Here's the transcript of a discussion among politically active Iraqis, some of whom may end up being its future leaders. Very interesting. Part I:
opendemocracy.net
Iraq in the balance
openDemocracy
3 - 6 - 2004
Iraqis are engaged in an intense national debate about the way they will now govern themselves. In this period of uncertainty, expectation and continued insurgency, six Iraqis discussed how they should shape their country’s future, its relationships with occupiers and neighbours, in mid–May, before the new government was formed.
This text is based on a roundtable discussion in the London office of openDemocracy on 17 May 2004, with Anthony Barnett and Caspar Henderson.
openDemocracy: The voices of most people outside the rich metropolitan centres of power are seldom heard in international discussions on topics of vital global concern. But people in the majority world should have a say – not only via formulaic mechanisms like opinion polling, but as equal and active partners, both with each other and with those in the centres of power in the west. This week’s roundtable of voices from Iraq exemplifies one reason why openDemocracy.net exists – to widen the community of influence for people who otherwise have no access to the power centres of the larger world. It’s an investment in the human future – theirs, yours, ours.
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Today, we in the world outside Iraq seldom if ever hear Iraqis debate among themselves over the future of their country. In facilitating this process in a modest way at openDemocracy, a key principle – in the Iraqi context as elsewhere – is willingness to listen to another’s point of view.
The Iraq dialogue hosted by openDemocracy is, then, part of a wider attempt to ensure that decisions about national and global governance always include the voices and experiences of those most affected.
It is particularly important to emphasise this in relation to Iraq, because Iraq is so often seen through the lens of American and (more broadly) western experience; whereas, from the standpoint of Iraq, America and the outside world – including the country’s neighbours and region – is part of Iraqi reality. How will Iraqis “manage” this reality, as well as addressing their country’s severe internal problems of governance and development, in the weeks and months ahead? What are the different views on these crucial questions?
To start, please could each of you in turn briefly outline your background, what you thought about the United States–led invasion and whether your views have now changed?
The six Iraqi roundtable participants are:
Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, Professor of Clinical Microbiology, University Hospital, Nottingham, England – and founder of the Kurdish Scientific and Medical Association
Hayder al–Fekaiki, founder of the non–governmental organisation Iraq Volunteer, an IT consultant and director of Iraqisport
Yousif al–Khoei, director of the Al–Khoei Foundation, London
Maysoon Pachachi, director of Oxymoron Films and a founder of Act Together: Women against Sanctions and War on Iraq
Ahmed Shames, chair of Iraqi Prospect Organisation
Sami Zubaida, Emeritus Professor of Politics and Sociology, Birkbeck College, London
Where I’m coming from
Dlawer Ala’Aldeen: I am Kurdish. I was brought up in Irbil, studied medicine in Baghdad, worked in Mosul and Irbil before arriving in Britain in 1984. I am a clinician and a university professor. As a human right activist I have worked with Iraqi opposition groups on defending victims of chemical weapons, of the Anfal mass killings in Kurdistan and in the marsh areas of southern Iraq. I am a founder of the Kurdish Scientific and Medical Association. I lobbied extensively in the United Kingdom and persuaded Margaret Thatcher to intervene with the British and US governments to create a safe haven for the Kurds after the 1991 uprising. Since then I have worked to help Iraqi universities in Iraq. Immediately after the fall of Saddam in April 2003 I went to Baghdad for five weeks to help with medical emergencies.
My view of last year’s war was shaped by the experiences of the past – in particular the Kurdish safe haven, which has been successful by and large, despite Kurdish infighting. I thought that because of the Iraqi people’s hunger for freedom, democracy and quality of life, the insurgencies and the few groups that are stirring problems would be very quickly controlled. This is where we all were wrong. Primarily the fault was with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) leaders who got carried away with their initial military success, ignored advice and as a consequence made strategic mistakes.
I’ve had plenty of opportunities to see both Iraqi politicians and CPA officials close up. So I have been able to observe closely the mentality behind the original plans and how things have changed. But irrespective of whether we Iraqis were pro – war or anti–war, the regime change became a reality for us to accommodate. The American administration had made a strategic decision to remove Saddam and establish new and permanent influence in the region. This was not subject to alteration by Iraqis. The day–to–day policies and tactics, however, were evolving with time.
