KDP motive behind taking interior, oil, municipalities ministries

Araz Barwari | Exclusive to iKurd.net

The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq (KDP) has selected what positions it wants in the new Kurdistan regional government. It is holding firmly to take the positions of ministry of interior, natural resources, municipalities, and health.

All these ministries are very important because they have financial, economic and security values. The KDP party will probably keep these ministries run under the administration of the same minsters of the KDP who have served in the previous Kurdistan regional Kurdistan government.

And the reason I have such a belief is because all the KDP ministers who have run these posts before, were more obedient and loyal to carry out the polices and personal wishes of the KDP party leadership than to perform their constitutional duties. In another words, these minsters have worked more to secure the financial and economical interests of their own political party rather than to work in the interests of the whole Kurdistan population in general.

For example, Mr. Karim Sinjari was appointed as Minister for the Interior May 2006. He was reappointed in the six cabinets in 2009. And again in the seventh cabinet, in 2012. So, Mr. Sinjari has been serving as Interior Minister in the Kurdistan Region since 2001.

As minister of home affairs, Abdul Karim Sinjari has been appointed to his post by the Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani twice. He was given the job of interior minister at the time when journalists were being killed, protesters were being assaulted, people who criticized the KRG government in the public, were detained and many government department of Kurdistan were suffering from corruption in all possible forms.

The appointment of Abdul Karim Sinjari to such an important post of the government must have apparently meant that he was the right person and the strongest candidate who has a broad view of whole interior perspective, can be trusted, educated, skilled. qualified, experienced, disciplined, law-abiding, cooperative with forces and most of all has a clean sheet and won’t hesitate to call shots in tough situations particularly tough in curbing corruption.

Abdul Karim Snjare has been serving as the minister of interior of KRG for almost eighteen years, but not only he was unable to curb corruption within KRG government institutions, but also failed to provide security for journalists, protesters and free press in Kurdistan of Iraq. This means two things. Either Abdul Karim Sinjari is not skilled and knowledgeable enough on how to run the ministry and carry out his constitutional duties or he has neglected his duties.

As the minster of KRG government, he failed to investigate and arrest those who have served in the KRG government past ten fifteen years and suddenly became Millionaires. He also failed in arresting security forces of his own government (KRG) who have detained, assaulted and kill journalists and protesters.

It makes you think that he is either a part of the team and as so protects KRG officials who have been involved in corruption within the government department of Kurdistan or simply he turned a blind eye to their illegal acts because they happened to be his government coworkers or his KDP fellow members.

However, as a lawyer, I assume that minster Abdul Karim Sinjari does have enough legal knowledge that killing journalists and assaulting protesters and getting involved with corruption are all horrendous illegal acts. He is also well aware that whoever commits these dirty acts, whether it be his boss the prime mister Nechirvan Barzani, his family members or other minsters, governor and security chiefs, must be arrested and prosecuted in the court of law.

Then what went wrong and why Minster Abdul Karim sinjari failed to curb corruption and arrest those who have abused human rights, assaulted protesters, killed journalists and or arrest those who have become millionaires after serving in the government? Why Minster Abdul Karim Snajari failed to bring all the perpetrators from security services and corrupt officials of Kurdistan regional government to the court of law? It surly means that he is not doing his job well enough.

It means he has neglected his constitutional duties. Or it means he has been appointed to this powerful position only because he is more loyal to the Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and his fellow KDP members who serve in the government department of KRG.

As a member of KDP party, Abdul Karim Sinjari neglected his duties and rather has assured his boss the prime minister Nechirvan Barzani that he would do what he can to protect and help him and his KDP follow members to keep his hold on power at any cost. This is exactly the case. As the author of the “The Dictator’s Handbook”,Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith say, ” If I am one of his essential backers, then that means he is already channeling significant resources of the state to me for my personal bank account; he is already dividing the spoils of power with me.

If I am not an essential backer, then I am close enough that I can hope to become one, if I show that I am very useful to him. The way I will do this is by taking strong actions to prove my loyalty and my commitment to helping him stay in power. Then, if he finds he has to liquidate one of his existing core backers, I might rise into that spot and start getting a serious share of the spoils of office.

Since those spoils come from corruption, none of us in government is going to do anything to reduce them; on the contrary, we will seek ways to increase them. We’re aware that ordinary citizens dislike corruption, so we speak out against it, and sometimes make fervent promises to reduce it and punish it—especially at election time.

Indeed, as minister of home affairs, one of my key jobs is to do this and to make it sound credible. I may do periodic sweeps to round up enemies and suspected enemies of my boss, and bring them up on charges of corruption. In this way I can kill two birds with one stone: neutralizing enemies while appearing to get tough on corruption. A successful sweep of this kind might even earn me a bonus from the boss—straight to my offshore bank account.

As for what I will actually do to curb corruption: absolutely nothing. If I had any such idea, there is no way I would be holding a ministerial portfolio. No, I’m ambitious, so I’m looking for signs of weakness in the leader and quietly building my own coalition of allies and backers so that I can make a bid for the top spot when the time comes.

In order to get it, I will have to pay off my friends big time, which means that I will need to be able to put my hands on state revenues and give it to them. The more transparency and accountability there is in the system, the harder this will be to do. So I’m going to make sure that those things don’t happen—not on my watch.”

It is sad fact but truth that government agencies such as ministry of interior is misused and controlled by dirty politicians in Kurdistan of Iraq. Politicians by their very nature are power and money hungry. They like to grab more and more power at any cost.

Since ministries such as interior is the muscle power of state it should not be a mystery why politicians want to control it because it’s the only minstary they can use to protect themselves when they break law and carry out their dirty work in the government. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship for the political parties and their own government administrators.

As they say “You can’t save the house if guard dog colludes with the thief.” Unfortunately that’s exactly what’s happening in Kurdistan of Iraq. Political parties benefit from the power through their politicians in the government and security forces are protecting them. They are all getting super rich together.

Araz Barwari is a law student at the University of Nawroz in Kurdistan of Iraq.

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