Thursday, April 18, 2013

They seek him there


That Arab freedom agenda just keeps getting messier. The above is former member of the Kuwait National Assembly Musallam Al-Barrak, who popped up at a rally in his favour a few hours after special forces raided his house seeking to arrest him on foot of a 5 year jail sentence for insulting the Emir.

On the one hand, the good news is that you can pop up smiling at a supporters' rally a few hours after the police showed up to arrest you. On the other hand, a politician is now essentially a fugitive on the basis of words, not deeds, in what is the Gulf's most liberal country. And the one for which Maggie Thatcher expended the last of her overseas political capital in 1990. Bad timing.

Photo: Kuwait Times.