It’s not about having a Sunni or Shia or Kurd or Arab in power

[plover]

"it’s not about having a Sunni or Shia or Kurd or Arab in power"

Some thoughts on the election from Baghdad Burning, a weblog kept by an Iraqi woman under the name 'Riverbend'.

It was like an voting marathon for all of the news channels- everywhere you turned there was news of the elections. CNN, Euronews, BBC, Jazeera, Arabia, LBC [Lebanese] … everyone was talking elections. The Arab news channels were focusing largely on voting abroad while CNN kept showing footage from the southern provinces and the northern ones.

I literally had chills going up and down my spine as I watched Abdul Aziz Al Hakeem of Iranian-inclined SCIRI dropping his ballot into a box. Behind him, giving moral support and her vote, was what I can only guess to be his wife. She was shrouded literally from head to foot and only her eyes peeped out of the endless sea of black. She stuffed her ballot in the box with black-gloved hands and submissively followed a very confident Hakeem. E. turned to me with a smile and a wink, “That might be you in a couple of years…” I promptly threw a sofa cushion at him.

Most of our acquaintances (Sunni and Shia) didn’t vote. My cousin, who is Shia, didn’t vote because he felt he didn’t really have ‘representation’ on the lists, as he called it. I laughed when he said that, “But you have your pick of at least 40 different Shia parties!” I teased, winking at his wife. I understood what he meant though. He’s a secular, educated, non-occupation Iraqi before he’s Sunni or Shia- he’s more concerned with having someone who wants to end the occupation than someone Shia.

[...]

At the end of the day, it’s not about having a Sunni or Shia or Kurd or Arab in power. It’s about having someone who has Iraq’s best interests at heart- not America’s, not Iran’s, not Israel’s… It’s about needing someone who wants peace, prosperity, independence and above and beyond all, unity.

The same post also comments on recent changes in the treatment of Iraqi women. After recounting a visit to a government ministry where she was treated disapprovingly due to her clothes, she writes:

No one could talk that way before the war and if they did, you didn’t have to listen. You could answer back. Now, you only answer back and make it an issue if you have some sort of death wish or just really, really like trouble.

Young females have the option of either just giving into the pressure and dressing and acting ‘safely’ ... or constantly being defiant to what is becoming endemic in Iraq today. ... If it’s like this in Baghdad, I shudder to think what the other cities and provinces must be like. The Allawis and Pachichis of Iraq don’t sense it- their families are safely tucked away in Dubai and Amman, and the Hakeems and Jaffaris of Iraq promote it.

 

[russ_watters]

At the end of the day, it’s not about having a Sunni or Shia or Kurd or Arab in power. It’s about having someone who has Iraq’s best interests at heart- not America’s, not Iran’s, not Israel’s… It’s about needing someone who wants peace, prosperity, independence and above and beyond all, unity.

This really is the main point. Hearing it from Bush, its all roses and lollypops, but the reality is that there is a real risk of a "tyranny of the majority" here. That said, we had a similar problem with forming the US Constitution. If they learn from our mistakes, and above all, faithfully try ot make the system work, it will.

 

[GENIERE]

… but the reality is that there is a real risk of a "tyranny of the majority" here...

I don’t think so. The Shai vote was 48%, Kurds 26a% and others. As far as I know the system requires a 2/3 majority in every province(?) to ratify the constitution. Suni have the greater population in many of the provinces (?), as do the Kurds. If the do not vote in the ratification process they reap their reward. I’m reading that the man-in-the-street Suni is ticked off at their leaders for telling them not to vote. I’m sure the next vote will see them waiting in line at the polls.

Off-topic but I think interesting: In Google world news, the Iraq item is the sixth on the list. I can’t recall it being that low for several years. Iraq is becoming a non-issue. Syria is moving up quickly. Israel is moving down, Afghanistan is down. Three down a few to go.

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