When
Iraqis Gave Up On Government
By Dahr Jamail &
Ali Al-Fadhily
28 December, 2006
Inter
Press Service
BAGHDAD, Dec 27 (IPS)
- The Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki,
like earlier governments assigned by U.S. occupation authorities in
Iraq, appears to have killed Iraqi dreams of a brighter future.
General elections Dec. 15,
2005 brought in a government that was supposed to listen to Iraqis all
over the country. It was called a unity government because the cabinet
was formed to include ministers from all ethnic and sectarian backgrounds
after months of negotiations in the parliament.
"This is a unity government
that no one should object to," al-Maliki told reporters recently
in Baghdad. "All of the powers in parliament should take part in
improving security and services in order to achieve success."
Maliki condemned groups such
as Jabhat al-Tawafuq and The Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, along
with other political groups who have been critical of the government.
Jabhat al-Tawafuq comprises
three leading Sunni groups: the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Iraqi People's
Conference and the National Dialogue Council. Their platform is based
on national unity and ending the occupation.
The Iraqi Front for National
Dialogue also stands for ending the occupation, rebuilding government
institutions and improving the economic and security situation.
But opposition leaders blame
Maliki for denying them a role within government, undermining his claim
that there is indeed a unity government.
"We are not really in
the government," Tariq al-Hashimi, leader of the Islamic Party,
and one of Iraq's two vice-presidents told IPS earlier. "Maliki
and his coalition never gave us any real role in the government, and
our ministers' actions are therefore paralysed."
Hashimi's group, like other
Sunni groups and also some moderate Shia groups, are nearly voiceless
in the feeble Iraqi government.
The dominant Shia coalition
was formed in accordance with advice from Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani, the revered Shia cleric who lives in Najaf in the south.
This coalition of Shia parties was formed to secure power against a
list of secular parties led by former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi
who formed 'The Iraqi List'.
The power of the Shia coalition
forced reluctant Sunnis to participate in the elections by banding together
with their own list in order to win the votes of Sunnis. The entire
political process was divided along religious and sectarian lines, and
along ethnic lines because the Kurdish list included all of the Kurdish
parties.
Given this background, few
Iraqis are surprised that their government is fractured and fragmented,
and at odds with itself.
"This government will
definitely lead the country into disaster," Dr. Salih al-Mutlaq,
leader of The Iraqi Front for National Dialogue told IPS earlier. "The
country will slide into civil war if this sectarian attitude remains,
and that is why we decided not to participate in this government."
Former prime minister Ibrahim
al-Jaafari, with the support of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, took over
April 7, 2005. But Jaafari was rejected by all other groups, and also
by some parties within the Shia coalition for his failure to lead the
country.
Maliki was then assigned
the job of prime minister on condition of fair distribution of in the
cabinet amongst winners, and fair treatment to all Iraqis regardless
of their religious or ethnic identity.
"Things only got worse,
and this government and parliament won the title of the worst in the
history of Iraq," Thafir al-Ani from al-Tawafuq told IPS. "The
whole system needs to be changed, or else the country will be divided
into small states, and the catastrophe will be too vast to be corrected."
Al-Ani cited recent polls
to say that more than 90 percent of Iraqis are angry with the government.
People continue to blame the government for everything going wrong from
the high level of violence to lack of employment and of water and electricity.
One of the darkest clouds
of illegitimacy over the Iraqi government is the alignment of top officials
with the Sadr Movement, which has been accused of backing most of the
sectarian death squads that are now the leading cause of death in Iraq.
"This government failed
on all the promises it made to Iraqis, and so all Iraqis want it changed,"
Muhammad Basher al-Faidhy, spokesman for the Sunni Association of Muslim
Scholars told IPS. "They are sorry they ever took part in the elections.
Our Association warned Iraqis that this government would be the worst
ever. They simply cannot get rid of death squads because they are their
major ally."
Most Iraqis see no future
for Maliki's struggling government, which barely controls the so-called
Green Zone in Baghdad where its offices are located. The rest of the
country is fragmented, and the economy and infrastructure are in ruins.
"They are going down
despite the huge support they are getting from the U.S. administration,"
Iraqi analyst Maki al-Nazzal told IPS. "They are faced by an international
denial after their resounding failure in facing the deteriorating security
situation and the comprehensive collapse in services and reconstruction."
On the other hand, the Sadr
movement finds itself in a strong enough situation to turn away from
al-Maliki and his Dawa Party. Sadr leaders are now calling for early
elections, and they are confident of winning without other support,
says their spokesman Hassan al-Zarqani.
"It seems that the United
States have chosen the wrong ally once more," Zarqani told IPS.
"So they will have to reconsider yet again." Sadr had recently
pulled his representatives from the government, but they came back.
Meanwhile, another crisis
has arisen. Grand Ayatollah Sistani announced last week that he will
not support a U.S.-backed plan to build a coalition across sectarian
lines. The plan would have sought to marginalise Muqtada al-Sadr by
dividing the Shias.
Resistance to the occupation
is rising, on the streets and politically, as support for the government
falls. Not a promising start to 2007.
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