By: Prof Goran Nowicki

Jan 12, 2006
 
Last October Massoud Barzani, the president of Kurdistan regional government was visiting US, Europe and specifically Austria that we heard the unfortunate news of Dr Kamal Qadir - himself an Austrian citizen - and his negative campaign at such a crucial moment of Kurdish history. I really don't understand this kind of attitude and his actions. Do the Kurds have a concept called Kurdish national interests?
 
A CRITIQUE OF MEDIA
 
The politics in Kurdistan in Iraq has been a bipolar rivalry of two cities that has hurt the Kurdish interests for the past 30 years. We used to hear the Kurds criticizing the two administrations for not unifying the Kurdistan administration. But the very same critics have failed to cultivate a sense of respect for the national leaders of Kurdistan in Iraq, to bring a unification of the mindset of people living under the governance of the two administrations.
 
The project of unification of two administrations by the two main parties of PUK and KDP is praiseworthy, but this project cannot succeed if the so called independent media outlets continue on bringing disunity and divergence instead of unification and convergence. The bias of media in Kurdistan must become a unification bias too. It is time to move on and "to bury the hatchet" of hatred and past grievances and replace past enmity and rivalry with brotherhood and peace.
 
The leaders of the two parties and the parties affiliated with them have been brave enough to do that, why the Kurdish intellectuals and ordinary Kurds cannot move on and follow their lead? And the media should lead and its bias should not act as an obstacle to unification.
 
LAW AND ORDER
 
The whole purpose of government is to establish law and order, that is why a group of citizens give up some of their natural rights to a governing body "government" for the prospects of having safety and protection. When a law is passed then the citizens must follow it otherwise those who violate the law will be punished for breaking the law.
 
An ordinary person can go and break the law and use his or her "connections" to avoid the punishment and penalty. But when a person who has studied law and has a PhD goes and violates the law by committing defamation then he has betrayed his own profession too. He has  broken the sanctity of law like an ordinary person, but he also has betrayed the very basic principles of law as a profession. This act reminds one of the story of the prayer leader who farts while leading a prayer group in praying. If one of the ordinary worshipers farts during the prayer, it is not as extreme as the farting of the prayer leader. 
 
KURDISH PEACE AND HARMONY
 
In order to bring a sense of justice to the whole sad affair, we should all wait for the newly appointed minister of justice to look at the case and we try not to add more fuel to the fire.  In the traditional Kurdish way, the person who has committed defamation is encouraged to show some remorse and to express regret and the other party is encouraged to forgive the guilty by an act of generosity and majesty. As the old saying goes: "forgiveness is a sign of strength and majesty".
 
The Magi priests and Islamic clergies in the traditional Kurdish society have been playing this role of Kurdish mediation between the ruler and subjects. In a modern and  secular society, the secular priests are indeed the intellectuals and in an ideal world, the responsible media should try to play that mediating role of the traditional peace medicine men.