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KNOWN AS THE "terrible child" of the Iraqi Kurdish national movement, Nawshirwan
Mustafa had risen to the highest reachable position in Suleimania. He was a member of the
political bureau and deputy secretary general of the PUK--the secretary general being none
other than Jalal Talabani, who is at the same time president of the Republic of Iraq and the
lifelong head of PUK--when he decided in February 2007 to resign and become a 'simple
militant'. A simple militant who is publishing a newspaper, Rozhnama, coupled with a popular
website, in which he says loudly what many people dare not even whisper, and who is now
preparing to launch a satellite TV station, KNNC (Kurdish News Network Channel) to bring
news but "no singing and dancing", he asserts with conviction.
"The time has come to focus on internal issues," Mustafa states at his house in Suleimania. "But
I am saying what I have to say with a friendly voice. I am not in opposition. I have good
relations with both Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani--head of the Kurdish Democratic Party
(KDP). We all talk together. I am their friend, not their enemy. I want to make reforms in the
government, the parliament, and in the bureaucracy. It is better, when there are problems, to
discuss them." The first challenge, Mustafa says, is the lack of services: the Kurds have been
their own rulers for 17 years, but they still have certain issues to address. Currently a severe
shortage of electricity hampers Kurds from going about their daily business. The government
provides only about one hour of electricity per day; those who can afford it, buy seven or eight
hours of electricity from the owners of private generators, others must manage without power.
Water is also an acute problem, as demonstrated by the recent cholera epidemic in Suleimania.
There is also a severe shortage of housing. Rents are skyrocketing and young people cannot
afford to marry unless they are prepared to live with their parents. Infrastructural development
is lagging behind and there is a shortage of schools, even in big cities: "In Suleimania, we have
schools running with four shifts. How is this possible when the budget for the Kurdish region is
$6bn?" questions Mustafa, echoing a widely popular feeling.
Ads
Another problem, adds Mustafa, is the lack of transparency in the running of government
affairs. "There is no transparency on budgetary matters. Ordinary people do not know anything
about the budget of KDP and PUK or the budget for educa tion. What do people know about
the oil contracts? And there is no transparency on foreign affairs: nobody knows what is going
on between the Kurdish leaders and Baghdad, or between the Kurdish leaders and the
Americans."
"I know about the budget because I was part of the leadership, I was one of them," he notes,
adding: "But I cannot tell you because I do not want to make trouble. Again, I stress, I am not
the enemy of Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani but I do want them to make things public. It is
in their favour to do so. I want to instil in public opinion a real desire for reform."
Mustafa goes on to identify the most serious problem facing Kurdish society as corruption. "I
am not only speaking of bribery, but also of cronyism and nepotism," he says, adding: "Unless
you are close to one of the parties (PUK and KDP), you have no chance of being a minister or a
deputy minister. The parties are interfering in the media and the judiciary. The judges are
appointed by the parties. The parties control everything in the society. We are in a totalitarian
system, like in the former Soviet bloc or the Romania of old.
"Of course, I am proud of what we have accomplished; we have a government, a parliament.
But now is the right time to speak out about our problems. The party is appointing everybody,
from village heads to the governors of the provinces, even the heads of the universities," says
Mustafa echoing a grievance felt by much of the population, from disfranchised young students
to sceptical journalists.
Mustafa claims that even the acceptance of students for PhD courses depends on the party. "Not
only is it necessary to be a member of the party, but it is necessary to have somebody inside the
leadership supporting you." In Suleimania, the office of democratic organisations controls all
the jobs in the trade unions. "Even the prime minister did not choose his ministers," claims
Mustafa, "the parties did--fractions and blocs inside the parties."
Claiming that there is a 100-fold difference between the highest salaries and the lowest salaries
in the government, the former leader of Komala, a Maoist Kurdish organisation, observes: "Our
society is divided into two different classes ... We now have a very rich class and a very poor
one in a society of freedom fighters turned statesmen."
Asked why the PUK did not nominate a candidate for the post of prime minister of the
Kurdistan Regional Government last autumn, as agreed by KDP and PUK in their "strategic
agreement", and why the PUK accepted that the KDP's Nechirvan Barzani remained prime
minister," Mustafa surprisingly backs off and declines to comment: "I was one of the founders
of PUK in 1976, so I do not want to speak out about certain problems ... I have some moral
commitments."
He only volunteers, "The people do not care who is prime minister. They want someone who
can provide services and social justice. The people expected that after the unification of the
Kurdish PUK and KDP administrations, there would be change. But there is no change."
"There is no opposition in Kurdistan," muses Mustafa. "All the political parties, big and small,
participate in the government. It was necessary to speak with one voice in Baghdad until the
Iraqi constitution was written. Now however the time to speak up has come.
"Born in 1944, I joined KDP in 1961, at the age of 17, when Jalal Talabani opened the KDP
legal office in Suleimania, under Kassem. We are the lucky generation; we saw the victory and
the freedom of our country. Sheikh Mahmoud was banned from his home town for 40 years.
Sheikh Said and Qazi Mohammed were hanged. General Barzani died in exile. We are the lords
of our country."
COPYRIGHT 2008 IC Publications Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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