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June 24, 2008
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Reading President Barzani Part 1
Kurdishaspect.com - By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli
Introduction:
This June exactly three years have passed since Masu'd Barzani was elected President of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq by the Kurdistan National Assembly in June 2005. In all democratic societies leaders face daily questioning by the parliamentary oppositions; they face weekly grilling at parliamentary Question Times, constant monitoring and harassment by free media, feedback, reaction, campaigning and demonstrations by the civil society, etc. The plans and achievements of the government, ministries, service providers, departments, public and private companies, institutions, charities and trusts, political parties and even small community organisations are evaluated annually. They have to produce their annual reports detailing their achievements and financial accounts and make them available to relevant legal authorities as well as the public. There is a national constitution that represents the higher sovereignty, common will and interests of all people and regulates the mechanism of power ad relations between citizens, society and government. Role of Parliament is to guard the constitution and represent the will and interests of all the citizens who on the other hand have right to change their representative MPs by practising their right to vote in free elections. The role of President is to be a model of integrity, sincerity and democratic conduct embodying and promoting the democratic system.
In our unique model of democracy in Kurdistan Region - which though still very young (17) we are in the lucrative business of exporting it to Iraq and sell it to other countries of the world- we do not have any of these nuisances. Our cabinet would meet every day or would not meet for 85 days and it does not make any difference to our happy lives. (1) Our parliament could hibernate for a century and the citizens would not bother. Our PM could sign tens of billion-dollar contracts for fantasy projects without even involving his own ministers and we are happier in our ignorance.
I wanted to know how this unique democracy has developed in the last three years since Masu'd Barzani became the president of the region, what have been his contributions and achievements, where it is going. I could find nothing said or written either by the President or about him that gives any account of the last three years' business of presidency. Still I was curious to know how, in the absence of any constitution, the President thinks and sees his role as the highest authority in the land. Thanks to the great tradition of party political speeches we inherited from Saddam and Arab autocrats, I found some major speeches made by the President to his party officials and offices in which he gives us some clues about his thinking and role.
Below I will translate and analyse and put in the context two of his major speeches as reported by his party's media. I hope this will provide an objective accurate reading of President Barzani. First is the speech he made to central bureaus of Kurdistan Democratic Party on 14 June 2008 and the second is his speech to his party cadres on the anniversary of 18 February, the foundation of KDP's Kurdistan Students Union. I will combine these two speeches in the process of my analyses.
(1) Analysis of President Barzaniْs speech to the central offices of his party on 14 June 2008
Perhaps this is the third or fourth time in few months that President of Kurdistan Region and President of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Masْud Barzani meets KDP officials and makes a major speech to them detailing his vision and his opinions. I will translate paragraphs from the speech as reported by KDPْs central organ Khabat on 15 June 2008 on pages 1 & 12, (2) and then provide my own comments and analysis.
A. President Barzani meets Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) central officials.
The text of the first paragraph of the report:
ôOn Saturday 14 June 2008 President [of Iraqi Kurdistan Region Masْud] Barzani met the officials and cadres of the central offices of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) at the headquarters of the political bureau of KDP. These included the central party organization, central management and finance office, central information office, the monitoring and inspection team, central bureau for public relations, central bureau of national and Kurdistani relations, central bureau of popular organizations, central bureau of trade unions, Secretary and members of the Secretariat of Students, Youth and Women; central bureau of studies, central bureau of elections, and the head and members of Cadres Institute. The meeting was also attended by the Secretary of the KDP and a number of political bureau members. At the start of the meeting the Secretary of Political Bureau Fadhil Mirani talked about the importance of such meetings and stressed that it is imperative that the weaknesses and problems of any of these central bureaus are identified with courage and effective solutions found. He also praised the roles of these bureaus in their struggle for achieving the just rights of the people of Kurdistan.
