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| Iraq |
| Kurdistan's democracy at risk |
| 2015-10-16 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan sacked five ministers from the Gorran party following a week of anti-government protests. It is not uncommon for minsters to be sacked in Europe, for example, but what is uncommon are the events that followed the sackings, which have set a dangerous precedent for Kurdistan's relative stability and democracy. The spokesperson for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has claimed that the protests were orchestrated by Gorran to undermine the government. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... no investigation has been carried out to verify the claim. More importantly, following the sackings parliament speaker Yusif Muhammed of Gorran was prevented from entering the Kurdish capital by forces belonging to the KDP-led coalition government. Public needs The government has not paid enough attention to the demands of the public. Demonstrators called for salaries that have not been paid for the past four months, due to the region not receiving its annual share of the budget from Baghdad. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... critics say the Kurdish government can pay the salaries of civil servants because it exports an average of 600,000 barrels of oil per day to ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , according to the latter's minister of energy and natural resources, Taner Yildiz. Iraqi Kurdistan does not face a threat of civil war, which it experienced in the mid-1990s. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... in expelling an important partner from the coalition government, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani faces difficulties in rebuilding public trust, satisfying public needs, paying the salaries of civil servants, and avoiding further tensions. It is possible that Gorran will become a forceful opposition group, or the parties may find a compromise, though this seems less likely. The coming weeks will likely see more political bickering, at a time when the Kurdish government wants to bypass Baghdad in receiving U.S. military support to fight the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). If the demands of protesters are further ignored, resentment and anger toward the government will heighten. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Test for name |
| Posted by: Sherry 2015-10-16 00:40 |