This roundtable is part of openDemocracy’s “Iraqi voices” debate, which since September 2002 has included articles by Yasser Alaskary, Faleh Jabar, Rania Kashi, Tamara Chalabi, Ayub Nuri, Ghassan Atiyyah, and Reiad Jewad
Ahmed Shames: I was born in Baghdad in Iraq in 1975, left in 1996 and came to Britain. In early 2002 I co–founded the Iraqi Prospect Organisation (IPO), of which I am chairman. IPO is a group of young Iraqi men and women in exile which worked to promote the overthrow of the Ba’ath regime, and then the establishment of true democracy after regime change. We were in favour of military action to topple Saddam’s regime, because we saw it as the only possible way to end the dictatorship in Iraq. But we are not in favour of American occupation.
We moved into Baghdad in August 2003 where our main headquarters are now. And now we are working to promote both the establishment of a proportional democracy in Iraq and the involvement of young men and women in Iraqi politics. We do policy research. We are creating policy options for the future Iraq. We published a report about the Iraqi constitution, and one on different electoral systems and what is the best for Iraq.
Regarding the present situation, I feel that an Iraqi government could have been established much earlier, even that elections could have been held much earlier. We don’t regret anything, but now we are working to promote that Iraqis should actually be in charge of Iraq.
On my last trip to Iraq, two months ago, I met a lot of young people. Six or seven months previously they didn’t know much about democracy, now they have founded their own organisation calling for democracy, and are trying to educate others about it. My experience is limited but my impression is very much that the Iraqi people are ready to accept democracy, and that the people behind the violence are a very loud but also a very small minority. This leaves me guardedly optimistic.
An earlier dialogue at the London office of openDemocracy featured the scholar of Iraqi religious and social movements, Faleh Jabar, and Yasser Alaskary of the Iraqi Prospect Organisation; see “Iraq after Saddam: two generations in dialogue” (December 2002)
Hayder al–Fekaiki: I was born in Iraq and moved to the UK in 1979. I am an IT consultant by occupation and I represent a charity, Iraqi Volunteer, of which I’m a trustee. The charity’s aim is to engage Iraqis – abroad and inside the country – in political debate and in rebuilding Iraq. We also encourage Iraqis to look long and hard at Iraqi history and to take a sober view of the challenges that lie ahead. Iraqis must do this for themselves, rather than continue to leave the initiative in the hands of others.
I was born into a highly political family so I didn’t have any choice but to be politically “aware”! My starting point is that most debate – both before and after the war on Iraq and at all levels – has largely excluded the Iraqi voices. This is a shared issue, and resolving it requires a shared solution.
I think that war and occupation in all its forms is abhorrent, and unilateral regime change is a very dangerous precedent. But this does not negate the suffering of the Iraqi people under the Saddam regime and it does not negate the need to change oppressive regimes by force. Iraq is a shared international responsibility and its rescue is the duty of the international community in the form of the United Nations or another multilateral body. I believe that the international community bears the responsibility for regimes such as that of Saddam Hussein and must find effective mechanisms in preventing or changing such regimes.
openDemocracy: Has your view changed in the last year and a half?
Hayder al–Fekaiki: No. I think what we’ve seen since April 2003 is reasonably expected given the circumstances of war and occupation and the decades of violent regimes, socio–economic turmoil and chronic state of war that Iraqis had to endure. It is true that improvement is taking longer than expected, or had been hoped. But I think it’s unreasonable to expect life to change for the better any quicker, considering what Iraq has been through.
Sami Zubaida: I was born in Iraq, finished secondary school there, and then came to England, where I have lived most of my life. I am from a Jewish family, so difficulties even before Saddam were high. I was last in Baghdad over forty years ago.
Nevertheless, I have kept up with, and written about Iraqi culture and politics and the suffering of the Iraqi people. I have been active as a scholar of Iraq and the Middle East, but not active in politics. I was in favour of the recent US–led war because, despite all the problems, it was the only way I could see in which that nightmare regime could be ended.
