Iraqi Legislators ‘Not in touch with voters’
18 April 2006 6:26 pm by Taylor Marsh
Iraqi Legislators “Not in touch with voters”
 |
It must be nice to be an Iraqi legislator. No tents. No fleeing to the desert
if you happen to be a minority in your neighborhood. All because you live in
the Green Zone, protected by the Americans and U.S. military.
If only the Iraqi citizens were so lucky.
Will someone push these people to form a government? Every day the Iraqi legislators
sit it out in their comfort, ordinary and poorer Iraqis are being persecuted,
thrown out of their homes, with chaos rising. What part of this picture don't
these people understand?
Iraqi politicians in the last few days have begun using
uncommonly bitter language to blame one another for the impasse over a new
government, a development that suggests that stalemated talks are nowhere
near success.
All sides say no one is showing a sense of urgency
to resolve the situation, more than four months after Iraqi voters went to
the polls on Dec. 15. Some suggest it may be weeks, if not months, before
a government is in place.
“I don't think anybody is in a hurry,” said
Mahmoud Othman, a top Kurdish leader who has harshly criticized his fellow
politicians. “They are completely out of touch with the voters.”
Iraqi
politicians blame each other for lack of new government
Mission accomplished, the Iraqis who were voted into office have now been dubbed
“out of touch with voters.” Democracy, at last!
The lack of government and services, not to mention safety is not lost on the
Iraqi people, who are still waiting for the Iraqis they voted for to get it
together.
At a televised press conference on Tuesday, Saleh al
Mutlaq, a top Sunni politician, said he was embarrassed by the delay. He said
that there's a “race for posts while Iraqis are being killed.”A Shiite politician allied with radical cleric Muqtada
al Sadr said Shiites are ready to move forward. “We are not delaying
the formation of the government,” said Baha al Araji, a member of the
United Iraqi Alliance, which dominates the interim government. “We are
ready to cooperate, but we see others calling for roles and posts bigger than
what they deserve.”Public anger at the delay is a regular feature of television
and radio shows. Most callers say that the lack of a new government is insulting
and that the democratic process is a sham. … …“They are keen on serving their own interests
and not those of the country,” said Ali al Tamimi, a member of the Maram
Gatherings, a small party that represents a range of religious and ethnic
groups. “The reason for the delay is that we have people who
have come to power without really being competent.” (source
- emphasis added)
I don't know about you, but I can totally relate to the Iraqis' complaints.
