Kuwaiti MP Safaa Al Hashim attends a parliament session at the Kuwait's national assembly in Kuwait City, Kuwait, on 07 October 2020 (issued 07 December 2020). Ms Al Hashim, Kuwait's only female MP lost her seat in the 2020 Kuwaiti general election held on 05 December 2020. EPA
Kuwaiti MP Safaa Al Hashim attends a parliament session at the Kuwait's national assembly in Kuwait City, Kuwait, on 07 October 2020 (issued 07 December 2020). Ms Al Hashim, Kuwait's only female MP lost her seat in the 2020 Kuwaiti general election held on 05 December 2020. EPA
Kuwaiti MP Safaa Al Hashim attends a parliament session at the Kuwait's national assembly in Kuwait City, Kuwait, on 07 October 2020 (issued 07 December 2020). Ms Al Hashim, Kuwait's only female MP lost her seat in the 2020 Kuwaiti general election held on 05 December 2020. EPA
Kuwaiti MP Safaa Al Hashim attends a parliament session at the Kuwait's national assembly in Kuwait City, Kuwait, on 07 October 2020 (issued 07 December 2020). Ms Al Hashim, Kuwait's only female MP lo

World

Former Kuwaiti MP decries 'insults and slander' on social media after election loss

Safa Al Hashem courted controversy as an MP over her anti-expat stance

The National

December 08, 2020

  • English
  • Arabic

A day after Kuwait's only female MP lost her seat in national elections, Safa Al Hashem threatened legal action against detractors on social media.

Ms Al Hashem is a divisive figure in the vibrant Kuwaiti political scene, and had served in three national assemblies before losing in the December 5 poll. In a tweet on Monday, she lambasted social media users for sending her abuse online and said she had decided to take legal action.

"My longstanding principle has been not to respond or file charges against the tweeters, but after the numerous insults and slander directed at myself and my family, I assigned a group of lawyers to monitor all the abuse directed at me on social media channels, including those who retweeted and who kept these messages, and have raised these cases to the court," she wrote.

Ms Al Hashem takes a tough line on immigration and repeatedly called on the government to send expatriates back to their home countries.

Last April, Ms Al Hashem tweeted her outrage at the number of expats in government positions, saying: "I said it before and I'm repeating it now: the internal invasion of expats in all the state apparatuses requires a revamping of the administrative structure."

Some of the messages criticise her policy stances, but others make threats, and use gendered language to insult her.

One tweet told the 56-year old to "get back in the kitchen" and another used lewd language to refer to her.

Still more told the veteran MP and businesswoman to "go to hell", among other insults.

A study by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found women politicians in the US received 12 per cent more abuse on Facebook than male politicians. A 2017 UN report found 73 per cent of women have endured cyber violence.

Before entering politics, Ms Al Hashem was a successful businesswoman and founded a consulting company. She said she would donate any proceeds from the legal battles against online commenters to "needy families".

In this year's election, 29 female candidates ran for office, but none secured a seat. Kuwaiti voters returned just 19 of the 44 sitting members who sought re-election in Saturday's vote.

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Stage result

1. Pascal Ackermann (GER) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 3:29.09

2. Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto-Soudal

3. Rudy Barbier (FRA) Israel Start-Up Nation

4. Dylan Groenewegen (NED) Jumbo-Visma

5. Luka Mezgec (SLO) Mitchelton-Scott

6. Alberto Dainese (ITA) Sunweb

7. Jakub Mareczko (ITA) CCC

8. Max Walscheid (GER) NTT

9. José Rojas (ESP) Movistar

10. Andrea Vendrame (ITA) Ag2r La Mondiale, all at same time

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Kuwait