I’ve changed my view a great deal. The American blunders – whether due to mere incompetence or a malicious mindset, especially in the last few weeks – have made me think again. We’ve caught a glimpse of an ugly American attitude towards Iraqis, not the naively benevolent view one had earlier.
As for the future, I don’t see anything good happening. Iraq needs and a majority wants a legitimate political process. But the only forces on the ground which seem to be successful are those trying to prevent a political process – from which they will not benefit. So I don’t see any prospect for a democratic and peaceful Iraq, at least not for a long time.
Maysoon Pachachi: I am an Iraqi filmmaker. I’ve lived in Britain for something like thirty–five years. I went back to Iraq about two months ago. I’ve always been interested in the lived experience of people, rather than the machinations of formal politics; my political involvement is at a grassroots level.
I made a film about Iraqi women in exile, shown on Channel 4 in Britain, and helped start a group of Iraqi and non–Iraqi women here in Britain, about four years ago, to campaign against the sanctions on Iraq which we felt were not harming the regime but the people and destroying the society. We also campaigned against the recent war.
Now I am making a documentary film about this moment in history, and helping to set up an independent film and television college in Baghdad to train young people in the basics of filmmaking so that they can actually make their own films.
What’s happening now is shocking to me, but not that surprising. Obviously, there’s a great sense of relief that Saddam is no longer there, but I always felt that a war and an occupation would be disastrous. But that’s the reality and we have to deal with it somehow.
Yousif al–Khoei: I was born in Iraq, studied secondary school in Baghdad and Najaf, and moved to England in 1976. In 1991 I joined the al–Khoei Foundation, founded by my grandfather. The foundation is an international Islamic charity and, amongst other humanitarian activities, we document human rights abuses, especially in the south, and I helped make the famous documentary Saddam’s Killing Fields in the early 1990s. I’ve been twice to Iraq since the end of the 2003 war.
Much of the suffering of the Iraqi people has been a result of the misguided policies of western powers. They actively helped Saddam in the 1980s and in 1991 they allowed him to crush the uprising. So I feel the west had a moral duty to the Iraqi people to remove the regime, and I couldn’t see any other prospect for doing this other than military action from outside.
openDemocracy’s Caspar Henderson visits London’s al–Khoei Foundation for a memorial meeting, and writes a vividly detailed report; see “Iraq’s past and future: remembering Sayyid Abdul Majid Khoei” (April 2004)
Have I changed my views? I agree that it could and should have been done better. The Americans don’t seem to have a coordinated policy. Recent events especially have not furthered the cause of democracy in the region.
America in an Iraqi lens
openDemocracy: Can the Americans open the way to democracy in Iraq?
Dlawer Ala’Aldeen: I have no illusions about why the Americans fought this war. Saddam and the other dictators in the greater Middle East, who were supported by both superpowers at different times, are products of the cold war, and the way the superpowers organised their security. That cold war is over. Now terrorism is enemy number one – to trade, to stability and to American influence. In the new era, people like Saddam are in the way or even add to the risks of terrorism, therefore they must go or adapt.
The Americans are in this new game for the long term and are determined to protect their interest in the region without relying on unstable dictators. They will not request permission from Iraqis, regional powers, Europeans or the United Nations. They have concluded that establishing some form of democracy and permanent American presence across the Middle East is the most secure way of fighting terrorism. They began the process with Iraq, with the hope that this will have a domino effect in the region. This means we have to think of the future of Iraq in this context as well as in the light of the regional complexity that the Americans have for so long underestimated.
Hayder al–Fekaiki: Yes, I agree with Dlawer, I think the Americans know exactly what they want. They certainly went into war with their eyes wide open. Iraq is a very big first step into a far–reaching mission that goes beyond Iraq.
Sami Zubaida: The Americans are in Iraq to stay, whether we like it or not. They want to establish military bases and to maintain Iraq in their sphere of influence. But as for the political system in Iraq, how they proceed becomes ever less certain the more violent and chaotic things become. I’m beginning to wonder whether, quite soon, the US will turn to a “son of Saddam”: a strong man and an authoritarian regime to control the country on its behalf.
