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When the crown slips away

It is perhaps the only country in the world where legislators can oust the executive on grounds of ill health. What makes the process all the more interesting is that the Kuwaiti executive is not an elected leader but a monarch. When Kuwait's National Assembly voted to remove Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah as Emir, they were using a provision in the Constitution that allows the parliament to declare the ruler unfit to govern. Following the death of Emir Sheik Jaber al-Abdullah al-Sabah on January 14, Crown Prince Sheikh Saad, thought to be in his late 70s, automatically succeeded him. But it was common knowledge that he was ailing — he had hardly been seen in public for many years. The Crown Prince is also customarily the Prime Minister, but Sheikh Saad's illness had necessitated the separation of the two offices in 2003, when Sheikh Jaber appointed another member of his family, Sheikh Sabah, to head the government under him. With both ruler and Crown Prince on the sick bed, the Prime Minister was virtually running the oil-rich Gulf country. Confronted with Sheikh Saad's ascension, and the possibility that he was too ill even to take the oath of office, the Cabinet decided to invoke an article of the succession law that enables it to recommend to the National Assembly the replacement of the Emir if he fails to meet the conditions for ruling or is incapable of discharging his duties for health reasons. The Assembly voted to remove Sheikh Saad moments before he announced his abdication. The Cabinet nomination of Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah as the new Emir appears to have the approval of the royal family.

The succession drama in Kuwait is a study in how monarchical rule and democracy have sought to come to terms with each other in a region that is otherwise known for its tightly controlled sheikhdoms. Kuwait is the only country with a fully elected parliament since 1962, and a Constitution that has tried to fit the country's monarchy into a mix of presidential and parliamentary systems. The 50-member National Assembly has sworn in Sheikh Sabah as the new Emir, but it is no rubber stamp of the ruling family, from which most of the government and cabinet ministers are drawn. Political parties are banned in Kuwait but elected representatives group themselves around other affiliations such as Islamist, Bedouin or liberal, and have often clashed with government. From 2003 to 2005, members tabled three no-confidence motions against Cabinet Ministers, forcing their resignation just before voting. The Islamist and tribal representatives, who make up the majority in the Assembly, also succeeded in blocking, until 2005, a 1998 decree by Sheikh Jabar giving women equal political rights and allowing them to vote in and contest elections. It was finally passed in March last year and is to take effect in the 2007 Assembly elections. Kuwait, which has one-tenth of the world's known oil reserves, is certainly not a model democracy but in some ways it is for sure a trendsetter in the region.

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