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Good
news about progress in Iraq must always be tempered
with skepticism. In that ethnic cauldron, today's
successes have a way of coming apart tomorrow.
Still, it is heartening to see Iraqis taking their
new representative political power seriously enough
to form a government more quickly than anyone had
expected.
Within a week, the rifts between the three major
religious and ethnic factions in the newly elected
National Assembly - Shia Arabs, Sunni Arabs and
Kurds - were reconciled to allow the selection of
the top legislative and executive leaders for a new
interim government.
Last Sunday, a Sunni politician, Hajim al-Hassani,
was elected speaker of the assembly, then Wednesday
a veteran Kurdish leader, Jalal Talabani, was
elected interim president. Named vice presidents
were a Sunni Arab tribal chief, Ghazi Yawer, and a
Shia politician who is currently finance minister,
Adel Abdul Mahdi.
Then Thursday, the three men on the presidential
council appointed Iraqi Shia leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari
as prime minister of the interim government.
What's left for the prime minister is perhaps the
most contentious process - forming a cabinet with
which he will begin to start running the nation.
Kurds and Shias, the dominant groups in the
assembly, will vie for the lion's share of key
ministries like oil and defense.
This is where things may get rough. Already Shias
and Kurds in the assembly are clamoring to dissolve
the interim government of Ayad Allawi, a secularist
who is seen as too close to the Western alliance.
More crucial are demands that all former members of
the Baathist Party be excluded from government - a
self-defeating move that would strip bureaucratic
and technical expertise from ministries.
The obstacles ahead should not be underestimated.
For now, the interim leaders are showing a public
front of unity. After his election, assembly speaker
al-Hassani said he was an Iraqi first, a Sunni
second. It was a symbolic gesture intended to smooth
over the country's ethnic divisions, but sustaining
that message of unity won't be easy.
The drafting of a constitution, to be completed in
August, will try to balance out secular principles
with the tenets of Islamic law. Shia clerics insist
on a strong Islamic flavor. Kurds want the document
to be secular in spirit and substance. This division
is likely to generate bitter squabbles before the
draft can be adopted in time for a constitutional
referendum in October.
The Sunnis are intent on surviving as a minority
with some voice in Iraq's governance. There are
encouraging signs that Sunnis who had shunned
January's election are slowly coming around to the
idea that they must enter the political process if
they want to influence Iraq's future.
Over all this, of course, looms the ominous cloud of
the insurgent violence that continues to wrack
central Iraq. For all that, it's good to see Iraqis
move forward with the creation of a government.
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