There are other factors to take into account. Kurdish autonomy has been a success story for far. What influence will this have on the future of Iraq? Obviously the Kurdish enclave is not ideal, but it does have, at least to a degree, representative government with some democracy, pluralism and human rights – although with many violations as well. Unfortunately, it’s pretty clear that this cannot be expanded to the rest of Iraq.
Sami Zubaida writes on openDemocracy about Iraq, its history and current problems:
“The rise and fall of civil society in Iraq” (February 2003)
“The new Iraqi state: secular or religious?” (February 2004)
“Understanding the insurgencies in Iraq” (April 2004)
One thing that non–Kurdish Iraqis – the Arabs – seem so far to agree on is that they don’t want Kurdish autonomy. But there’s nothing they can do. Only the Americans can force the Kurds back into subservience to a central Iraqi authority. If the Americans were to leave Iraq, all sorts of violent forces could be released around the Kurdish question.
openDemocracy: Ahmed, do you agree? You’re trying to create a political process for peaceful democratic development.
Ahmed Shames: We will only get a “son of Saddam” if or when the Americans declare defeat in Iraq and, so far at least, I can’t see this happening. We Iraqis are lucky to have the world’s superpower on our side to try to build a genuine democracy, but because it’s the world’s superpower it comes with all the arrogance and the over–confidence attached to it.
I do think there is still a good prospect for democracy in Iraq. It will not happen tomorrow. It will not happen next year. But we can see the steps that are needed and that the acceptance also exists. What we need to do now is empower the majority that is still almost silent. The majority of Iraqis do not want to see violence. They do not want take the rights of others. They would rather live in a united, democratic Iraq.
Let me give you an example. We were on the phone yesterday to my wife’s family in Najaf. The great majority of people there are against Muqtada al–Sadr and his crew. These are the people that we need to empower in Iraq. This is why I think grassroots work is very important. We need to look at long–term plans. Unfortunately we have the American elections in November 2004 and short–term achievements are becoming more important than the long–term creation of a democratic infrastructure.
Maysoon Pachachi: I agree with some of what you’re saying. In March, I attended some women’s meetings in Baghdad. These were broad–based with people of different political persuasions and backgrounds. Everyone talked about how the complete collapse of the state infrastructure and the disastrous security situation had created a kind of paralysis in the society. The lack of security affects women in particular, but political empowerment is very difficult to achieve for anyone in these circumstances.
People were very aware that any real change in the political culture would take a long time. At the moment, for many Iraqis “democracy” is just a slogan, an abstraction – we don’t know what it really means in practice: that government derives its authority from the people. Bottom to top and not the other way round. And we also have long–established habits of fear and corruption inside our psyches, which we want to get rid of. It will be a gradual step–by–step process and it will take time, especially in the teeth of this catastrophic violence and occupation.
The Americans may try to bring in the “son of Saddam”, but I’m not sure they will succeed. The violence of the so–called “resistance” to the occupation doesn’t seem to have any political, social or economic programme behind it. There is a chance, though, that in time a proper political resistance – peaceful and effective – will take shape. It will all take time. I wouldn’t say I was optimistic, but I’m not without hope.
An Iraqi political settlement?
openDemocracy: Is federation the answer for Iraq?
Hayder al–Fekaiki: Yes, I think that’s the best way forward. I really don’t understand objections to the Kurds having autonomy. After all, it was the republic of Iraq which granted autonomy to Iraqi Kurds in March 1970 . In my view, the Kurds are no different to the Palestinians with respect to having their own distinct land, language, history and heritage.
The question of federalism is one aspect of a wider issue, while the core question remains as to the overall maturity of the political debate and process within Iraq. Whether you’re resisting occupation, or whether you are pro–federalism or pro–democracy, I believe that as Iraqis we have some way to go before we are able to effectively debate and build our political future.
Iraqis have long over–simplified the debate. Throughout my years of living within the opposition, our principal thesis remained: “if only we can get rid of Saddam, everything will be back to normal”. Well it isn’t, and we now can see that all too clearly. It’s not just about Saddam. It’s about the history of a people. People who have almost become addicted to violence. Look at what bloody struggle the Kurds had to go through before they managed to put together something which had some semblance of democracy. Iraqis as a whole will have to go through that. And it’s going to take some time before we get through it and out of it. |
