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Barzani's KDP will lose credibility
without reform: Senior KDP official
28.7.2011 |
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July
28, 2011
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Adham Barzani, a member
of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) leadership
council, maintains that if his party does not carry
out reforms, it will lose popularity and its current
position as the Kurdistan region’s largest party. He
also cast doubt about the integrity of some members
of the reform committee set up by the Kurdistan
Region President Massoud Barzani to tackle
corruption. Rudaw’s Hevidar Ahmed conducted this
interview with Adham Barzani.
Q: Due to your
close relationships with President Massoud Barzani,
can you tell us how serious he is in his reform
efforts?
Adham Barzani: I
have always seen the president as someone who wants
to resolve the issues of the Kurdish people. He
wants things to go the right way. He genuinely wants
the reform program to succeed but reform cannot be
done by one person alone. The president cannot be
everywhere to see everything with his own eyes. The
reform committees are now in charge of the reform
plans and they are informing the president about it.
But I suspect that some of them don’t tell the
president what’s really happening. Even some members
of the committees may already be involved in
corruption. How can someone involved in corruption
reveal corruption to the president?
Q: Have you told
the president about this? |
Adham Barzani is the cousin of Kurdistan region
president Massoud Barzani, also a member of the
Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) leadership
council. Photo: Facebook |
Adham Barzani:
The president certainly needs to be informed about
those people. There are many projects that have been
done legally but if you thoroughly investigate them,
you will see there is a lot of corruption in them.
For example, a company receives hectares of land for
a housing project free of charge; it builds a few
hundred homes and sells them for twice the cost of
the project. Thus they are taking away people’s
money. There are companies that have made millions
of dollars from such projects.
Why doesn’t the government build these houses and
give them to the poor? It’s true that these projects
comply with the investment law. But there is problem
with that law, too. The investment law makes poor
people even poorer and allows the rich to get
richer. In my opinion, there are many dark sides
that have not been exposed well enough for the
president to see.
How can someone involved in corruption reveal
corruption to the president?
Q: Does the KDP
want to reform internally?
Adham Barzani: I
cannot say that the KDP has not started reforms, but
the truth is that reform is moving slowly and this
has become a source of concern for many KDP members.
The question is, why isn’t a program being devised
to carry out KDP internal reforms quickly?
Q: Why then
don’t you, as a KDP leader, devise such a program?
Adham Barzani:
If the KDP reforms itself, it will gain supporters.
There are some people who carry the last name
Barzani and do things that they shouldn’t be doing.
They think they have benefited from this name but in
fact they have doomed themselves. Those who have
exploited their Barzani title are not Barzanis. I
think patience has a limit and when that limit is
pushed such behavior cannot be accepted from anyone.
Q: Seven months
have passed since KDP’s party convention. It was
said the party would fight corruption after the
convention but not much has been done so far. Is the
KDP afraid of combating corruption?
Adham Barzani: I
believe there is some fear among some KDP members
who are afraid of reforms. Maybe some officials
worry they will lose their positions within the
party.
Q: So is it
because of those officials that the KDP cannot carry
out reforms?
Adham Barzani:
No, it doesn’t mean the KDP is afraid of those
officials. It has a reform agenda and whether we
like or not that agenda has to succeed.
Q: So what if
the program is not implemented?
Adham Barzani:
If it is not implemented, no doubt the KDP -- as a
party with a long history --will suffer a great
deal.
Q: You mean it
will lose its position as the leading party?
Adham Barzani:
Not only that, but it will also lose its historical
credibility and other things. People might tolerate
some things for a while, but not forever.
Q: You used to
be the head of an Islamic party and worked with
other Islamic parties in Iran and Kurdistan. Is
there corruption inside Islamic parties as well?
Adham Barzani:
Back when I had a party, we did not own anything to
be corrupt… but I’d frankly say yes there is a lot
of corruption among Islamic parties.
Q: Do Islamic
parties receive funds from abroad?
Adham Barzani:
They have been living on foreign funding until not
long ago when the Kurdistan Regional Government
started to fund them. So how did they manage in the
past? Those parties have built hundreds of mosques
in Kurdistan. From where did they get that money?
Q: What do you
think of the opposition’s plans to fight corruption?
Adham Barzani:
The opposition’s record is there for everyone to
see. The leaders of the Change Movement (Gorran)
were part of the Sulaimaniyah provincial
administration which has been receiving a little
less than half of Kurdistan’s total budget… They
were also part of the PUK [Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan] leadership. If there was corruption in
the PUK leadership and in Sulaimaniyah,www.ekurd.netthen
they were part of it, too. One of the important
points that Gorran raised was returning public
property to the government. So why have they not
handed over the hill where their headquarters is
based? This was their idea. If they do not implement
it then what kind of credibility do they have?
Q: Iran has been
shelling Kurdistan’s border for weeks. What are your
comments on the developments?
Adham Barzani: I
consider the shelling as a clear violation of
Kurdistan’s borders. If Iran thinks there are people
inside Kurdistan who are backed by the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) to attack Iranian
interests, then it is mistaken. They know very well
that nobody can control those [conflict] areas. Iran
wants to impose its will on the KRG through such
actions. That’s all. The Iraqi government is silent
about this and the reason is that Iran is committing
this [shelling]. The attacks do not serve the
interests of either nation.
Q: But the
leadership of the Kurdistan Islamic League [Komal]
says the shelling of border areas is being carried
out with the KDP and PUK’s approval.
Adham Barzani:
The Islamic League should be the last to say
something like that. Why does the league have links
with Iran then? To stop the attacks? I believe what
they say is only for a domestic audience. Didn’t the
president of the Kurdistan Region condemn the
attacks? Where is the green light that has been
given to Iran? If he [President Barzani] allowed
Iran to attack, why would he then condemn them?
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