Kuwait Parliament Invaded by Mobs.

[Big Orange]

Not as dramatic as in the other Arab/Berber nations:

Thousands of Kuwaitis 'storm parliament'

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — Thousands of Kuwaitis stormed parliament on Wednesday after police and elite forces beat up protesters marching on the prime minister's home to demand he resign, an opposition MP said.
"Now, we have entered the house of the people," said Mussallam al-Barrak, who led the protest along with several other lawmakers and youth activists also calling for the dissolution of parliament over alleged corruption.
The demonstrators broke open parliament's gates and entered the main chamber, where they sang the national anthem and then left after a few minutes.

The police had used batons to prevent protesters from marching to the residence of Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family, after staging a rally outside parliament.
Witnesses said at least five demonstrators were injured and treated on the site.
Some activists said they will continue to camp outside parliament until the premier is sacked.
Chanting "the people want to remove the prime minister," the protesters started to march to the nearby premier's residence when police blocked their way. This was the first political violence in the oil-rich Gulf state since December, when elite forces beat up protesters and MPs at a public rally, though activists have been holding protests since March.
Tension has been building in Kuwait over the past three months after it was alleged that about 16 MPs in the 50-member parliament received about $350 million (259 million euros) in bribes.

The opposition has been leading a campaign to oust the premier, whom they accuse of failing to run the wealthy nation and fight corruption, which has become wide-spread.
Earlier on Wednesday, about 20 opposition lawmakers boycotted a parliamentary session, a day after the government and its supporters succeeded in rejecting a bid by the opposition to quiz the premier over allegations of corruption.
After the rejection, three opposition MPs filed a fresh request to question Sheikh Nasser over allegations of graft involving MPs and illegal overseas money transfers.
The premier, 71, has been a target of opposition criticism since he was appointed to the job in February 2006, forcing him to resign six times. Parliament has also been dissolved three times in the same period.

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[xerex]

isnt the Prime Minster also a member of the ruling family ?

Edit: ah yes he's the Emir's nephew.

[Shroom Man 777]

What a bunch of violent criminals. The police are justified in removing these people should they resist, because then they would turn this into a violent resistance. Undoubtedly hystrionic hysterical idiots will be taking videos and posting them out of context in youtube. Understandably the police will be switching their name tags from Farsi to Pashtun to avoid Al-Anonymous' attempts at reprisals.

These protesters have no real organization and no real demands beyond wanting to ouster their Prime Minister. What a bunch of over-indulgent babies wearing designer turbans and Al-Pads and Mosquebooks with sanskrit keyboards.

The fact that these people also failed to gather the same amount of participants as an event organized by fake news reporters and comedians like Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart is also pretty fucking sad.

[Block]

isnt the Prime Minster also a member of the ruling family ?

Edit: ah yes he's the Emir's nephew.

Yeah I think a lot of the Parliment is part of the ruling family, like Saudi Arabia. I don't get what the native Kuwatis are protesting exactly, they get a lot of handouts. I could see the migrant workers being unhappy and revolting, but there must be something more to the story than "corruption" which has been a way of life in Kuwati for decades to spark this.

[madd0ct0r]

the thing about 'corruption' being a way fo life for decades, is that you get TWO generations of pissed off people and TWO (increasingly) corrupt generations holding on to minority power.

Handouts aren't the issue, it's when people see their future and their kids future stretching out in front of them.

[Block]

the thing about 'corruption' being a way fo life for decades, is that you get TWO generations of pissed off people and TWO (increasingly) corrupt generations holding on to minority power.

Handouts aren't the issue, it's when people see their future and their kids future stretching out in front of them.

You're not understanding. While there is corruption it in no way effects the standard of living of your average Kuwati citizen. The poorest Kuwati is upper middle class. The "corruption" is mostly in how oil contracts are awarded and the repression of non-citizen migrant workers. That is why I'm surprised it was Kuwatis storming the parliment and not indonesians or other migrant workers, who out number the natives.

[Shroom Man 777]

Can't the same question be asked about nations like Bahrain, or the UAE and KSA who also have civil disturbances (though not of this scale, and are more contained than Arab Spring)? Though I agree that it's probably more complex than "lol corruption".

Gods, I wish these migrant workers joined the locals in Arab Spring.

[Block]

Can't the same question be asked about nations like Bahrain, or the UAE and KSA who also have civil disturbances (though not of this scale, and are more contained than Arab Spring)? Though I agree that it's probably more complex than "lol corruption".

Gods, I wish these migrant workers joined the locals in Arab Spring.

Saudi didn't really have much in the way of disturbance, mostly because the Saudi government payed the people off after problems started in Tunisia and Egypt. The royal family in Saudi is really good at playing both sides. Bahrain is a sectarian thing, partly Iran stirring shit up and partly the government there having been brutally repressive for a long time to the Shia who if I remember right are the majority. The UAE, I don't remember hearing anything about so I can't really comment.

Corruption isn't corruption in Muslim culture, not in the way the West looks at it anyways. One of the tenents of Islam is basically nepotism, at least that's how it's been interpreted for centuries in a lot of places.