|
Iraq: Flourishing corruption under
American occupation
26.6.2008
By Rauf Naqishbendi
|
|
|
June
26, 2008
In the life of any nation, there is no substitute
for effective, positive leadership. Good leaders can
lift a nation from despair and disappointment to
hope and a re-kindling of what is possible. On the
other hand, ineffective, poor leadership can burden
a healthy nation with overwhelming difficulties. For
nations already on the precipice, the ascendancy of
poor leadership can be a fatal prescription, ruinous
to the country. A case in point is the flourishing
corruption in Iraq under American occupation, and
the mediocre Iraqi Kurdish leadership. The corrupt
behavior of Kurdish leaders casts gloom on the
future of the Kurds. Nowhere is this more
conspicuously manifested than in the pursuit of
monetary gain at the expense of the rights of the
Kurdish people. |
Rauf Naqishbendi |
Now, the two leaders
have created a system whereby each is leading their
own political party. To safeguard against any
dissension in the rank and file, they cherry picked
members of their executive committee from amongst
their loyal friends, and members of their own
families. These two political parties have control
over every resource. They also control an
iron-fisted militia, so that no one can effectively
challenge or dispute their legitimacy. Ironically,
despite their dictatorial rule, they call themselves
democratic.
In a democratic system the head of state is bound by
the law of land. He cannot siphon state's revenue
into his own personal account. He is allotted a
stipend and perquisites approved by lawmakers.
Barzani has, for more than a decade,www.ekurd.net
sealed his account from
public examination. He treats the people's treasury
as his own and believes it is his inherited birth
right. Democracy, in Mr. Barzani’s view, has no room
for social and national obligations and
responsibilities. Democracy is the recognition that
he is the undisputed ultimate leader. As for his
constituents, people are free to agree and bow to
him. Furthermore, he places the prestige, power and
interest of his clan ahead of the interests of the
people.
The Bush Administration, with all its intelligence
resources, has known that Barzani, for a decade, was
taxing Iraqi oil in Ibrahim Khalil (the oil
pipelines passed through Kurdistan to Turkey) and
siphoning the money into his own coffer. No one
could ever account for the billions of dollars he
collected. What should have been a public accounting
record remained as his secret personal account. Now,
add to that the billions of dollars Mr. Barzani has
received since the occupation, again with no public
record.
In every democratic civil society, lawmakers are
mandated to endorse a budget and disburse funds to
government agencies in order to finance social
programs. But there is no such process in the
Kurdistan region. American administrators in Iraq
have been handing over the entire Kurdistan region
budget to Talabani and Barzani to share it equally
amongst themselves. That would never fly in American
and it should not have been condoned in Iraq.
The budget for the Kurdistan region should have been
entrusted to a committee of responsible Kurdish
citizens not affiliated with the dominant political
parties. In essence, the current prevailing
corruption is because of America’s mismanagement in
administering Iraqi affairs, and emboldening corrupt
leaders to prey on the public interest. This is how
Kurdish leaders are ‘managing’ the Kurdistan region.
Leaders of the Arab regions of Iraq are even worse.
Budgetary administration is a telling story of the
U.S’s failed mission in Iraq. We created a corrupted
system in Iraq, which is by far more corrupt than
that of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and unprecedented
in Iraq’s history. Yet our young men and women are
asked to sacrifice their lives in the name of
national security and freedom for the Iraqi people.
Instead, we have created an environment where Iraq's
corrupt leaders, both Kurds and Arabs, are advancing
their pursuance for power and prestige while
ignoring the real needs of the people. At the same
time, Iraq resembles a death trap for our troops.
Iraq has not hindered pumping oil to the world
market. It gets a formidable revenue from exporting
its oil. Moreover, the Unites States has been
contributing tens of billions of dollars to
rebuilding and reconstructing Iraq. There should be
a system of accountability regarding what has
happened to those funds and into whose coffer they
have gone. The funds certainly have not gone into
rebuilding the infrastructure. There is not yet
adequate utility service such as clean drinking
water and electricity in the entire country. In fact
public services,www.ekurd.net
even with the economic
blockade during Saddam’s regime, were far more
efficient than that under American occupation.
Though Iraq is an oil producing country, there is a
shortage of gasoline and home heating oil and
sometimes people have to resort to the black market
to obtain these necessities at exaggerated prices.
These deficiencies must be laid at the doorstep of
the U.S. administration in Iraq in combination with
corrupt Iraqi leadership.
In Kurdistan, the two leaders are not accountable to
questioning by parliament or any institution, for
they are kings, and they are the law unto
themselves. In a true civil society, the head of
state is accountable for his action, and major
deflections from the course desired by the people
can warrant impeachment by the lawmakers. If
Kurdistan were a civil society with a system of real
accountability, these Kurdish leaders would have
been impeached a long time ago and branded as the
criminals they are, with the mark disgrace
discrediting their political life. The Kurdistan
Regional Government has been formed. The idea may be
real in Kurdistan, for it resembles a government
with all government attributes. But it is an
illusion because it has no clear border, thanks to
the Kurdish leadership. It is unrecognized by the
world and cannot be located on a world map. The
Kurdish dream has always been to have their own
government. If Kurdish leaders were conscious of
their peoples? Will and dreams, a real Kurdish state
would have been their impetus to lead, instead of
being so driven by power and selfish monetary
considerations. If there is going to be a real
Kurdish future, the rule of these kings must come to
an end.
Rauf Naqishbendi is a contributing columnist for
Kurdish Websites, American Chronicle and has written Op/Ed pages for the Los Angeles
Times. He has just completed his memoirs entitled
"The Garden Of The Poets" which reads as a novel
depicting his experience and the subsequent 1988
bombing of his hometown with chemical and biological
weapons by Saddam Hussein. It is the story of his
people's suffering. Rauf Naqishbendi is a software
engineer in San Francisco Bay Area.
The contents of this article reflect the author's
personal opinions, and we accept no responsibility
for the views or opinions expressed in the articles
either direct or indirect.
Copyright, respective author or news agency
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 