Awards for the third time
since the publication of my article on the state incentive and appreciation awards in which i mentioned the intervention of influential people or politics in granting the awards, i have been receiving several contacts – one is a friend whose judgment and wisdom are trusted.
he told me there are no interventions in the award process and it is granted in a correct way. he also explained the role of the jury or the award committee and that most of the members do not tolerate any form of intervention in their work. he affirmed the three arbitrators, including a nonkuwaiti, have no direct knowledge or contact with each other.
despite the seriousness of what i heard and my desire to believe it, the general situation we live in every sector made me doubt such oasis in my dear homeland.
i recognize the principle of the state incentive awards which came into effect in 1989. the selection and grants were supposed to begin a year later, but the despicable saddamist invasion postponed it until after the liberation of kuwait in 1991.
the first political intervention in the award process was during the tenure of the late information minister sheikh saud al-nasser. due to political pressure at the time, he decided to contravene the opinion of the arbitration committee and withdraw the state incentive award from layla al-othman, followed by interventions, albeit within narrow limits.
during the tenure of our colleague secretary general of the national council for culture, arts and letters mohammad al rumaihi, the award was adopted for the first time through his personal initiative in coordination with the senior officials. the award was granted to those who have come a long way in creativity and have very long experience in literary, artistic or cultural fields.
if we review the names of those who have been awarded in the last 10 or 15 years, we will be greatly disappointed. the achievements of some of them are limited to staying alive, while their creativity is limited to using ‘wasta’ (influence).
one of the manifestations of interventions in awarding the prize, for example, is that the artistic or literary work must be approved by the critic in the ministry of information before being nominated for any award. therefore, the critic decides – a default that should be taken into account, not the level of artistic or literary work. creativity should not be judged by an ignorant or backward person.
the award needs to work in a more transparent and clear environment, and announce the names of the members of committees and arbitrators who select the recipients of the award. reaching or knowing them is not difficult for some.
the participants or those who present their work to win one of the awards, deserves a minimum level of respect from the award committee by informing them that their work has been accepted, and if not, to inform them in writing as well.
we want to emphasize in our three articles about the state incentive and appreciation awards that the time has come to reconsider the rules of awarding these prizes and the method of work, as well as immunize them from any political interference.
