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Kurdistan Regional Government’s
Achievements: Critical Analyses
8.3.2011
By Mufid Abdulla - ekurd.net |
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March
8, 2011
This is my response to the
article by Delovan Barwari on this
website. I will start by referring to his argument
to defend the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG, in
which he states that all governments, even the most
advanced democracies, have governmental
deficiencies, and continues that “the KRG has had
its share of shortcomings as well namely in
corruptions and nepotism.”
Please let me give you one example of what we are
heading towards. First of all, let us consider the
example of a country like Nigeria. When the Nigerian
nation gained independence in 1960, there was a hope
that the country would be the most heavyweight in
Africa. Not only is it the most populated area in
Africa but is also blessed with abundant natural
resources, particularly oil, from which the country
has earned over $400 billion between 1979 and 2005.
Despite this, Nigeria remains one of the poorest
countries in the world. (1)
In Kurdistan, we have a corrupted man ruling a
corrupted leading party and who is supposed to be
leading the people. In Kurdistan, the corrupted
leader has given himself power by putting himself as
a leader of his party and a leader of the people for
the last twenty years. In Kurdistan, not a single
corrupted leader has been jailed or deprived from
his post. Nobody, including no audit office or tax
office has asked where this wealth is coming from.
You might tell me there is no alternative leader to
step up to the position. However, from the day the
current leader leaves there is guaranteed to be many
people coming forward.
Back to Kurdistan and the aforementioned article,
you state that the KRG’s accomplishments, both
politically and economically far outweigh its
deficiencies. My response to this is that the KRG as
a political and social system has not shaped the
economic system and has failed to unite their people
in this de-facto Kurdish state. Therefore, this
political system can be assessed in two dimensions;
firstly whether it is a system of collectivism as
opposed to individualism and secondly we must
question if it is democratic or totalitarian.
However, these two dimensions have become
interrelated. I can see the society we have created
is one of individualism and tends towards
totalitarian at the same time; the ruling parties do
not view Kurdish society as an important factor. The
rulers of Kurdistan are a bunch of people who have
experienced and implemented an armed struggle and
has nothing to do with the modern world and
management. The two ruling parties, the KDP and PUK,
have a larger share in running the KRG and in most
cases are directed by those leaders. How can it then
be possible for such a nation to be involved with
changes in this society while they are incapable of
all forces of innovation? They do not understand the
action of managing modern Kurdish society as a
whole.
I would like to go through the points for which you
have called the KRG’s accomplishments over the
years:
1. Security: The securities you have referred to
which are in place in Kurdistan are not factors
contributing in any positive way to the stability of
Kurdistan. These might act as security for the
people who have been protected by militia but not
for the ordinary people. Of course if you compare
Hawler [Erbil] to Mosul there will be no contrast.
We should not forget that the society we have
adopted in Kurdistan is far different from a society
which has been ruled more complexly. This is not a
stable society; the Iranian forces have been
bombarding our borders for a long time without any
intervention from the KRG, but if the opposition
issues even a small statement this means the
deterioration of the security of Kurdistan. The
rights of women are still shaky and there is no
evidence of the emancipation of women from male
rule. In terms of the rights of journalism etc we
have examples of several newspaper journalists who
have been murdered and shot down by unknown forces.
If the two ruling parties are unhappy about some
groups and parties it appears that they can do
anything they want to rectify this. For example on
the 25th July 2009 the KDP attacked the Gorran
Party’s office in Hawler during the election. People
continue to be frightened and uncertain about what
will happen next. We could do much better with our
security and ameliorate the stability by starting
with the addressing of the following issues;
a) Dissolving the militia groups by not giving them
any budget. We must start working on moving the
Kurdistan army away from any party affiliation so
that it can become an army of the people.
b) The security apparatus of the two ruling parties:
KDP intelligence services by (Parasten) PUK
intelligence services (Ashaysh) could be dissolved
into one strong, transparent force away from the
domination of the two ruling parties so that they
would not be able to terrorise their opponents.
c) An independent judicial system is far from
reality to date. The whole judicial system is folly
and void.
2. Education: Barwari’s article argues that by
opening more universities this will in turn enhance
the university system. Let me tell you that in 1970
in Nigeria almost 32 universities were set up, but
most of the adults were illiterate. So, setting up
so many universities does not help innovation or the
building of our economy as self-reliant and does not
help to build an independent Kurdistan. That is the
reason I believe education in Kurdistan is one of
the biggest failures. Encouraging Turkish
universities to have bases in Kurdistan and to teach
our children the Turkish language while our Kurdish
dialect has not been united is absurd! How is the
KRG planning to eradicate illiteracy in Kurdistan;
what measures or data sources are in place? How can
it be possible that party politics is overruling our
universities?
The biggest problem starts right from the beginning
of primary school in reception year; the teachers do
not have adequate knowledge to give to this young
generation due to the old system that is still in
place. In universities the standards of lectures
have declined over the last ten years and the
standard language in universities is not clear,www.ekurd.netwhether
it be Kurdish or English. As an example, a person
can gain a PhD without having knowledge in Arabic or
English. Therefore, how can it be possible to have
access to all new current research and periodicals
all over the world?
