kuwait, unlike many countries, has countless good things, most importantly the strong relationship between the pillars of the nation and the people.
since the survival of nations is based on ethics, when these ethics are lost, the nations are lost, empires vanish and entities dissolve. it is of paramount importance to protect ethics at least to the minimum in any society, not only to ensure its survival and continuity of the healthy relationship between parties but also to put the country on the road to progress.
in a precautionary unprecedented move, the minister of education doubting the ethics or the behavior of some ‘breeders’ of generations (school principals) and ‘brotherhood educators’, the ministry reshuffled a number of schools principals to stop their collusion with students and tolerating cases of cheating during final exams.
the students and parents who are affected by the ministry’s decision, protested in front of the minister’s office with full media glare to demand cancellation of the decision to reshuffle the schools principals who were lenient on the issue of cheating.
this is a real ethical disaster, greater than the rest of the disasters we have experienced in the past half century, and the question here is: why and how did a group of us reached this low level of ethics? the answer is not easy but needs volumes. here we will try to deal with one of the reasons, albeit very briefly.
the kuwaiti society is a religious society that believes in reward and punishment, paradise and hell, and the afterlife; however the standard of ethics suffers from the big defect and confusion. the great majority links ethics to a basic criterion related to sexual behavior, that is to say those who maintain their bodies are more respected and vice-versa.
thus, other public matters become just bad or deplorable behavior, at worst eccentric, but have nothing to do with ethics. to rush to get served first without waiting for his/her turn in a queue, ignoring the red traf- fic light, speeding, violation of laws and throwing garbage on the street, embezzling or even stealing public funds, are seen as having nothing to do with ethics.
impersonating others, forging identity cards, cheating in school examinations or work, falsification of reports and purchasing false academic certificates, the contempt of those who differ from us religiously and ethnically and so many other small and big acts and crimes, have nothing to do with ethics as the vast majority of kuwaiti society believes … in general.
one of the evidences of this is the scandal of a well-known salafi preacher and cleric who faked his doctorate degree and later admitted to the charge. however, this did not affect his position. he continues to issue fatwas and continues to use his false title of doctorate until date. the reason is that his behavior was not seen by his followers and society as something related to ethics.
there is no doubt that there are families and communities that are religious and possess moral values. there are many other communities that are not religious at all, yet they also have a moral obligation, because they are often developed societies. i studied ethics, not necessarily religion at home and school, and i learned the true meaning of ethics, which we lack in our society.
however, it is funny and sad that everyone ridiculed and criticized the behavior of the students and their parents who demanded the cancellation of the decision to reshuffle principals of schools who facilitate cheating, but no one demanded to hold these people accountable for their ‘crime’. silence about their bad reputation confirms the ministry’s suspicions, and that they are indeed ‘saboteurs of generations’ not breeders.