Responding to Mr. Shaswar Abdulwahid's letter to Barzani

Rizgar Khoshnaw | Exclusive to iKurd.net

Shaswar and I have met a couple of times last year and I view, and respect, him as a person that is very qualified to run a successful and prosperous business, but not politics! I totally disagree with him about the letter that he wrote suggesting Massoud Barzani write the public.

The letter I am referring to was published on NRT web site on August 1, 2015 titled, ” Proud of President Barzani’s historic speech.”

When he say, “I would like another qualified leader to succeed” who is he suggesting to replace Massoud Barzani? Who is qualified? Who wants this position in Kurdistan? If there is someone that wants to be the president, then I strongly suggest he moves fast since August 19th is just around the corner!

And when Shaswar says, “I am certain that there are many able, qualified and faithful individuals who are as loyal to Kurdistan as I have always been….” I would like for Shaswar to give me only one “qualified” person in Kurdistan that can take Barzani’s position.

Once Shaswar provides us with the name of one able and qualified “new” leader, I will give him dozens of reasons to why I think Barzani should/must remain president for another two years due to his qualifications and experience. This is the wrong time to shake/change the government.

And, as it was suggested by some politicians, that we have the parliament chose a successor to Barzani, I think this is very laughable and absurd solution. Unfortunately, we now have too many unqualified, inexperienced kids as parliament members and I hold no value/respect to most of them and would hate to entrust them with our future! I much rather have Barzani have the final say in Kurdistan and not a bunch of disillusioned and disorganized kids in parliament trying to make a name for themselves at the expense of our nation and people.

What Shaswar is doing essentially is asking the “captain” of the sports team to quit/leave in the middle of the game! Sadly, we are not talking about a “game” here, but rather, we are talking about the dire financial and security situation that we are facing in Kurdistan today and we do not need to change the government during these trouble times. On the contrary, we need to be united and work together in harmony.

Aside from fighting a vicious war with ISIS, the 1.7 million internal refuges in Kurdistan and all international oil company operating in our region are suffering financially that we need to resolve/tackle these important issues instead of fighting and trying to remove just ONE politician in Kurdistan! I mention international oil companies because without them and oil, we will have no Kurdistan no matter who the president is.

The infighting among ourselves, and politicians, will surly have a very negative affect, and reputation, nationally and internationally on all of us Kurds and not just the politicians. I am absolutely disgusted and astonished that some of our Kurdish politicians are spending so much valuable time on the subject of replacing Barzani and neglecting what is important for Kurdistan.

My main argument here is that not only no one is coming forward to replace Barzani, but I see no one remotely qualified to replace him at this point. Certainly I am not Barzani’s advocate, but since we are facing serious problems nowadays, this is not the time to talk about replacing the president no matter how we feel about him.

I am cognizant of the argument that some people are making to have Barzani leave office after his term expires, but we need to over look the “technicalities” for now and work together for the survival of Kurdistan. We have had enough infighting to last us a life time and lets work for the benefit of our people and nation.

In the past 18 years that I have been working/visiting/living in Kurdistan, I have met many many people from all walks of life and I am sure they all know of my true intentions whenever I make my opinion known publically.

I have no hidden agendas whenever I write about Kurdistan and my main concern is the well-being of our nation and future.

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.