Gorran party is now officially dead!, as I predicted years ago

Rizgar Khoshnaw | Exclusive to iKurd.net

In August 2017, I published an article predicting the soon to be dead Gorran party and the rise of New Generation party and now we are witnessing my assessments coming to fruitions. I have many valid reasons for have had such a negative outlook toward Gorran’s situation and future back in 2017.

In the past ~8 years, I travelled to Sulaimani more than a dozen times where I had ample time to spend with many of their members, including top leaders/officials, discussing many different subjects. Furthermore, I spent a period of six months (from Jan. 2018 to July 2018) living in Sulaimani where I had the opportunity to learn a great deal about the party.

During the six months of living full time in Sulaimani, I visited Gorran head quarters on daily basis. I was absolutely dumbfounded to witness the most unprofessional behavior and the laziness of so many of their members. They would come to the office at 10:00 am and by 1:00 pm, they all packed up and called a day!! What can one accomplish in “working” only three hours a day? But, I must admit that there are few Gorran members that I met (and had many conversations with) were very professional, dedicated and serious about the party, but unfortunately, most of them were sidelined and excluded from the party decision making.

The party leadership had no clue of how to effectively manage a political party that was in such disarray, even if they worked 10 hours a day. Speaking with many top members of the party and advising them on the areas that I have knowledge and experienced in, they never took my advice and opinions. For example, the minister of Housing and Construction (Dana Abdulkarim) and the minister of Finance (Awat Janab) which both belong to Gorran party where we discussed their goals and their new positions and responsibilities.

Prior to taking on these two positions by Gorran members, I had the opportunity to meet with both, Dana and Awat, numerous times and discussed their plans. Both were very interested in offering me a position, even thought I had not asked for it, within their ministries as an adviser. Awat told me that he has absolutely no experience in finance and economics and could surly use my expertise in these areas to help him succeed. Also, Dana, asked me to become his adviser due to my connections in the US and experience in working on sizable construction projects.

Once Awat took on his new position, he completely disappeared and I never heard from him again! He surrounded himself with his close “friends” that have no business advising him since they too have no experience in economics and finance. As to Dana, we held many long meeting discussing two major projects that he needed help with. One project was to construct a highway from the border of Turkey to Erbil while the other project was to construct a new railways parallel to the new highway covering approximately the same distance and route. He told me that his main priority in the upcoming four years that he is in his position will be to complete these two projects.

After many meetings, Dana concluded that taking on the railway project was his first need and he began to discuss it with me. He told me that he needed my help in locating a well-known and experienced construction/design company that can take on such huge project. Furthermore, he wanted help in finding the financing for this project as well. I truly felt that he was sincere and serious about his job and had a strong desire to succeed.

After talking with many of my friends/contacts in Washington, DC, they helped me locate one of the best/top design and construction international company (unable to divulge the name for confidentiality reasons) in the world. This company, one of top five in the world, agreed to take on this project and composed a seven page proposal detailing what they are willing to do and how to tackle this huge railway project. Moreover, I met with international banks (with the help of an international law firm in Washington, DC specializing is such transactions) that showed interested in financing these projects. Upon my request, they composed a proposal (nine pages detailing everything about this project) to give to Dana for review.

Having put together both proposals; one from the design/construction company, and the other from financial institutions, I hand delivered both to Dana in his office in Erbil. I was fairly confident that we were on the right track to getting these projects started. To my surprise, I recently found out, through the media, that Dana had awarded the contract to a Spanish company! Of course I was extremely disappointed, but I do not blame Dana for choosing another company than the one I presented him with simply because the final decision is out of his control. I am sure he was pressured by his “higher up” in his party that have no clue what they are doing to work with a different company.

With all of the years that I have spent been close to many Gorran members, I truly did not envision this is how this party will end up dying. The party died due to the lack of professionalism and experience by their top leaders that have no business running a political party.

Rizgar Xoshnaw, a senior Kurdish writer based in Washington, a longtime contributing writer and columnist for iKurd.net.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.