Then President Barzani made a speech and explained in detail some important issues that concern the relations between the Kurdistan Region and the Federal Iraqi Government, general situation in Iraq, the [proposed] security accord between Iraq and the US, article 140 and the proposals of the Special Representative of the UN to Iraq De Mistura, the regional and international relations, the internal situation in Kurdistan, the situation of KDP and the role of KDP cadres in the next stages. ô
(B) Analysis , context and comment
(1) A problematic title
- Khabat uses the title President Barzani. We do not know whether the newspaper means president of the party KDP or president of Kurdistan region because even before Masud Barzani became formal President of Kurdistan Region, KDP media had always used the term President Barzani.
- Since Barzani was formally elected President of Kurdistan Region, KDP media has been using the title ّPresident of Kurdistanْ instead of 'President of Kurdistan Region'.
- Of course, this expression is only used by KDP media. This means that it is a matter of party policy. But why is this expression, which is neither legal nor constitutional nor defined in any way, used, and why Barzani is happy with such title? No one knows. We can only guess.
- However, the guess is not entirely random. There is a difference between expressions Kurdistan Region and Kurdistan. The first refers to three governorates administered by Kurdistan Region Government and it exists now as a legal entity recognised by Iraqi constitution and international community (through consulates of many states in the capital of the Region Hewler (Arbil)). The name Kurdistan as such refers to whole Kurdish land including those outside the three provinces in Iraq and also Kurdistan parts in Turkey, Iran. Syria and Armenia.
- While the ambition and vision of Barzani , if there are any behind this title, need to be appreciated, it is technically, in legal terms, not correct for him to choose a title that goes beyond his formal legal and constitutional position. Before becoming a formal President of the Region he could have chosen any title and as a leader of his party he can choose any party title, but it is obvious that now in his capacity and position as the formal President of Kurdistan Region, he can only seek a different position and status through legal means. If he aspires to become the leader of the whole Kurdish nation, then he should openly adopt the internationally-recognised legal mechanism of self-determination and spend some of the billion dollars, he has allegedly accumulated as a personal or family wealth according to Michael Rubin and others, for this purpose and mobilize the whole resources of Kurdish nation in this direction. But just to let his party impose a title for the purpose of popular consumption and misleading Kurdish public opinion, is something, in this age of scientific analysis and global knowledge that does not add any respect to the image of Barzani, especially when the national implications and political dimensions of the title are daily compromised and contradicted in practice.
1.2. Ideological shift
However I personally was optimistic that the choice of the title 'President of Kurdistan' might be a conscious personal decision made by Mas'ud Barzani himself and it might indicate an ideological shift in his thinking and even a psychological shift in his behaviour.
Barzani fought three decades of a bloody internal war with Talabani for the political control of Kurdistan region and in particular to realise the title President Barzani. After formally obtaining this title in June 2005, the position of Barzani changed from a party leader and tribal chief or warlord, as he was often described by the international media, to a constitutionally and legally recognised President of Kurdistan region, the highest post in the region. Even the decisions passed by Kurdistan Parliament need to be approved by him in order to become law of the region. He can supervise and sack the cabinet. In addition the post brought with it immense legal and moral responsibilities and expectations. Barzani was expected to think, speak, behave and act as a national leader representing the ideas, interests, and aspirations of the whole population in Kurdistan region. He was expected to deal effectively with the residual of destruction, injustice and social deconstruction resulting from anfal and genocide and in particular the unjustified costly criminal internal war between him and his party and Jalal Talabani and his party. He was expected to be the functional brain of Kurdistan dealing with its problems, planning its progress, promoting opportunities, roles and ambitions for young people. In addition, he was also expected to understand his position as a symbol of independence for the whole Kurdish nation in other parts of Kurdistan. I thought perhaps his choice of the title President of Kurdistan epitomises this fundamental shift in his ideology and agenda.
The other side of the coin of increased expectations of national and moral responsibility of the President, was expectations about moral standards, norms of conduct and civilised legally-supported, constitutionally-justified and morally sound procedures for decision-making and policy-making. In short Barzani was expected, after the realisation of his aim as President of the Region, while his nephew is PM of the Region and many other sovereign posts are occupied by his sons and family members, that he would prove to very one, not just the oppressed Kurds but also the whole watching world and especially the enemies of the Kurdish nation, that he would lead the Kurdish people in the region to a civilised modern world of justice and rule of law and would in fact turn the region into a model of democracy and liberalism. Yes, our people have always been ready for such progress, fought for it and expected it.
