By: Rebar Jaff

rebarjaff@hotmail.com

Nov 30, 2005

The unification of the two main Kurdish administrations of Arbil and Suleymania no longer seems to be a one-thousand-and-one-night type of fiction, but instead, a never-ending fairytale. It reminds me of my childhood years when I would lay there listening to my dad telling me late night stories until I’d fall asleep! Today, the two ‘administrations’ are doing to the Kurdish public exactly what my dad used to do to me when I was a kid, make up hazy stories until I was no longer conscious!

We continuously take heed of the two ruling parties “finally” becoming one in order to conceive one robust Kurdish government representing Kurdish demands with a strong Kurdish identity, but the result that is being witnessed so far has been completely the opposite, one splitting into three instead of two merging into one.

In the January elections, the Kurdistani List was a unified one, inclusive of all the main political parties of the region, even the KIU (Kurdistan Islamic Union), which has recently chosen to branch off from that no-longer so exhaustive list, and campaign separately. It has decided to lobby on its own, hoping to win more votes without merging with the other parties, accusing them of being “corrupt” and “selfish.”

It has been months now that “Unification of the Two Administrations Nears,” or exciting phrases as such, have occasionally been making it to the headlines all across the country’s papers and magazines. “Unity” has become like “the gum that everyone chews on.” Everybody is talking about it but what is gloomy is, it just does not seem to pop up. Each time it is mentioned, fresh hopes are born in the Kurdish skies. Unfortunately, the word has been spoken of so many times that hopes are no longer fresh! Many questions still remain, making us wonder: Are the two parties ever going to come together? Is that process ever going to reach consensus? What are the bones that the two top dogs are wrestling over anyway, more authority?

For many of us, the problem that the two factions are having seems to be struggle for more and more power. It has been whispered that the two are afraid to give up the posts they’ve got, or not too happy with the new posts assigned to them such as the distribution of the ministries and so forth. They simply do not give the impression that they realize unity means compromise. These are obvious facts for which to learn of, we do not need to eavesdrop on any of the politicians’ gatherings. Even officials from both sides have claimed things along those lines themselves, on TV and elsewhere that they don’t know what to do with some of their high-ranking officials if they gave up certain positions they currently hold.

A countless number of Kurds are angered by the fact that their leaders found it so easy to reach common ground with Arabs, their long-time “enemy,” stay in one unified Iraq and give up all their patriotic notions of inventing an independent Kurdistan; but yet finding it so intricate to reach a similar agreement among themselves. It is sad but true. These assumptions in the Kurdish streets have begotten great pessimism. They have almost given up on their rulers, to a degree that many are about to say “the two may make great neighbors, but they can never live peacefully in the same household.”