Assistant professor Kulliyah of Islamic Reveled Knowlodge and Human Sciennces (KIRKHS) THE year 2019 will be remembered in Iraq as the year of mass protests and violence.
What is most notable is how little has changed for the better and how much for the worse. Though, Iraq has rarely been peaceful, but it has never been in this bad shape.
The demonstrations have become the symbol of state failure and turned into tribal and sectarian units, some of which cut across the border, manipulated by competing outside forces, observing no common rules other than the law of jungle what Hobbes might have called the “war of all against all”.
Demonstrators, who are mostly youth and the unemployed or underemployed, quickly became a mass movement demanding the fall of the regime.
The government and its allied militias supported by neighbouring countries responded with
disproportional violence, killing more than 600 protesters and almost injuring 20,000 people.
The political elites are facing unprecedented scrutiny by the public, and its expected failure to implement major reforms could further energise the protest movement.
The root of discontent in Iraq lies in its poverty.
Despite Iraq being the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ second-largest crude producer, one in five of its people live in poverty and youth unemployment stands at one quarter, according to the World Bank.
Then what are the constraints that keep Iraqis from becoming more prosperous? Is the poverty in Iraq immutable, or can it be eradicated?
A natural way to start thinking about this is to look at what Iraqis are saying about the problems they face and why they rose up against the regime.
Ahmad, a young man in his 20s, made his view clear as he demonstrated in Baghadad Tahrir Square: “We are suffering from corruption, oppression and bad leaders. We are living in a corrupt system which has to change.”
Another unemployed graduate, said: “I hope that by coming here to change the government, it
will put an end to the corruption that has taken over this country.”
Protesters throughout southern Iraq spoke with one voice about the corruption of the government, its inability to deliver public services and the lack of equal opportunities in the country.
They particularly complained about repression and the absence of political rights. Iraqis see their economic problems as being fundamentally caused by their lack of political rights.
To Iraqis, the things that
have held them back include an ineffective and corrupt state and a society where they cannot
use their talent and their ambition.
But they also recognse that the root of the problems are political. All the economic impediments they face stem from the way political power in Iraq is exercised and monopolised by puppet leaders.
This, they understand, is the first thing that has to change. The new Iraqi elites never tried to develop in their mind an ultimate target.
They have never developed a conceptual blueprint that defines the path to social, economic and political development.
A true leader must have a vision for the country. Such a vision or blueprint implies a clear idea of where the country wants to go and what it wants to be. Iraq cannot be a developed economy or democracy unless the leaders emphasise establishing a fully caring and sharing society.
The people want leaders with a human face and a big heart. It is difficult to imagine a smooth process by which ruling factions would make the right decisions, bridging the trust gap with the public.
These factions have parasitically channelled state resources to their patronage networks and militias, and their survival depends on perpetuating the system of power apportionment that distributes these resources among themselves, while diffusing responsibility for the government’s failures and dysfunctionality.
The protests last year raised hopes for freedom, representative government and genuine democracy.
Yet there is little evidence for optimism and much for pessimism.
To be sure, the year 2019 in Iraq opened up a range of possibilities for a better future but fundamental problems besetting the country remain, and have arguably exacerbated.
The writer is assistant professor at
International Islamic University of
Malaysia’s Kulliyah of Islamic
Revealed Knowledge and Human sciences