Al-Maliki Calls for Majority Rule;
US Soldier Killed at Najaf, Japanese fired on at Ramadi
Nuri al-Maliki called late Thursday for an end to the consensus system in Iraqi politics, which gives Kurds and sometimes Sunni Arabs a virtual veto over legislation they do not like. In an interview with the American Arabic-language satellite station al-Hurra (which is very little watched) al-Maliki called for majority rule with straight up and down votes in parliament rather than the long parleys intended to keep everyone, in government or in opposition, happy. The consensus system stems from pacts made with the Kurds and Sunni Arabs by the Shiite majority in the year after the fall of Saddam Hussein, a period in which al-Maliki admitted that consensus rule had be necessary. But now he feels it is a drag.
Al-Maliki and other Shiite theorists of the future of Iraq tend to dismiss concerns about a tyranny of the majority. They should not. Studies show that countries with significant minorities but a dominant political faction tend to be more violent.
The US military made three arrests in the course of its current operation against arms smugglers in northern Iraq who are part of a ring based in Syria, especially that of Abu Khalaf, on whom the Department of the Treasury has slapped sanctions.
Jasim Azzawi of Aljazeera English investigates the reasons for the increase in street violence in Iraq in recent weeks.
Another mass grave was found in Najaf Province, containing bodies of Kurds killed in Saddam Hussain's Anfal campaign of 1988 during the last months of the Iran-Iraq War.
McClatchy reports political violence in Iraq on Saturday:
' Baghdad
At 8 a.m. a mortar round targeted Sadr City in northeastern Baghdad on Saturday. It destroyed a house, killed one little boy and injured both his younger brother and their mother.
A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol on Abu Ghraib highway, in west Baghdad at noon Saturday killing two police officers and injuring two policemen and five civilians.
A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol near al Ghadeer traffic bridge, eastern Baghdad at 1 p.m. Saturday killing two policemen and injuring two policemen and three civilians.
- Around 5 p.m a roadside bomb detonated in Jihad neighborhood in western Baghdad on Saturday. Three people were wounded.
Nineveh
A gunman shot and killed a policeman at a checkpoint in Yarmouk neighborhood, western Mosul on Friday evening. The gunman was sitting in the passenger seat of a car stopped for a more thorough search. He shot and killed the policeman, then tried to escape on foot. He did not get far before police shot him. He was captured alive. The driver escaped by speeding away in the car.
A U.S. military helicopter was shot down in the vicinity of Mosul said Iraqi Police. On Saturday night a U.S. military spokesman said they had "no reports from Mosul that a U.S. helicopter went down today."
- A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol in Ghayara town(about 37 miles west of Mosul). One soldier was killed and two others were wounded.
Anbar
A group of Japanese nationals negotiating a contract in Anbar were targeted by sniper fire in Ramadi at 11 a.m. Thursday. One of their private security detail was injured.
Najaf
A roadside bomb targeted a U.S. military convoy in Jrewiyah neighborhood in the city of Najaf. The incident resulted in the death of one U.S. soldier and the injury of another, said Najaf Police. The U.S. Military said that one soldier was killed in the south of Iraq. It is not clear whether the two reports are about the same incident.
Babil
A farmer was killed by fire from the U.S. Military on a road in Neel area, 5 km to the north of Hilla Saturday morning said Iraqi Police. A U.S. military spokesman said that the military were removing IEDs planted along the main road and searching for explosives when the driver approached in his car, not paying attention to the warning signs, so they opened fire and killed him.
Basra
A member of the Civil Defence was killed accidentally by a hand grenade explosion in Abu al Khaseeb neighborhood, 20 km to the south of Basra City. His team was removing captured weapons and ammunition when the hand grenade exploded and killed him.
End/ (Not Continued)
Cont'd (click below or on "comments")
posted by Juan Cole @ 5/17/2009 12:52:00 AM
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3 Comments:
The question regarding majority rule V consensus is being mirepresented as Shi'a rule V power sharing.
The Iraqi people are politically more sophisticated than most. They understand that the sect or race of the official does not mean that his or her group will benefit. The Shi'a in Iraq have been the biggest losers from the dominance of the corrupt and inept Shi'a officials. The Kurds in Kurdistan are also waking up to the fact that their warlords are their biggest enemies.
In contrast, Northern Ireland and Lebanon for example have well entrenched and accepted religion based power-sharing.
The "tuwafuq" (consensus)principle in Iraq is a renaming of the discredited "muhasasa" (allocation) sustem of having three member councils instead of individuals for high offices and distributing the ministires on parties.
The political class in Iraq is of a very poor pedigree, and have great difficulty in agreeing on anything. It takes months and months to appoint officials and years to agree on important laws. So how can there be "consensus".
Maliki is part of that class, and he has been very clumsy in trying to articulate the switch. But from bitter experience, he can see the impossibility of running a government whose ministers act as independents outside the PM's control or sanctions.
He has called for a Presidential system instead of Parliamentary, which completely misses the point. The current system does support majority rule already. If a future PM can muster a majority in Parliament, then he can pick the ministers he wants freely, and sack or replace them at will too.
In any case, the election of the brand new party in Nineveh, and the huge share of the vote for an independent in Karbala suggest that the current political class may well be thrown out in the general election.
ref : “Studies show that countries with significant minorities but a dominant political faction tend to be more violent.” This is true, Professor — but you are presuming that ‘IRAQ’, (an arbitrary notion of nation to begin with, n'est-ce pas?) will, post-withdrawal remain ‘IRAQ’, and not a two-State or even three-State "solution" (e.g. not unlike that "solution" proposed for the selfsame dilemma, apparent of ISRAEL/Palestine). imho, It is unlikely that the de facto Shi'ite = Zone d'Occupation Iranienne and Sunni = Zone d'Occupation Americane would suddenly find a "national character" ex post facto Western military presence diminishment: Mr. al-Maliki is simply stating that which is the realpolitik of what is ‘IRAQ’ : [Historically, Iraq was known in Europe by the Greek exonym 'Mesopotamia' (Land between the rivers), after the foundation of the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932, it became known by its ancient endonym 'Iraq'.] Indeed, the only question in my mind, Professor, is whether the Kurds survive in any way intact, (as some notion of nation, themselves), or whether in this end game that is what is ‘IRAQ’? their fate will not be self-determined, but dictated by Arab, Turkish, etc. interests, which has always been their destiny history writ.
MonsieurGonzo, your comment is profoundly ignorant and it shows you know nothing about Iraq.
Iraq is a real nation with a real national character and it will always remain united.
You will never break Iraq.
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