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The Increasing Marginalisation of the
Gorran Party
13.12.2010
By Mufid Abdulla |
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December 13, 2010
In light of the recent teacher union election in the
south of Kurdistan [Iraqi Kurdistan], the Gorran
party has fallen into third place behind the two
main parties’ of teachers unions, namely the KDP and
the PUK. In some cities like Duhok and Hawler
[Erbil] there have been no achievements at all in
terms of any ground for optimism. This situation is
raising the prospect of an electoral meltdown of the
Gorran movement.
The Gorran Party [Kurdish opposition] has not only
become stagnated since the election of their members
in July 2009, but also appears to be going
backwards, to the extent that they have forgotten to
strive to find their own identity and are still
chasing their own tail rather than making any clear
progress. Surely, if you aim high, you will not
shoot yourself in the foot? Nawshirwan Mustafa, the
leader of the Gorran Party,www.ekurd.netis
the main promoter of the ideological philosophy
underpinning his movement, yet this is appealing to
few voters; otherwise why have they failed to win
the trust of teachers, who are considered to be one
of the most important layers of Kurdish classes? The
Gorran Party’s recent messages and hard work have
not paid back in terms of the difficulties which
remain in the structure of the organisation.
However, dismissing the bigger picture of the whole
of society as a cover for their cronies, will only
prove to leave the Gorran party with no favours and
will just leave the impression that Gorran is a
movement for the minority, not the majority of the
people.
The Gorran Party has gone so far towards a
professional and media based idea of a modern
political party but they have lost focus on the
importance of organizing and providing leadership in
our community to generate positive changes for the
people they represent. Effective organisation is
about building relationships between people and
groups who were previously divided. So let us
consider the question of how the Gorran Party can
actually go about achieving the building of this
relationship with the people:
1.Leadership development; the Gorran Party needs to
focus on an organizing academy which will play an
important part in this need to urgently review and
analyse these results.
2.The culture of the Gorran Party needs to be
changed with an increased focus on political rallies
and the forming of alliances with local people on
local issues such as corruption and sleaze in our
society. It seems to me that at present, only the
Islamic moderate groups are winning in that
direction. Basically, the two teacher unions which
are affiliated with the Islamic Union and the
Islamic League have achieved more votes than the
teacher union (Sardam) affiliated with Gorran.
3.The Gorran Party needs to be weaned away from this
culture of giving posts and privileges to just a few
people, generally whom are filthy rich. For example,
the exgoverner of Sulaimaniyah who has had hundreds
of reports against him from the Audit Office about
his sleaze and corruption, is now allied, as well as
others in a similar position, to the Gorran movement
solely for his own benefits.
Finally, it would be foolish to exaggerate Gorran’s
problem. The Gorran movement could face a decade of
stagnation akin to the experiences of the PUK and
KDP if they do not come out from amongst their hills
and bankers soon.
You may reach the author at
mufid@btconnect.com
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