Neither Barzani nor Maliki

Kamal Chomani

By Kamal Chomani:

Although the recent political tensions between Baghdad and Hawler are, more or less, problems between Masoud Barzani, the Kurdistan Region’s President, and Nouri Al-Maliki, Iraq’s Premier, ultimately they may explode into violence. Iraqi people – those who love peace and coexistence – do not want to see Arabs killed by Kurds or Kurds killed by Arabs. Those who do, should be damned!

In our region, Kurdistan, we have two ruling parties that have controlled everything. People are fed up with them, due to the corruption, nepotism and undemocratic rule. At the same time, we are more developed than other parts of Iraq. So – if Kurds are fed up with our authorities – Arabs in other parts of Iraq are even more unhappy with the reign of Al-Maliki. In brief – in terms of corruption, nepotism, monopolizing the markets, undemocratic rule and human rights violations – Masoud Barzani and Nouri Al-Maliki are two sides of the same coin.

Al-Maliki is doing his best to be another Saddam. He has already started assimilating his political rivals. He has taken control of the security forces, Intelligence Corporation, military and executive power and even the judiciary. What did Saddam have in his hands that Mr Maliki does not have now?

For his part, Barzani has done the same. The Peshmarga forces with which Barzani wants to defend Kurdistan are the same forces that killed innocent Kurdish protesters in Slemani last year when they demanded an end to corruption and nepotism. I have already written some articles about this, and I do not want to repeat myself.

I believe most readers surely know who Barzani and Maliki really are.

So what’s important for Iraqi people to do in the current situation?

Of course, if Iraq’s army intends to occupy Kirkuk and the disputed areas, Kurdish people must certainly defend their land. We have shed a river of blood to change the regime; we never want to be under another regime that seeks to take us back to the 1980s. Meantime, it is not our ambition to have any conflicts with Arabs in Iraq. If a political party or leader has some personal problems with another Arab leader, why should all the people pay the price!

For all Iraqis – Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Shi’as, Sunnis, Christians and Assyrians and so on – it is important to have better public services, a better education system and health care, better transportation and roads, better universities and real security. We all want these minimal ‘luxuries’ that people elsewhere enjoy. It is absurd that people lack drinking water, but they want another war between Kurds and Arabs!

It is a shameful that the Iraqi people have not tried to put an end to their politicians’ dirty ambitions. Meantime, it is a big disgrace on the politicians that, while they have no projects to serve the people, they pursue dozens of conflicts for power.

I believe that Barzani and Maliki are inter-dependent because each uses the other to boost their own popularity. And neither threatens the other because, simply, Maliki will never have supporters in the Kurdish region and Barzani will never have any in the Arab territories. The harsher is Maliki towards the Kurds and Kurdistan, the more his clout with nationalist Arabs and former Ba’athist remnants invigorates. Similarly, the more violent is Barzani’s rhetoric against Maliki, the stronger grows his clout with the common people, who do not understand these political conflicts.

Barzani and Maliki are the main cause of their respective territories’ problems. Their people want radical change. Both leaders need these external conflicts to conceal their failures in governance.

Maliki even betrayed Talabani, just to strengthen his clout with Sunni Arabs because Iraq is getting closer to the local elections.  Although he had promised Talabani to stop Dijla Operations Command, in reality he advanced it.

The problematic thing is that, even though we know all these things, nonetheless, because we have already experienced them, when it comes to ethnic conflicts, we all behave the same.

Eventually, we will see Barzani and Maliki shake hands and smile with each other. So people should be more curious and serious. Neither Barzani nor Maliki are concerned about the people, they are just concerned about their power. In a power struggle, it is always the people who are victimized. The people of Iraq have been victims for decades: It’s time to live in peace if Maliki and Barzani will leave them alone.

kamalchomani@gmail.com

Copyright © 2012 Kurdistantribune.com

6 Responses to Neither Barzani nor Maliki
  1. Ari Ali
    November 23, 2012 | 11:52

    I could not agree more . Thank you Kamal and keep up the good work

  2. Re da Caste
    November 23, 2012 | 13:18

    I’m surprised to read this article in this situation. What I understand the kurdish fight right now is to uphold the kurdish entity and autonomy against a new dictator in Baghdad. In this fight all kurds must be united, not only Talabani and Barzani. When this fight has been won, then remains the other fight for full democratics rights, against corruption, etc. To write today Maliki and Barzani are the same corn is completely mad!

