Who betrayed the Spring 2011 uprising?

By Mufid Abdulla:

At the end of the very first day of the demonstrations, on 17th February 2011, some rioters had violence on their minds and changed the direction of the demonstrations to the KDP 4th Branch in Sulaymani city. Storming the branch resulted in the response of a shower of bullets. One person was killed and hundreds were injured. The following day the permanent uprising was born in Azadi Square in the downtown district of Sulaymani. It continued until the end of April. The mass of the people from all walks of life participated in the political rallies. Military intervention was justified by the KDP and PUK, and the uprising was destroyed. Most of the leaders of the uprising have been captured, tortured and seriously injured. The question is: who betrayed the masses who came to Saray Azadi?

The two main actors behind this uprising were a group of intellectuals and elements of the  opposition parties. Some of these intellectuals now live in Holland, Germany and London and, when they came back, ordinary people saluted them like heroes. However, what they did not realise is that some are bankrupt personalities who cannot achieve anything for themselves in Europe or for their nation. Extraordinary photos of them were taken and displayed in Saray Azadi; that is what they wanted. The main focus of the media in Sulaymani was on these small numbers of people who call themselves intellectuals and yet these people have not displayed the lofty moral qualities and the positive characteristics of the ordinary people. These self-proclaimed intellectuals have actually distanced themselves from the opposition groups. The fraught relationship between these intellectuals and opposition groups can be explained partly by mutual misunderstandings. The grassroots scepticism also stems from a bitter experience, the same people feel duped by these intellectuals and the opposition.

To me this is nothing apart from bungled attempts at nation-building. A group of these intellectuals wanted to be seen as the leaders of the uprising, whilst another group wanted to mediate with the two ruling parties.

The main leader of the uprising, Faruk Rafiq, was independent from day one but that is not what the opposition wanted. On the very first day everybody knew the road ahead was long and difficult and there have been many attempts to abort, obstruct or derail the movement.

All of us must recognise that the assault by PUK forces on Saray Azadi was not the end of the road. Instead it was the beginning of the long and difficult path to remove the current rulers.

Edward Said wrote about, “Defeating the posed silence and normalising the quiet of power.” The opposition’s involvement was vague and unclaimed from the beginning of the atrocities of 17th February. But the opposition has yet again failed to land a punch on Barzani over these atrocities. At present, the opposition is boring, and even embarrassing, particularly when I discovered that Gorran’s tactics were calculated on the basis of reacting to the KRG, without any broad line or strategy. On 29th January, they called for the dissolving of the Government, without having a strategic plan of how they were going to achieve this – by street protests or Parliament. At the same time the two Islamic opposition parties used Saray Azadi to hold mass prayer meetings which only served to confuse the broad population as to the real purpose of the uprising. Overall the opposition’s approach was half-baked.

The opposition and the intellectuals did not have one unified objective. Instead each actor tried to become the centre of attention and in this way they failed to achieve the main objective which was the dissolution of the cabinet and KRG.

Since the day that this nation arose against Saddam’s security forces in 1991 and demolished all of his security apparatus, this nation has never experienced a democratic state to provide hope for the majority of the people and not just for the minority. We have never experienced how it is to have a President who has not come from that particular clan and family or to have an election without fraud and intimidation. We have never experienced a peaceful dialogue between parties without threats and the burning of their headquarters. It seems unthinkable to introduce democracy in the south of Kurdistan, but we are not far from it, our countryside is more conscious than 10 years ago.

We need to learn from our mistakes and lost opportunities and remove the autocracy that is causing the darkness, confusion, civil war and poverty amongst our people. Kurdistan is a tough place for democracy. However, recent events in other countries across the Middle East have demonstrated to the world the immense power that the masses of people can have when they come together for a unified cause. This is what we need to keep in our minds and hearts: we are all striving for the same cause, for a free and democratic society, and together this can be achieved.

Copyright © 2011 Kurdistantribune.com

 

3 Responses to Who betrayed the Spring 2011 uprising?
  1. Baqi Barzani
    December 17, 2011 | 22:17

    The main factors for 2011 botched uprising:

    1) Lack of a united, definite objective

    2) Lack of necessary prior coordination among diverse participating role players.

    3) Lack of adequate independent media outlets to mirror the truth

    4) Nushirvan Mustafa’s covert haggles/negotiations with KDP

    5) Non-distribution of equal of focus and efforts in other strategic locations in SoK, especially the capital city of ‘ Halwer’ despite period knowledge and prediction of KDP’s reactions.

    6) Secret role of CIA and US Intel services in disrupting coordination and communication maneuvers and sharing them with KRG

    The time was ripe, and so was the public geared up. Some new guys should have led the way, not the vets.

    There will more of these uprisings. It is just the matter of time, unless KRG really starts addressing publics concerns. And sometimes is required for that to transpire.

  2. Haval
    December 18, 2011 | 13:13

    Baqi Remark as usual incredible.Yes it is true the CIA and US always in contact with the opposition leaders by visiting their offices and give them the false impression that US is advocating the democracy and freedom for the Kurds in the south of Kurdistan.As far as the history concern the US,looking for their own interest,nothing else .Another important point is that the media role it wasnt the clean one .

  3. sam
    December 18, 2011 | 14:58

    we have to indentify so many factors hasing impact on the movement.The main factor as mufid elaborated is the role of the intellectuals such as Bahktiar ali,Aras fatah and Rebin Hardy.As the uprising proggressed these intellectual they forgot what they coming for .they become very populist and they lost the main slogan for the revolution .As Baqi said this will hapen again as much as these people in KRG are unable to handle the current crises.

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