Govari Gulan: Shi'i Tyrannical Islamic Agenda' Sidelines Kurds

Govari Gulan, Arbil, in Kurdish

June 12, 2005

Right from the beginning of his assuming power, [Prime Minister Ibrahim] al-Ja'fari started a threatening game, the most outstanding characteristics of which were returning to the policy of dictatorship that used to be exercised by the previous reigns of the consecutive regimes, as well as brushing aside and refusing to acknowledge the constitutional and legitimate foundations and conventions in political conduct, putting the head in the sand and \…etc [ellipsis as published]. All these measures are taken with a view to fixing, or rather bringing back, several disagreeable practices that are exercised in the policy of the new federal Iraq.

It is also wrong if we understand that with this type of behaviour Al-Ja'fari represents only himself because actually he represents, a hundred per cent, the real ideology, views, wishes and agenda of the coalition list of the Shi'is and those [religious] sources that support him.

At this stage, they adopt such a policy of confining the role and authority of the Kurds within the 19 March lines at the first stage so that the agenda of the list of the Kurdistan Alliance will not go beyond that line and so that they will monopolize for themselves the Arab part of Iraq and make it an arena for practising their tyrannical Islamic agenda.

By studying the policies of that cabinet with regard to taking the oath, drawing up the permanent constitution, the announcement of inadequate cabinet agenda and the manner of expressing their attitude with regard to Kirkuk, these facts will emerge very conspicuously.

To attain that goal, besides making several decisions and taking a number of internal actions, they have also embarked on diplomatic activities by adopting the same diplomatic behaviour of the former consecutive regimes in exploiting the regional cards against the internal, democratic political forces.

By persisting on that series of policies, Al-Ja'fari's cabinet will forfeit its own coalition characteristic and will become a unilateral cabinet. By adopting this policy it will not only inflict on itself a hard problem but, possibly, a potential withdrawal of trust and the recurrence of another cabinet crisis will ensue. This will inflict harm on the entire political process in Iraq, because the Kurds and the Shi'is are engaged arduously in their efforts to pull back the Sunni brothers into the political process, whereas Al-Ja'fari puts their very coalition before the threatening potential of unravelling.

Probably, this fact is not hidden from the coalition list either, whereas the process of rushing forward and refusal to turn back is ongoing. What else can this mean except that the Shi'ite political forces can no longer wear the democratic veil which, at the opposition stage and the beginning of the process of freedom, they used to wear willy-nilly or out of hypocrisy, whereas now they believe that they should unfold their reality?

However, while in the past few months the political leadership as well as the public opinion in Kurdistan were engaged in addressing several marginal, internal problems and were paying less attention to the Iraqi issues, from now on, after undoing the knots at the internal level and after the President of Kurdistan has assumed his authorities as the sole political source in Kurdistan, it is expected that another courageous Kurdish move will start against these conducts adopted by Ja'fari, which will give great hope to the victory of the will of the people of Kurdistan and the democratic forces in the entirety of Iraq.