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June 8, 2009
NEWS
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Dear President of Kurdistan...Congratulations!
Kurdishaspect.com - By Mufid Abdulla
We all have moments when we feel we have lost the will to live and mine came on the evening of Monday 1st June when I looked at KTV, the official television station of the KDP, and saw Talabani and Barzani announcing the export of oil from Kurdistan via Iraq in such a symbolic manner to represent the opening of the pipeline.
Well, what can we say apart from congratulations to our dear President for his enormous efforts and the courage he has instilled in our people over the last 18 years with such big implications for the way we all live in the south of Kurdistan! This upheaval does not reflect the nation’s income and while the state and wealth of our leaders is growing, at the same time our democratic culture has almost entirely shrivelled up. The reason for such is that the economic strategy we have does not tie-in with our political process. Sadly, Barzani has contributed more to the centralised state in which we are still prisoners.
I have to question the eagerness and willingness of our leaders to offer and contribute to the Iraqi state without anything in return, five years have passed since the setting up of a new Iraqi state and yet the coldest and worst relationship continues. We have a Prime Minister who can go to Iran, Jordan and Syria in a matter of days yet he has not made any effort towards the KRG and the capital Erbil. We will see how pathetic these leaders such as Maliki are and how chauvinist they are towards the Kurds and Kurdistan. We only have to consider Maliki’s background from the Dawa Party; well known for its military rather than political structure. Up to date, Maliki has not yet visited the Kurdistan region and therefore has the same military capability as the previous regime inflicted upon the Kurds.
I wish for the same efforts and diplomacy Barzani has carried out for the last so many years in terms of the oil situation and the way he has managed to achieve this contribution, to do the same on other such vital matters concerning our nation. How has he managed to deal with all these foreign companies and bring them to Kurdistan despite the complications of the intended border the Kurds have? How has he managed to secure all the contracts despite the denunciation by the central Iraqi state? But surely he did it because he wanted to do it or was it solely money driven?
- But the real question remains; that when it came to the main Kurdish problem within the central state in respect of Article 140 to normalise the areas which have been ethnically cleansed by previous regime…the answer was no: there is no room for manoeuvre.
- When you come to us with regards to our building of an independent state …the answer is ‘No’: all of the surrounding neighbouring countries are against you and how is it that they have allowed you to export oil at the same time that they know oil is strategically so important?
- Finally, let us consider the analysis of economist Alan Greenspan with regards to the export of oil. He notes that most analysts conclude that although it is assumed that an abundance of natural resources can only add to a nation’s wealth, in actual fact the exporting of natural-resources, ‘particularly in developing countries, tends to reduce rather than enhance living standards’ (1). Greenspan states that this is mainly a risk when a nation suffers from what is known by the term ‘Dutch Disease’; ‘when foreign demand for an export drives up the exchange value of the exporting country’s currency’ (2) which in turn makes other export products less competitive. We must be aware of and prepared for such dangers as oil will only create a class of parasites and dictators.
References
1 - Greenspan, A. (2007) The Age of Turbulence, Penguin Books, London, p.257
2 - Greenspan, A. (2007) The Age of Turbulence, Penguin Books, London, p.258
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