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By Mufid Abdulla:
The priorities of the KRG are the wrong way round. Is it too much to ask for us to be able to live in apartments that do not fall down; to drive on roads in our cities that are safe; to be able to go home and feel secure; for workers to feel safe in their work without materials falling on them and to have employment laws that reinforce this safety ; for pedestrians not to feel in danger while they are walking on the streets? Why can’t we feel safe in our hospitals when we go to see the doctor and get the proper treatment to which we are entitled as citizens of our country? Why can’t hard-working civil servants be sure that their wages have been calculated properly and that they have not been underpaid? Why can’t people get what they want by working hard and not have to face bribery and nepotism by friends or relatives of the two ruling parties?
We must also raise the question of whether people’s confidence in the police can be restored, especially after the events of 17th February 2011. We are endlessly told by the government’s apologists that the situation is different. But the recent events in Sulaymani and Hawler are bitter reminders that human pain and the human instinct for accountability are universal. Moreover they are the essential underpinnings of a good economy and society. There will be a Kurdish spring of change, and sooner than anyone expects. We need a leadership to wipe out the inequality which is thriving in our society.
What is going on in Kurdistan reflects the knowledge and intentions of the President of Kurdistan. We have reviewed some documents from the audit office in Hawler, which were recently obtained by a journalist and published in local newspapers. The original purpose of the audit office in Hawler and Sulaymani was to tackle widespread corruption.
On 21st March this year the President of Kurdistan declared the first phase of the government reform programme with regard to leasehold properties. This announcement highlighted that many of these properties had been misused by the people who obtained them in the Hawler area. However, this was not something that the government had just discovered.
The audit office documents, dated April 2007 and Dec 2006 (No’s 30 and 36), contain more than 16 pages addressed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Tourism unveiling the corruption in the leasehold policy which was designed by the Committee of Ministers. The audit office detailed how leasehold properties provided for agricultural purposes were being converted to commercial land and sold for big profits. These documents were signed by the director of the audit office, Gergiz Hassan. They indicate that the President of Kurdistan already had knowledge of this corruption: so why not raise it until March 2011? The main reason appears to be as a means to silence the uprising of the people and to claim that the President of Kurdistan is not a part of this corruption.
According to a survey and recent research in Hawler, the price of houses has increased by 10-15%, which many people see as being due to government activity to stimulate the market values of these pieces of land and properties.
My questions to our President are as follows.
First, how was it possible for him not to tackle the corruption that was unveiled by the audit office more than four years ago, particularly since this office is sponsored by the KRG – and why did he not stop it spreading further?
Second, does he not agree that, when talking about reform and change, this necessitates a change in the management structure rather than just the faces of a few managers?
The only way to defeat the plots of corrupt investors and political figures is through a strong, democratic leadership which can uphold fair laws for our nation as a whole and not special laws for the privileged few.