1.3 Big disappointment
Unfortunately President Barzani has been a big disappointment to say the least. He has disappointed and perplexed everyone by stubbornly clinging to his parochial past tribal and party credentials. While people and the world saw him big, he always insisted to show his petty image reflected on a small murky mirror of tribal party politics. The title 'President of Kurdistan' instead of being a modern indicator of a philosophical shift, has been a trivial party pretence to cover up deep residual of tribal and even familial politics and dubious power practices. In fact it seems that he chose this title solely to indicate that he is still above his rival Jalal Talabani, who is the President of Iraq of which Kurdistan region is a federal part, by being the President of a wider Kurdistan proper that is bigger than Iraq!
One is really perplexed why President Barzani behaves in this way. It looks like a riddle, at least initially, because if his ambition is to become a respected internationally-recognised national leader, and this is a just ambition, he should not have behaved and not continue to behave in a way that does not only belittle his persona, but also kills the opportunities that he has to be a modern national leader and those golden opportunities his people have to build a democratic prosperous nation. Sometimes ignorance or not knowing can be an excuse. Kurdish leaders have been in the mountains or in exile engaged in various forms of messy fighting and conflicts for decades and it is logical to say that they cannot make a decisive shift into modern civil leaders in few years. But first: they have been in power for 17 years now; second: we live in the age of information and knowledge sharing and not isolation and ignorance and Kurdistan is at the heart of the international politics now; and finally Barzani has often been directly advised that he is expected to , due to his position as a formally recognised national leader, and should behave as the leading figure for all Kurds and this entails keeping himself at long distance from parochial party politics. He is no longer KDP man but a recognised pan-Kurdistan and even Iraqi and Middle East leader. An example of my last point is the remarks made recently by the General Secretary of Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party Hamay Haji Mahmud (in an interview published on Jamawar news website in May, 2008. (3)
Answering to a question: How do you assess the statement made by Mas'ud Barzani that there should be no opposition inside the government, the opposition should be outside government, Muhammad Haji Mahmud replies: "His Excellency Kak [honorific] Masu'd Barzani is the President of Kurdistan Region. All the political parties have voted for him. His thinking should be at the broad level of the overall Kurdistan political forces and the people of Kurdistan as a whole. He should not limit his vision to the framework of Kurdistan Democratic Party. Kak Masud [Barzani] is the leader of all Kurds not just Kurdistan Democratic Party. He should accept criticism and take care of everyone. Then he can be successful. The idea that the Marxists used to adopt, 'you are either my friend or my foe' may not be suitable for our current conditions. Kak Mas'ud Barzani is much greater than being straightjacketed within one single political party. The Kurds are building a great hope on Kak Mas'ud Barzani." (3)
Any rational political leader would have appreciated and protected such trust which is not just the genuine view of the leader of one Kurdish political party. Maybe there is still no Kurdish consensus about the role of Iraqi President and PUK leader Jalal Talabani. But after his election as President of Kurdistan region, a general Kurdish consensus emerged that Mas'ud Barzani could and would take his unique opportunity as a recognised national leader to think, speak, behave and act as one; to speak for and on behalf of all the Kurds and record significant achievements for himself to prove himself and forfeit his dreadful past mistakes. For in addition to his position as President he also heads the so-called 'Council of Kurdistan Political parties' which includes all Kurdistan political groups.
Kurdistan, and the world beyond, waited for a new leader and a new modern style of leadership. What a big disappointment!
2.1 Analysis of his meeting with party cadres
- The meeting of 14the June (the part of the report translated above) was yet another meeting with his party officials that serves as an example of the straitjacket that President Barzani determinedly and detrimentally clings to.
