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Let's not wish to go back to Saddam!
21.2.2010
By Mariwan Faydullah Salihi, in Erbil, ekurd.net
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February 21, 2010
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', —
We're heading towards the end of February and the
election campaigns are heating up as we near March,
7, when millions of Iraqis from a colorful mosaic of
different ethnicities, sects and religions will head
to the ballot boxes to cast their votes for the
country's national Parliamentary elections.
Young and old, women and men, Kurds and Arabs,
Muslims, Secularists and Christians are counting the
days, minutes and seconds to be part of the most
important elections in the Middle East. March, 7, is
not only a crucial day for the Iraqis but also for
the Middle East and the wider world, as it defines
the future of a war-torn country and a troubled
region in dire need of peace and freedom.
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Mariwan
Faydullah Salihi |
As I tour Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan Region
(the only region in Iraq spared of violence since
the American invasion of 2003), I meet many
politicians and ordinary people for my interviews;
but to me the ordinary people are the most crucial,
as it is THEY who make a real change in this
country's future.
During the elections, people in Iraq have very
simple hopes and demands, when compared to other
Western nations where I grew up and spend most of my
life before returning here several months ago.
The people of Iraq want 24-hours of electricity
(much less than what it is offered today),
employment (Iraq has one of the highest unemployment
rates in the world), transparency (Iraq is the
second most corrupt nation in the world after
Somalia), a fare sharing of the country's oil and
gas wealth and better education and medical
services. But most importantly, average Iraqi
citizens want their country to stay secular, away
from religious influences …and they demand security,
so that their children can grow up in a safe and
peaceful environment.
What really caught my attention a few days ago was
when a taxi driver in the city was praising the
former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. It is not a
rare case for some people in Iraq to praise the
dictator, but certainly it is shocking when the
person in question is a Kurd from Halabja, the same
town that was attacked by Saddam's army in 1988
killing more than 5,000 innocent civilians and
wounding many more.
"During Saddam (pre-2003), Iraq had 24-hours of
electricity, many people were employed…in fact
millions of foreigners were also working in our
country. Iraq had the best infrastructure,
educational sector and medical services in the
Middle East before the 1991 international
sanctions," Ali told me in the early morning as he
drove me to my work.
"Iraq, back then, was safe… we didn't have terrorist
attacks nor did we have much corruption. It's true,
we did have a brutal dictator, but now we have
thousands of them," continued the 49-years-old taxi
driver. "Look at me now, I am a taxi driver. I used
to be a civil engineer in the 1980s," he said.
When I told him that Saddam was a brutal dictator
and responsible for the killings of thousands of
Kurds and other innocent Iraqis, including the
people of his town, he said "It's true…I lost most
of my family in the Halabja massacre."
Without further continuing my dialogue with Ali, I
like to shed some light on the following.
It is definitely true that during Saddam's regime
Iraqis enjoyed a great amount of services and
luxuries denied of today. But we shouldn’t forget
the genocides, the brutality and the hardships that
we and/or our parents and other family members had
to go through then. The damages to our country and
our society are inherited from Saddam's legacy,www.ekurd.neta
hefty price we all are paying today. If it wasn't
for Saddam, why on earth would I and millions of
other Iraqis have left our beautiful and rich
country seeking refuge in Europe or elsewhere?
We shouldn't have dangerous thoughts of going back
to Saddam's period; instead, we should build a
future with better services than his, plus freedom
and equality.
The democratization process is our responsibility
now, through voting for our new government. But it
is also the task of our new government to implement
what they promise. The political parties and their
candidates should make every Iraqi citizen happy, an
emotion we have lost for ages.
Dear politicians and other senior officials: Iraqis,
including me, want 24-hours of electricity,
security, better education, better medical services.
Iraqis, including me, want to easily travel abroad
on holidays, we want better salaries, we want a
better infrastructure and we want more freedom and
democracy.
As an Iraqi national and a voter, I demand
prosperity (our national budget has never been as
high as for the last few years), equality, and an
end to discrimination and racism…and most
importantly, peace!
Let's not praise Saddam, let's not be proud of his
era. Let us start a new future and be proud of our
new choices. Let us be proud of our upcoming
government, if it hopefully succeeds.
If most of the people's demands are accomplished
soon by our new federal government, then I can
assure you, dear politicians, that the name 'Saddam'
will be forgotten forever, even by Ali.
Mariwan
F. Salihi, journalist at
Kurdish Globe and Rudaw in Erbil/Iraqi Kurdistan and
regular eKurd.net contributing writer. You may reach the author via email at: mariwan.journalist (at) gmail.com
Copyright © 2010
ekurd.net.
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