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Iraqi Kurds: Leadership´s Disconnect With
People
3.7.2008
By Rauf Naqishbendi
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July
3, 2008
During the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the Kurdish
people are free from the grasp of Arab atrocities.
This is a temporary situation, however, and Kurds
remain in danger of national annihilation unless
they become an independent nation with their own
sovereign state. Thence, national exigency demands
an earnest mobilization of the people to march
toward statehood. Anything short of this will
sanction the ill-fated attention of Kurdish leaders
who will administer the fatal dose to the Kurds'
cause for freedom and liberty.
Kurdish history is one of the most disheartening
stories because of the suppression and repression
that has continued for centuries. Repeated
rebellions to hinder the grip of occupation have
failed to fulfill dreams of Kurdish statehood.
Each rebellion left a good part of Kurdistan in
ruin, and thousands sacrificed their lives for the
just cause of freedom yet to materialize. |
Rauf Naqishbendi |
Each movement not only brought
misery upon its immediate failure, but also made
life more difficult for the survivors afterward.
Thus, the living condition of Kurds deteriorated
with the lapse of time. Of course, Kurdish enemies
have been brutal in obtruding their unsolicited and
despised occupation of Kurdistan, but what about
Kurds themselves who are angry at the world but are
ignoring their own vices? The leadership is
delinquent in complying with moral obligations and
responsibilities toward their people.
Current cries for national liberation are the
continuation of an elongated attempt for freedom,
itself more than four continuous, harsh decades
long. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians
have perished. Tens of thousands of peshmarga
generously and proudly paid with their lives on
battlefields across the valleys and mountains of
Kurdistan . No habitat small or large was exempt
from ruin and destruction. Tens of thousands
departed this unjust world in prison cells under
painful tortures. Thousands were crippled and
deformed by chemical and biological bombing.
Hundreds of thousands were beleaguered,www.ekurd.net
compelled to leave their
properties and relocate elsewhere under the harshest
circumstances. All of these atrocities happened
under the name of revolution, but the people
persevered, acknowledging that freedom isn't without
its price. They gave everything they possessed, sure
that embedded in the dawn of a new day on the
horizon would be the reality of their dream and
inspiration.
The dreamed-of day arrived and the celebratory days
of the ousting of the Butcher of Baghdad, Saddam,
have passed. What remains is the urgent work by
leaders to remedy past atrocities upon people and
commence healing through declaration as to how
national ambition will be framed and long-stolen
revenues from natural resources will be utilized to
ease impoverishment. Unfortunately, the leaders and
their cronies are enjoying prosperities, while the
people are dumfounded, realizing that past
sacrifices have been diverted to benefit so few,
with the national agenda blended eclipsed by
leadership´s extravagant lifestyle.
Occupying forces were blamed for controlling and
stealing our natural resources, yet our leaders are
giving them away to the same people at whose hands
the people suffered during their brutal occupation.
Although peace is now prevalent in most of
Kurdistan, the continuation of peace mandates
visionary leaders who can realize tomorrow´s dangers
and move proactively to secure the future security
of the nation. Unfortunately, current Kurdish
leaders are shortsighted and care nothing of
impending rainy days ahead. This is the most
dangerous proposition before the nation, because it
invites a catastrophic future with devastation
exceeding any in the past.
This writer´s aim is not to raise unsubstantiated
fears. The fear is real. Saddam´s genocide was
committed against the living generation not long
ago. Corruptions mentioned aren´t imagined, but
rather, they are ubiquitous throughout Kurdistan as
Barzani and the Talabany have turned the Kurdish
cause to their own family´s money machine.
Perpetuated peace and security can be accomplished
only through an independent Kurdish state. This goal
propels the nation toward much-needed statehood, and
that need should find direction to satisfy itself.
Contrarily, Kurdish leaders have left their people
without direction, and no one knows the destination
from here or what leadership´s plans for the future
of the nation might be. The people of Kurdistan have
been downtrodden and have withstood many tragic
turbulences. They have every right to demand
assurance and reassurance of freedom from the
repetition of past tribulations. This is not a
niggling demand to be undermined. This is a life and
death matter. Leaders must leave no doubt for
speculation but clarify their position and offer the
answers owed to the people.
Furnishing future security requires restoring the
integrity of the land. Properties lost must be
reclaimed, dislocated people should return to their
rightful homeland,www.ekurd.net
foreign elements
illicitly coerced into Kurdistan against the
people´s will must be expelled gracefully. Borders
and boundaries must be defined and recognized. These
are prerequisites for the public´s well-being, the
stability of the region, and preparation for
statehood. These essential steps should have been
taken earnestly by Kurdish leadership. They had
means at their disposal to purchase back confiscated
properties and provide for the return of dislocated
people. Instead, areas like Kirkuk and Mosel, among
many others, have been neglected and leadership has
been silent about it. Silence and aloofness in this
matter is an utter endorsement of the status quo
established by Saddam´s regime.
And now this: Last month Kurdistan Regional
Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani
congratulated himself for signing an agreement for
the development of 170 million square feet of land
outside the capital of Erbil, designated for a new
luxury tourist and commercial complex in the
Kurdistan Region with golf courses and luxury hotels
valued at $4.5 billion US.
After all, most Kurds, and Iraqis for that matter,
have never heard of golf, and most Kurds are
struggling just to get by in their daily lives. So
what will with these expensive golf courses do for
them?
The Kurdish leaders´ priorities has been misplaced,
and there is a disconnect between the people´s need
and leadership´s ambitions. For a nation such as the
Kurds with an uncertain and fearful destiny, one
would expect their leaders to exert their utmost
efforts to secure the future and improve the current
substandard living condition of the people. But
indeed they are not.
Rauf Naqishbendi is a contributing columnist for
Kurdish Websites, American Chronicle and has written
Op/Ed pages for the Los Angeles Times. He has just
completed his memoirs entitled "The Garden Of The
Poets" which reads as a novel depicting his
experience and the subsequent 1988 bombing of his
hometown with chemical and biological weapons by
Saddam Hussein. It is the story of his people's
suffering. Rauf Naqishbendi is a software engineer
in San Francisco Bay Area.
The contents of this article reflect the author's
personal opinions, and we accept no responsibility
for the views or opinions expressed in the articles
either direct or indirect.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
americanchronicle.com
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