour that included Kenya, Tanzania and Benin. CAIRO, June 27, (KUNA): Secretary Gen- eral of the Niger’s ministry of planning Saad Bakuwi hailed Kuwait’s support to African countries through all situations. The remarks were made during his meeting with Ku- wait’s Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs Ambassador Hamad Al-Mashaan and his accompanying delegation on Thursday. In a statement to KUNA, Al-Mashaan said that Niger official hailed the projects executed by Kuwait Fund for Arab Econom- ic Development (KFAED) in Niger since 1980. The fund ex-