- He makes a major speech and he chooses a party meeting as a platform instead for example a meeting of Parliament or a meeting of the Council of Political Parties or a visit to a village or a meeting with normal people. The tragedy is that this meeting and other previous more drastically performed meetings show that there has not been any change in the psychology and ideology of this man. He is the still the man of the family and the clan he calls Kurdistan Democratic Party. It is a sad thing that he does not know himself. He is supposed to have Western-educated experienced advisers. But his whole record since he became President demonstrates that he has only wanted servants and not advisers, or that his advisers have acted only as servile tools of feudal politics.
- Just the organisation and the context of the meeting show that for Barzani KDP is everything. He forgets that he calls himself the President of Kurdistan, or he is really the President of a region, or a city of diverse political, ethnic and religious views. Perhaps in his mind he does not reduce Kurdistan and Kurdish nation to his party officials and bureaus but he sees the latter as bigger than Kurdistan and Kurdish nation.
- Just look at the frightening number of party bureaus and agencies: "the central party organization, central management and finance office, central information office, the monitoring and inspection team, central bureau for public relations, central bureau of national and Kurdistani relations, central bureau of popular organizations, central bureau of trade unions, Secretary and members of the Secretariat of Students, Youth and Women; central bureau of studies, central bureau of elections, and the head and members of Cadres Institute and political bureau members." I doubt if the so-called Kurdistan Region Government has so many specialised bureaus. The frightening aspect is that these are not just names, otherwise Barzani would not have bothered to meet them. They are monstrous cancerous growths in the heart of Kurdish society. Look again at these bureaus, imagine how many people work for them, who they are, what their roles and responsibilities are, what their connections and public relations are and then multiply these by the number of such offices in Kurdistan regions' cities, city neighbourhoods, district towns, sub-district towns and even villages, and the same parallel for Patriotic Union of Kurdistan centres and offices. The tragedy is that all these party cadres are paid to be party cadres and their role is to obey who pays them! And that is the core of the malady that is destroying Kurdish society and the opportunities and realities of nationhood that are open to us. I will say more about this at the end of the analysis.
- The report reads: "At the start of the meeting the Secretary of Political Bureau Fadhil Mirani talked about the importance of such meetings and stressed that it is imperative that the weaknesses and problems of any of these central bureaus are identified with courage and effective solutions found. He also praised the roles of these bureaus in their struggle for achieving the just rights of the people of Kurdistan." This remark in the presence of the President of Kurdistan clearly stresses that it is the party's weaknesses and strengths that are important for the President and thus for all people. It shows also that the party still lives in the past. It is party struggle that achieve rights to people. What about 17 years of Kurdistan government, parliament, civil society? Perhaps, Barzani will tell us about these in his own speech.
- The report says that " President Barzani made a speech and explained in detail some important issues that concern the relations between the Kurdistan Region and the Federal Iraqi Government, general situation in Iraq, the [proposed] security accord between Iraq and the US, article 140 and the proposals of the Special Representative of the UN to Iraq De Mistura, the regional and international relations, the internal situation in Kurdistan, the situation of KDP and the role of KDP cadres in the next stages."
A part of the last two matters all the issues covered by the speech are important national issues that all the people of Kurdistan, those belonging to KDP and other political parties and those outside are concerned about them. So why did Barzani choose a party political platform to talk about these? Why didn't he go to his 'Parliament' and give opportunity to MPs to express their feeble reaction to his words?
References:
1) "At last after 85 days the cabinet of Kurdistan Region Government meets", KurdishMedia.com, 18 June 2008
2) [Report: President Mas'ud Barzani meets the official and cadres of the central committee of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP): My whole aim is to put the Kurdish house in order and strengthen its unity.¤] Published in //Khabat, Arbil, daily newspaper in standard Kurdish published by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), 15 June 08, pp 1& 12//
3) Muhamad haji Mahmud :" Patriotic Union of Kurdisatn and Kurdistan Democratic Party do not accept any other groups", Interview with Hamay Haji Mahmud by Mkawan Karim, May 2008, http://www.jamawarnews.com/direje.aspx?babet=didar&jimare=64&derkewtin=2
4) Reference above.
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