Review of Nawshirwan Mustafa’s book ‘Treasures and Deceptions’

By Mufid Abdulla:

‘Treasures and Deceptions’ is the latest book by Nawshirwan Mustafa, the principal leader of the Gorran movement. This book contains a series of articles and speeches which have been printed on Gorran’s own website and the KNN broadcasting station. The book has been printed in Sulaymani and is dated 2011. The 67-year-old leader tells us that over the past three-and-a-half decades his struggles have made him a household name for the anti-corruption struggle. He may have succeeded beyond his expectations.

The title of the book comes from his argument that the two ruling parties have a lot of money to give away and, at the same time, they are lying about the reality of Kurdistan and what is actually happening on the ground. Nawshirwan Mustafa has collated both aspects  – treasures and deceptions – as representing the tools for the two ruling parties’ survival up to now.

The speeches and interviews in the book tell us of a new model of non-violent struggle in striving for change in the south of Kurdistan. Throughout the book, Nawshirwan Mustafa has challenged the two ruling parties, not through armed struggle but through dialogue and understanding. This was the reason why I was not surprised at his accepting the meeting with the President of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, even though he has been criticised for this by many Gorran grassroots participants. Some views of Nawshirwan Mustafa refer to his insistence on long, patient and nonviolent action as a handicap which ensures defeat: and it is true he has not yet led his revolution to triumph. But this does not mean that the democracy struggle has run out of ammunition or that Nawshirwan has lost his struggle and cause with the two ruling parties. Despite all of the hurdles and the marginalisation of his democratic party on the political front, his impact on our society has been profoundly rich and important. A 55-year-old woman told me: “If it was not for Gorran, the KRG would not have come to my village and done essential maintenance to the roads and streets”. A 22-year-old student told me: “Without the presence of Gorran, Massoud Barzani could be in a very different position.” There are similar stories from other people.

The defining moment for Nawshirwan Mustafa was in July 2009 when, after declaring the Gorran movement, he won 25 seats. When he made several speeches for democracy and freedom, people saw this as their main hope for change after years of corruption by the two ruling parties. Beguilingly gentle and soft spoken he may be, but Nawshirwan Mustafa has never faltered from his decision to put his commitment to his people before everything, even his family life. Ironically, his enemies underestimate this, and they never thought his leadership could win such a great deal in such a short time.

He poses these questions to Hushyar Abdulla, the KNN programme leader, in his interview on page 5: “How many atrocities have been carried out under the name of Freedom? How many atrocities have been carried out under the name of democracy? And, I will add further, to question how many atrocities have been carried out under the claim that our institution in the south of Kurdistan is infant and that we should not criticise because our experience will be jeopardised. This is nonsense, we set up our institution 20 years ago so we cannot call it an infant, surely it has reached the age of adolescence and is no longer an infant.”

In another part of the book he renews his support of this new generation which he has had experience of during his period of involvement with the politics of the KRG. He was asked by another interviewer about his opinion of the recent uprising after 17^th February 2011 and without hesitation he told them:

“We are not telling the protesters they are rioters, we never said they are rioters. But we argued from the very first day when the law of demonstration came to the Parliament, we advocated that the law can be a subject to modern society for demonstration. We believe that demonstration is the simple right of our citizens, it is another way for expressing their anger.” He continued by saying that the “protesters are people who have legitimate demands which the two ruling parties should listen to, instead of the defamation attempts to their efforts, the two ruling parties should meet their demands” (page 20).

He further analysed that he has learnt a lot since those events took place in several aspects such as the political, non-political, and cultural consequences and he goes on to say on page 41:

“Every political movement in the world has to be backed by a group of people; a group of intellectuals; a group of university teachers; a group of intellectuals and scholars; they need a group of journalists and thinkers. Unfortunately, the experience in the south of Kurdistan has taught us that the party political parties have become a magnet for the group of corrupted politicians, journalists and intellectuals, which in the case of these political parties have bought their conscience for money, given them cars, areas of land and high salaries. These groups of people have been used by these parties any time they wanted against another political party. In reality these parties must have unique thinkers who are thinking the unthinkable. They should have given true participation to the political movement.”

On the 29^th January 2011, the Gorran party issued statements calling for the dissolution of the Parliament and the government because of the crises heading their way which were left without any solutions; with the consequence of those statements affecting even the Kurdistan banking system. All the cash was withdrawn and the two ruling parties used that statement as an excuse to move their militias to areas near the Gorran party’s headquarters. The KNN TV station asked the Gorran Leader why this statement was issued and, in his reply on page 55, he stated:

“We believe Kurdistan is going through profound political, social and cultural crises and these have different aspects. We believe that the people responsible for these crises, who are not managing to solve them, are mainly those involved in the two ruling parties. The two ruling parties always have their own scenario for different events and their scenario is for prolonging their power. But we have our own scenario on how to solve these crises and ways to get out of them. Our scenario contains a political scenario for solving the profound crisis which has been facing the south of Kurdistan. We are refuting all of the allegations about this statement – that it was an attempt at a military coup and distorting the political situation in Kurdistan.”

He continues on the same page to say: “We all know in the last few months the election has taken place in Iraq and several times the political parties have called for the Maliki government to be dissolved and replaced with a technocrat government. Furthermore, several times they have called for the dissolution of the Iraqi parliament and nobody has called them bad names such as that these political parties are attempting a military coup and plot and they have not accused them of any treason or anything else. In our statement on 29^th Jan 2011, we outlined what we thought would have been the best scenario for solving the south of Kurdistan’s crises. And the language they used in response to our statement surprised me very much, because it was uncivilised and accused us of attempting to distort the Kurdistan situation. I considered that response to be the most backward language for these two ruling parties. These types of words are more slanderous than anything else. I thought they would go back and consider their own research and they would come up with an alternative.”

When the Gorran party won 25 seats in the Kurdistan Parliament its aim and objectives were to participate in the government and get closer to power by political means. The Gorran movement was not born for the sake of criticism but it was born for the sake of change in the political landscape of Kurdistan. That was the reason for the Gorran leader advocating the plans and strategies which have been making the Gorran party able to govern and not just campaign. He states that: “From the beginning we established the political programme, and that programme was not only to criticise the two ruling parties, but to come to power by political means through election. In that way we can practice our programme for our lives in the realms of the political, social and cultural; all programmes which can be implemented. In the same way we want to win the election for the local councils, we can implement our aims and programmes” (page 75).

In Nawshirwan Mustafa’s latest collection he further emphasises his belief in the decentralisation of the political system and he advocates the unity of all political parties on national issues. Furthermore, he believes that unity can be achieved by political competition. He always concentrates on the way of managing our country and has this as his priority: “Changing the face of power does not have any impact but a change should be in the way we are governing our country.”

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