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The new government's structure hampers Nouri al-Maliki's
efforts at national leadership.
BAGHDAD - The air-conditioning has been
broken for three months in the cavernous convention
center where Iraq's national assembly meets,
so the members were sweating profusely in the
115-degree heat.
Male delegates in Shiite turbans or the flowing
robes of sheikhs or shirts and slacks, along with
women in enveloping black chadors and colorful
Kurdish dress - and a few females with uncovered
hair - gathered in clusters Sunday as they waited
for the session to begin.
This was supposed to be the meeting that finally
confirmed the key members of an Iraqi government,
five months after elections in December. This is
supposed to be the national unity government of
Shiites, Kurds - and Sunnis - which the Bush
administration has been promising will undermine the
Sunni-led insurgency. The success of this national
unity government is a key to bringing American
troops home.
The delay in forming this government has sparked the
worst chaos in Baghdad since Saddam Hussein fell. So
delegates were eager for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
to keep his pledge to name the ministers of interior
and defense. Those ministers are essential to
restoring some security to Iraq.
Suddenly a buzz rippled through the hall.
The session had been canceled.
Squabbles among fellow Shiites over who should get
the ministries had prevented Maliki from keeping his
promise. That day painted a stark picture of the
challenges confronting this national unity
government, on which Iraqi and U.S. hopes hang.
Rather than bring Iraqis together, this government
has reflected Iraq's fragmentation. The situation
may be salvaged, but it will take determined
leadership from a handful of key Iraqi politicians,
as well as from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay
Khalilzad.
Maliki tried from the start to act like a leader. He
promised a new plan to secure Baghdad and flew to
the key oil city of Basra to try to halt wars
between Shiite militias and gangs. He made the
pledge to name the ministers.
But Iraq's new constitution keeps the prime minister
impossibly weak - a reaction to the Hussein
dictatorship. And the Iraqi political culture ties
him in knots.
In order to choose his two ministers, Maliki first
had to get seven Shiite factions to agree among
themselves on the names (they couldn't), then win
over Sunnis and Kurds and Khalilzad. The prime
minister lacks the power to make decisions on his
own.
"We all feel sympathy for the prime minister," I was
told by Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi, an adviser to the
former prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari. "The
constitution puts too many ties on the prime
minister, and political leaders give themselves too
many privileges."
Indeed, the current system, in which ministries are
doled out like fiefs to ethnic and religious
parties, has led to incredible corruption.
"Political position in Iraq has become a way to
steal money and then leave the country," says one
official in the defense ministry, where tens of
millions of dollars vanished. With few exceptions,
the new crop of ministers, also picked by party,
does not appear much better than the old.
This system has made many Iraqis sour on democracy
quickly. They are hungry for strong leadership. Over
and over, I've heard Iraqis say Hussein could have
restored order in two weeks.
This is why it is so crucial for Maliki to be able
to act as a national leader who stands above the
interests of sectarian parties. But it isn't easy
for Maliki to make that leap. For one thing, he has
virtually no experienced staff; much of what he does
have is limited to his Shiite religious party, the
Dawa.
I asked one of the bright lights in the new
government, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, what
was to be done. Salih, a Kurd whom I met over a
kebab feast in his garden with his peshmerga
(Kurdish militia) guards, manages to combine ethnic
loyalty with a commitment to building an Iraq for
all its people.
"Prime Minister Maliki says he wants to transcend
his Shia affiliation and act as a national leader,"
Salih said. "It is incumbent on all of us in Iraq
and Iraq's friends in the international community to
help us realize that objective."
It is unclear how or if that can be done. But the
prospects for Iraq and for U.S. troop withdrawals
depend on whether Maliki can lead.
philly com
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