3. Energy. As you stated in your past articles in
2009 regarding energy in Kurdistan as; “a black
curse into a new political power”. Innovation in the
generation and distribution of energy is not driven
by developments in technology or politics alone.
Instead it is the product of the interaction of
emerging technological possibilities, political and
societal pressures, economics, and decision-making
and resource commitments by firms and behavioural
changes on demand. What we have found in Kurdistan
is oil but it has not created any miracles to our
nation. Alan Greenspan’s conclusion is true: “how is
it possible that a superabundance of natural
resources, oil, gas, copper, iron ore, would not
significantly add to a nation’s production and
wealth?” (3)
The same is true for Kurdistan; if we ask what
achievements oil has brought to Kurdistan these
include unemployment (as you mentioned in your
previous article; 50%); and the deadly inflation
which has resulted from the money from oil, to an
extreme of basically daylight robbery of the people.
I have been observing the food index over the whole
of Kurdistan for the last 7 years. I can conclude
that the rate of inflation could be around 250% it
is amazing how ordinary people can survive in such
harsh conditions and is a major contributor to the
production of an unproductive nation and its heavy
dependence on handouts from party politics. The
political environment does not adopt the zeal of
hard work amongst the technocrat and innovative
generation. Therefore, the two political parties are
using the profits of oil for their own purposes; as
the local newspapers have admitted with the fact
that the two parties monthly have taken almost 36
million dollars from the budget for their party
politics.
Oil and energy have not produced an independent
Kurdish state; we are nowhere near it. Oil and gas
are instead strengthening the power of feudalism and
tribal power, as is the case of Massoud Barzani. I
am not impressed by the heights of the buildings of
Hawler [Erbil] and Sulaimaniyah, I am in favour of
enhancing the human capital of Kurdish citizens so
that they can build their nation by themselves and
not by their enemies such as Turkey, Iran, etc. The
Kurdistan market is for Turkish and Iranian products
and goods rather than homemade goods and services.
The KRG is nothing other than the tool of
neighbouring countries for the selling of their
goods and services. We are not allowed to set-up our
own factories and production services unless the KDP
holds the position as a major shareholder in your
company, I have evidence of this from several
sources. The oil revenue may as well be drained
unless it is invested in all segments of economic
cycles.
Oil money is easy money and creates dictators and
despots. There is no model of economy in Kurdistan
to be practiced. Sorry; there is one model of the
economy by Nechirvan Barzani! As we know small
businesses are the backbone of economy in any new
developed country, which raises the question of why
it is so impossible for small businesses to get any
tangible gain in the political environment in
Kurdistan.
4. Infrastructure development. You referred to your
village Terwanish which has had refurbishments such
as the roads despite it being in a remote location
on the Iraq and Turkey border. I am afraid this has
not been the case in Sulaimaniyah over the last ten
years. The council has tried to build several
kilometres of road between Arbat and Sulaimaniyah
which up to now is yet to be finalised despite so
many people having been killed in a car accident due
to the poor road conditions. I must admit, projects
like you have experienced must be approved by big
figures inside the KDP. Of course the road to
Salahadin and Permam has been tarmacked and the road
between Talabani’s headquarters and Sulaimaniyah is
in good condition!
Finally I will go through the last two paragraphs
very quickly as follows:
a) The demonstrations in Kurdistan are not a product
of the Gorran Party but it could be said the Gorran
Party are stirring it. The harsh economic condition
of Kurdistan and the deadly inflation has pushed
people to an uprising. The Gorran Party has
influenced the hearts and minds of people in
Kurdistan with their centre of strategic studies,
which they have built over the last 4 years.
Kurdistan will not be stable unless the two ruling
parties relinquish monopoly in power. the only
language the two ruling parties they understand is
the power of guns and violence as we have seen in
Sulaymani on 17th February 2011.The responsibilities
of the security of Kurdistan lies in the hands of
the KDP and PUK, they are only united in
distributing the share of profits from oil and tax.
b) Over the last twenty years we have heard the same
arguments as those we are making now and our
experience is fragile and still too early to make
major change. Kurdistan will be stronger with the
participation of the mass of people. The major tool
is in the hands of the two political parties, i.e.
of election fraud, which will make them stay in
power. I witnessed all kinds of commissions during
my two visits to Kurdistan on 25th July 1999 and
March 2010 when I visited both Sulaymaniah and
Hawler; on both occasions I found evidence of fraud
which was also revealed by foreign observers.
References:
1. United Nations 2006 Human Development Index
2. Bessant, J. & Tidd J (2007) Innovation and
Entrepreneurship, John Wiley and Sons Ltd, page 356
3. Greenspan, A, (2009) The Age of Turbulence,
Adventures in a New World, page 257
4. http://www.kurdishherald.com/issue/005/article05.php
You may reach the author at
mufid@btconnect.com
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