  3. kuvan
    November 23, 2012 | 20:10

    The main problem for all this tension in the region is not about Barzani and Maliki ,but about Iran and the rest of the world.Almalki government gets thier orders from the mullah regime of Iran .iraqi government,syrian,hamas and hezbullah of lebonan are one allies and thier fates is intertwind which it means they survive together and die together.But the head of the snake is Iranian regime.Once the head of the snake is cut than peace will emerge in the whole region.The world must do everything possible to either convince the Mullah regime to either change thier system and constitution and replace it with a democratic libral one where every iranian group ,sect and ethncity can have a share in the power or else they will eventually be removed by the force of stick.

  4. S. Omar
    November 24, 2012 | 16:04

    Kamal, of course nobody wants to see anybody killed, but be careful with the narrative being relayed to you by the news and the mass media. I don’t think anyone will be killed (inshaAllah I am correct in this!) because I don’t think anything is actually going to happen.

    Barzani and Maliki are, of course, the ‘most important’ people in Iraq at the moment. Talabani is only ceremonial and serves no real purpose. Anyway, the crux of the matter is that both Maliki and Barzani have failed the people…badly. Barzani’s government is rife with corruption and nepotism, and Maliki’s is the same but with more thieves stealing from the kitty. I salute the security of Kurdistan, but in the rest of Iraq, the security situation, water and electricity are problems the innocent civilians want addressing, and Maliki has never addressed these at all. That is why he is blaming anyone but himself and why he wants Tariq Al-Hashimi to stand trial / be executed. Al-Hashimi is Maliki’s scapegoat for failure. Of course, there are sectarian reasons behind it as well. Barzani also plays the victim card and claims that his rights are being taken away from him. He has never explained what these rights are and what they relate to. Maybe it’s the right to have more money for himself.

    I’ll mention something else: recently when the Palestinians were being butchered, most people were unaware of the fact that elections are looming in Isra-hell. In fact, every time that nasty entity butchers civilians in a massive operation, it precedes an election. Check your history if you think I’m making this up. Likewise, America needed a general morale boost in light of their economic doom, and support for the invasion of Libya. The government, liars as they are, then wheeled out the lie that Bin Laden had been killed. The gullible masses rejoiced and their self-esteem was boosted instantly. Sometimes worse things, like atrocities, are carried out and we are made to believe it was anyone but the government behind it. That would be a ‘false flag’. Lots have happened throughout mankind’s existence on this planet, and here is no different.

    The same is now happening in Iraq. Elections are coming up soon and two primary figures have not managed to address the concerns of citizens. This ‘Dijla’ nonsense is a smokescreen and a lie so that Barzani and his cronies can rally support for their nasty political careers and the billions of dinars they can make out of it. Meanwhile in Baghdad, Maliki wants to blame anyone else but himself for the mess Iraq is in and again detract negative publicity and attention because, apparently, he is trying to defend Iraq’s unity.

    I bet Maliki and Barzani are busy sipping champagne and laughing as the masses get themselves worked up over absolutely nothing.

    Power corrupts everywhere in every nation on Earth.

    • Re da Caste
      November 25, 2012 | 15:22

      This is like saying Churchill and Hitler were best friends and both enimies of their people! I do recognize these ideas from the extrem left in the sixties. But as the people despised these ideas then, the kurdish people will despise them now.

  5. Kourosh Abdi
    November 26, 2012 | 20:54

    I believe that your comments come from a personal sense of hate. Barzani must be tough otherwise Maliki will be another Saddam. There is no personal problem independent from national problems. You’ve come up with a lot of allegation that are backed by no proofs.

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