Impotence of the KRG leadership in political conflicts

By Kamal Chomani:

The impotence of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) leadership has been quite obvious in recent political conflicts with Iraq’s central government and, in particular, with Premier Al-Maliki. The failure of Kurdistan Regional President Masoud Barzani’s initiative to withdraw confidence from Al-Maliki is the most obvious example.

I recently read a very interesting interview with Efraim Halevy, a legendary Israeli former intelligence officer, on Foreign Policy. Efraim Halevy points out three factors for a policymaker to keep in mind when formulating policy. It is important for the KRG’s leaders to keep these factors in mind.

Halevy says: “Before strategic decisions are made, one has to take into account your capability to actually carry out what it is you’ve decided. And this is something that, at a political level, only a master can do.”

Absolutely, this is what the KRG leaders and, in particular, President Barzani, needed to do before receiving Hashimi late last year and going into a personal conflict with Al-Maliki. Withdrawing confidence from Al-Maliki without even getting a green light from President Jalal Talabani – who is both a ‘strategic ally’ of Barzani and an influential Kurdish leader in Iraq’s political arena – is something no one could have expected from Barzani. Let alone that Barzani forgot to discuss this with the media, political advisors and the opposition. Let alone that the Kurdistan parliament didn’t know about this initiative until it appeared in the media!

In the first place, Mr Barzani has failed to be a ‘master’.

Factor number two, according to Halevy, is: “It’s very important not to be attached to a single policy option. I think it is imperative to present more than one option to the political decision makers.”

Now that the game of withdrawing confidence from Al-Malki is over, it is immensely important to ask Mr Barzani: What is your ‘plan B’ since the ‘plan A’ didn’t succeed? How did you take part in a sectarian and regional political game without having ‘plan B’ in case of the failure of the ‘plan A’ as has happened?

The third factor, which Halevy has learned from Yitzhak Rabin, is: “Whatever you are pursuing, always prepare an alternative. Never be caught without an alternative. Don’t be left in a position where, if the initiative you have undertaken fails, you are left empty-handed.”

Exactly. Now the KRG’s leadership and, in particular, President Barzani, are left empty-handed as we have already said on previous occasions.

After failing in the recent conflicts because of the lack of these three factors, last month the KRG sent two delegations to Baghdad. One was from the government and the other was from all the Kurdish political parties except the Change Movement and the Islamic Group.

The two delegations still couldn’t solve the problems with Baghdad. They came back to Hawler with no successful outcome from their efforts.

So, what to do?

In the KRG, policy formulation is more partisan than national. This is the factor that Kurdish opposition parties and critical journalists are most concerned about. Domestic policies and foreign policies are all in the interests either of a family or of a very limited group within the two ruling parties.

We are in a critical position: The Al-Maliki government is invigorating day by day. As he puts pressure on the KRG, Al-Maliki is applauded increasingly by Arab nationalists and former Baathist remnants. The Dijla operations are threatening the Kurds’ status in Kirkuk. Al-Maliki has already signed huge agreements to arm Iraq’s army with F16s. Meantime, he has benefited from behind-the-scenes conflicts between Barzani and Talabani. So we didn’t win anything in the recent conflicts, but we gave Al-Maliki more powers.

What’s important – as we have all been asking for years – is to involve more people in formulating policies. While policies are formulated in the dark rooms of two politburos, we will never succeed. When we put our national interest above partisan interests, then we will be successful.

The impotence of the KRG leadership’s policy-making can be transformed into powerful policy-making ONLY when KRG leaders think as KURDS and not as PARTY members.

kamalchomani@gmail.com