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| Consensus democracy has created negative developments in Iraq -- lawmaker |
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| Politics 8/7/2009 8:13:00 PM |
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WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (KUNA) -- The consensus democracy established in Iraq
since the U.S. invasion of 2003 has created "negative" developments, including
a weak understanding by Iraqis of citizenship or patriotism, while affirming
the private or individual identity for Iraqis, Sheikh Dr. Khalid al-Atiya,
first deputy speaker of the Council of Representatives of Iraq, said on Friday.
Power sharing in Iraq has "crippled the decision-making and the operating
of Iraq," al-Atiya said in a speech at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
"Therefore, we have seen a lot of political conflict in Iraq as a result of
the difficulty to find consensus," he said.
For example, it took about five months to establish the Iraqi government of
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and about four months to elect the chairman of
the speaker of the Parliament, al-Atiya noted.
A lack of consensus among legislators also has delayed a number of
strategic and important laws that are still on the tables of the Parliament,
despite a majority that exists to legislate these laws, he said.
The law of establishing regions has taken months, and the hydrocarbon law
remains undecided for some three years, he noted.
"The appointment of ambassadors, deputy ministers, advisers, judges has been
delayed or stopped for years, and it is at the desks of the Parliament,"
al-Atiya said. And most Iraqi embassies in the world are vacant, he added.
The Iraqi power-sharing system also has crippled the prime minister and the
government to hold ministers accountable, he said.
Iraqis need to form political parties, entities, alliances or new
coalitions "that are beyond the narrow loyalties such as sectarianism and
ethnicity, and think of a broader picture, as the patriotism or citizenship,"
al-Atiya said. "Therefore we see the necessity ... to be out of the narrow
vision of the power-sharing democracy and ... to move on for the need of
pluralism, democracy."
A ruling mechanism is needed to "provide the protection for the political
majority" that will result from Iraqi elections in January, he said, and "it
also should provide protection for the political minority and the other ethnic
minorities."
Most important is to get rid of the power-sharing, or quota, in the
executive branch, al-Atiya said, so that "everybody will be able to reach the
executive position out of their knowledge and experience, despite whatever the
loyalties of whether it is political or ethnic."
"That does not mean that we will give up national reconciliation," he said.
The most appropriate direction is the system of open-slot elections, "which
will definitely achieve a better, precise representation of the Iraqi people,"
he added.
A multiple-district system will also contribute to "the precise
representation of the population, and it will also encourage them to widely
participate in those elections," he said.
"I think all this will give us hope that Iraq will continue its democratic
direction, and it will affirm its own constitutional institutions, and the
re-establishment of its own natural position within the international
community," al-Atiya said. (end)
rm.rk
KUNA 072013 Aug 09NNNN
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