Kurdistan Observer

Oct 5, 2002                                                                    

The traditional cultural background of the Kurds has taught them to highly regard the social hierarchy of their society. Unfortunately, such an influence is extended into their political life as well. Accordingly, they have accustomed to look up to their political leaders and expect them to be solely responsible for meeting all the expected demands of their people. It seems that such an inclination has become a second nature for the vast majority of the vocal Kurds who reflect on the Kurdish cause and its predicaments. They seem to have "voluntarily" decided that a political leader has to be infallible and possess all the needed capabilities to do right by his people everywhere and all the time.

It is true that for a good political leader to be entrusted with delegated responsibilities, he has to win the confidence of his followers. Nevertheless, it is unrealistic to assume that he "surely" will match or exceed their expectations. That is why in a mature democracy, there does exist a set of checks and balances that constitutes a functional mechanism to guide and assist the party leader to fulfill his obligations as best as possible. For many obvious reasons, the Kurds have not had the opportunity to achieve such a convenience in their current infant stage of democratic experiment. Therefore, it is appropriate that the Kurds learn to adjust downwards their degree of expectations from their leaders to a more realistic level. Such a move may help to reduce their frustration and free up their imagination to look into more practical and rewarding options.

As an organized group, a political party is made up of individuals from different walks of life and who enjoy different levels of capabilities. Assuming that all the followers are of the active category, the larger the group, the more resources and potential the party can gather. In the case of the Kurds, they will be much better off with fewer but larger political parties than numerous but smaller ones. The synergy developed from combined human potential increases exponentially with any increase in active but also harmonious participation. Dividing participants who share similar ideologies onto two or more parties is at the expense of achieving a greater synergy that the Kurds need desperately to reach their political and economical objectives.

As far as the future and the interest of the Kurdish nation is concerned, it is quite clear that the followers of both KDP and PUK share very much the same political ideology, goals and objectives, as they were before the unfortunate split that took place in the mid 1960s. The only separating lines are those that are created by their leaders for "personal" reasons that have no relevancy to the prime interests of the Kurdish nation. There is no valid justification to why both parties should not reunite and achieve much greater strength and momentum to better serve the Kurds internally and defend them from their enemies more effectively. Such a larger party will also be viewed as a sign of Kurdish unity and strength. It will attract more respect and support for the Kurds and their cause from the civilized nations.

There are many patriotic Kurds whose frustration with this division forced them to side-step Kurdish organized political life. They understood the ugly and catastrophic consequences that such as split may bring upon the Kurds. Many lived to see that their fear has come true in the last three or more decades. The worst being the infighting of the mid 1990s when thousands of brave and patriotic Kurds from both KDP and PUK (whose leaders were instigated by Saddam and the Turkish regimes) killing each other, leaving behind their children as orphans, wives as widows, and loved ones in grief, as well as undermining the overall internal peace and unity of the Kurds for many years to follow. "What a crime! … What a stupidity … What a shame!"

The resent encouraging developments has given the Kurds a fresh hope. Both KDP and PUK leaders are preparing to embrace each other and put the tragic past behind them. Hopefully, such a move has come about from the self-realization of the leaders of both parties that harmony serves them and the Kurds rather than animosity and destructive competition, but not from fear, desperation and/or third party pressures. A gesture of a good will has to be genuine and spontaneous to endure and become rewarding. Now that the Kurdish nation is going through an extremely sensitive stage in her modern history, the harmony and cooperation of all their political forces is paramount in their struggle to achieve the long dreams of their nation for freedom and stability.

It is rather an intellectual short fall for any Kurd to believe that he/she has less responsibility towards his/her nation than that of a political leader or a party member. The task of rescuing the Kurds from oppression and transforming them to a modern nation is the collective responsibility of each and every Kurd. There is no Kurd young or old who does not have something positive to contribute with to his/her nation. For the Kurds to build momentum and be able to bridge their development gap with the other nations, they have to envision themselves as leaders and administrators within the domain of their daily lives and responsibilities. They need not to expect others to help them, but they help themselves and also reach out to help the others. With such a proactive attitude the collective productivity of a nation will always surpass her own needs and will put her in a surplus position to achieve greater levels of prosperity and beyond.

There are no accurate statistics to tell the number of the Kurds in Diaspora, but one would not be far off to suggest that there are somewhere between 1.5 to 2 million Kurds from all parts of Kurdistan who currently live in the Western Hemisphere. Proportionally, they represent a higher percentage of the educated Kurds who have the intellectual capacity to better reflect on the nationalist sentiments of their nation in their homeland Kurdistan. Knowing that they can freely express themselves without having any fear of retribution, their thoughts can be considered both genuine and spontaneous. For all academic and research purposes, such a number (4% to 5/% of the total Kurdish population) is a giant sample to offer reliable data to use as factual indicators in arriving at causes and results. For political ends, using such an assumption, the views and the aspiration of the Diaspora Kurds should be considered as an exact image of that of the majority of the Kurdish nation in the greater Kurdistan.

This Diaspora population is a significant force that can remotely impact the Kurdish nation and influence her course of destiny. Because of the freedom of expression that they enjoy, as well as their access to many potential educational and political resources, they can promote the Kurdish cause more effectively (to those who are count the most) at a much greater speed than their brethren in Kurdistan.