DUBAI - Oil-rich Gulf Arab states, home to millions of Asian workers, have so far pledged a mere 70 million dollars to victims of the Asian tsunami disaster despite reaping seven times as much in crude revenues daily.
All the Gulf states need to do is donate one day's equivalent of their oil income, a Kuwaiti commentator suggested Wednesday.
Kuwait may have raised its aid pledge twice from one million dollars to two and then to 10 million, but this "still is a humble amount compared to the magnitude of the catastrophe," Shamlan al-Issa wrote in the daily As-Siyassah.
Issa, who had earlier described the contributions of the region's governments as "shameful," called on Gulf states to "donate the oil income of one day in aid to the victims" of the December 26 disaster, which has killed at least 146,000 people and left millions in need.
Germany on Wednesday became the biggest contributor to the massive global aid effort, announcing a package worth 668 million dollars. Japan has offered 500 million dollars and the United States promised 350 million.
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, started with a pledge of 10 million dollars - equal to a donation by seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher - before announcing on Tuesday that it was tripling that amount and organizing a telethon to raise more funds.
Added to Kuwait's 10 million, the United Arab Emirates' 20 million and gas-rich Qatar's 10 million, that took the total pledges by the four oil producers to 70 million dollars, compared to some 500 million dollars a day in oil revenues.
"The rich Gulf states usually don't give big amounts to victims of natural disasters, perhaps because they have not gone through such plights themselves," commented Jamal Marhun, a 43-year-old Bahraini employee.
"Let's admit that Kuwait's donation was too small compared to its humanitarian status and the size of the catastrophe," Nabil al-Fadhel wrote Monday in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai Al-Aam, reminding Kuwaitis of the services of Asian workers in the emirate.
Asians form the bulk of an estimated 12 million expatriates in Gulf Arab states, which rely heavily on them in hard and low-paid jobs.
Al-Qabas, a liberal Kuwaiti daily which slammed Gulf states for their meager aid on January 2, on Wednesday ran a front-page advertisement appealing to the public for donations.
In Kuwait and other Gulf countries, many organizations - including government-backed ones such as Red Crescent societies - have been collecting and shipping donations to tsunami victims.
But Kuwait appears to be the only place so far where the press -- the most outspoken in the region -- has stuck its neck out to criticize the governments' performance.
In Saudi Arabia, one commentator appeared more preoccupied with the "epidemics" which Asian pilgrims from the affected countries might bring with them when they come to perform the hajj in the kingdom's Muslim holy sites this month.
"What are the preventive measures taken (by the health ministry) to stop the spread of epidemics brought by pilgrims from those countries," Abdulrahman al-Orabi asked Wednesday in the daily Al-Madinah.
Other newspapers in the kingdom have made little comment on the disaster.
One Saudi columnist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said people might have been influenced by some Friday prayer leaders who suggested that the Asian tsunamis were a manifestation of "God's wrath."
But the head of the foreign affairs committee in Saudi Arabia's appointed Shura (consultative) Council, Bandar al-Oyban, defended the kingdom's response to the tragedy, saying it was "among the first countries" to deliver relief aid.
"Even larger countries donated little aid straight after the disaster took place, but when the real size of the calamity transpired, aid increased," he noted.
Riyadh would "doubtlessly cooperate in any program for longer term aid" to the affected countries, he added.
A UAE official, speaking anonymously, also underscored the ongoing and multi-faceted nature of the assistance his country is offering.
"We need to do more. It is never enough. But it is an ongoing process," the official said.
For instance, he said, the UAE donated 100 emergency beds "within minutes" of being asked by German diplomats when a German hospital ship destined for the victims stopped at one of its ports last week.
Both the Emirati official and the Saudi Shura member insisted that their countries offered aid on a humanitarian basis that has nothing to do with race or religion.
But Arab newspaper editor Abdul Bari Atwan was unconvinced.
"We Arabs failed in peace as we did in war. We failed in all tests of democracy and human rights. Here we are, registering a new failure on the humanitarian front," said Atwan, who edits the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
Blair blasts Britons over Iraq war