Getting ready is more Important than a Referendum

By: Mirza Nammo

Feb 20, 2005

Since its establishment the referendum movement has done an amazing job for south Kurdistan. Of course my delight with this movement is not due to the fact that they managed to collect a large number of signatures or the fact that most of those signatures were for a referendum on Kurdish sovereignty because to any Kurd those are given and predicted facts and the opposite not only will be surprising, but it will be impossible too, if taking the plight of Kurds in southern Kurdistan into consideration since they were merged with Arabs in a country called Iraq by outside forces.

My true delight with this movement is due to the fact that in a very rare phenomenon a small group of Kurdish intellectuals have managed to come together and work for a common cause. This is an unfamiliar territory even for the elite of the Kurdish intellectuals because normally Kurds who are not part of the same tribal group or political party are appalled by one another and Kurdish intellectuals while well versed in foreign languages and knowledge they don’t bother too much with each other, and they don’t pay attention to what another fellow Kurd has to say whether the saying is pure brilliance or rubbish.

Just like the tribal leaders, Kurdish intellectuals too, like to work alone and be the sole owner of any idea or invention. Although, many has done great work in his/ her field, but there is a great limitation to these individualism, and it is a great disadvantage to the Kurdish cause. That is why until now we don’t even have a valid and independent think tank for research and analysis to come up with affective strategies for our nation.

Although, communications within the referendum group is still through personal connections and relationships, and the movement has not reached a good level of organizational structure, but that is normal for any new group in any country. I strongly believe that this group has a great potential and ability to set some precedents in Kurdistan in the field of strategic planning and analysis since they are a notional group, and are not affiliated with a particular political group or ideology.  However, this can only happen if the group redirects its focus to identify the weakness in the Kurdish political and military systems and make recommendations and lobby the people and the existing political parties in Kurdistan to implement the required changes.

I believe what is already being done by this group for referendum should be more than satisfactory in terms of documentations and proof to silence even the most uninformed and skeptic about the Kurdish desire for freedom and independence, and from now on the group should broaden its objectives to prepare the Kurds in southern Kurdistan especially to be ready for statehood and self-rule.

For several years in many articles I have been writing about the issue of Kurds in southern Kurdistan not being ready for the events that befalls upon them. Often the lack of readiness comes from intentional planning by the Kurdish tribal leadership to satisfy petty personal desires at the expenses of an entire nation. Many other Kurds some of whom are now members in the referendum movement have written similar articles pleading with Kurdish leadership to change for the sake of our nation, but we all have seen how indifference the Kurdish leadership could be to logic and common sense.  

We have to realize that the collective voice of a group such as the referendum movement is greater than the sum of those voices individually because individuals can be neglected, discredited, or even silenced, but it will be much harder to do that to a group that embodies a good portion of Kurdish academics and intellectuals that is why I believe this group has a better chance to do what the individual members or non members of the group failed to accomplish in Kurdistan.

Unfortunately, enough time is a luxury that we Kurds in southern Kurdistan don’t have to get ready as some of the steps that I believe are of dire importance to be taken are long overdue and the delay already has cost us dearly.         

In some of my articles I wrote that the fist things that the Kurdish parliament after the 1992 election did should have been: a constitution for Kurdistan, a defined geographical boundaries for south Kurdistan, a national army under the command of an elected independent leader, and under the administration of an elected defense minister, a notional broadcasting system.

If these four simple steps were taken by the Kurdish parliament in 1992 we would have had a completely deferent history for those dozen or so years, and the government of south Kurdistan would have had more credibility and power to accomplish more and demand more for our people.  We all saw the devastating effects of not being ready when in 2003 Iraqi regime was toppled and Kirkuk was liberated, but it could not practically be returned to Kurdistan because Kurdistan did not exist as one political or administrative entity. It was each warlord for himself and that cost us authority over a city that we have lost thousands of lives in the past a few decades to protect that city’s identity and to preserve its resources for our people.

Now that another election forcefully is being shoved down the throat of the Kurdish leadership, they have been busy before and after the elections to keep the status quo and undermine the wishes of the Kurdish voters by reaching deals with each other. None of the deals that they have agreed upon consider any of the four steps mentioned above, and that leaves our people as vulnerable as ever.    

That is why having a referendum on Kurdish sovereignty regardless of the outcome is irrelevant to the Kurdish cause in south Kurdistan because realistically Kurds are not ready both militarily and politically to deal with the consequences of such event. Furthermore, if Kurds ever become ready a referendum is again irrelevant because there is a fact in politics and power through out history of humanity that nulls right or wrong in any event because when a nation is ready to take a position and defend it against anybody else’s claim, that is considered to be right, and when that nation is not ready that is considered to be wrong.

There is no exception for the Kurds to in this matter or any other matter. When we are ready to take position, we are right, and when we fail to protect our position we are wrong regardless of how many signatures we can collect to show people that we are wronged.  

To some it up I am urging the distinguished members of the referendum movement to use all their energy and power to get south Kurdistan politicaly and militarily ready because that is the only thing which will determine how much right we are going to have and nothing else.