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WHY VOTE FOR THE SAME POLICIES THAT HAVE BEEN IN PLAY FOR DECADES

By heval hylan

The first fact of the coming election day in Kurdistan is that it will take place under the distorting influence of family names, and corruption, precluding a free and fair vote from the start.

The protest march toward a free election has had been contaminated by the American involvement at every step, starting with Bremmer's 2003 decision to appoint backward looking ‘diviner’ to the Kurdish governing body. That move has helped Barzani-Talabani dominate Kurdistan’s interim government and roll back the democratic rights of Kurdish people.

The past experience witnesses that, each election chain the Kurds in Northern Iraq find themselves out-flanked by those who has ultimate command. So each election we end up supporting wealthy and undemocratic minded candidate rather than truly democratic repetitive. Since corrupted lobbyists intensively influence all of the KDP-PUK candidates, and the electoral system is indirectly owned by powerful dictators, democracy has still stood on its feet as strong as always have been.  

Thus PUK-KDP packaged as democracy is widely considered to be the norm when, in fact, it is not; it is a sort of pretended passion couched as something much more benign or beneficial, even if it is a pollute pill. Yet it is this power fanaticism that undermines the interests of the Kurdish nation. However, the good news is the Kurds understand that voting for meaningful change is no longer like running on a treadmill, but they expecting to actually go somewhere.  

The problem we are facing now is that further corruption and powerful family members, rather than informed citizens interested in democracy, is in control of the electoral process. As a result we may end up with a socio-political system that is not only deeply unfair and unjust; it is also predatory and atrocious. It consumes the very people who feed it and give it the appearance of legitimacy.   

The object of signing oil contracts and trade should be to serve people and to benefit the whole of society, rather than to generate enormous profits for the benefit of a select few. Do business with the Kurdish peoples’ national resources without democracy cannot help us toward a free and democratic society. It can only undermine our every effort at genuine democratization.  

For the reason that the process is under the control of the current Federal Government rather than working and low class people, it undermines the democratic process and substitutes something else in its place. If we the people are serious about real democratic government, we must work for it outside of the electoral process, as well as from within. The opposition must organize peaceful revolutionary forces so powerful that it cannot be ignored, denied or crushed.

The change rally must organize general belt in order to make corrupt government feel Kurdish peoples’ pain. It is bayous that the controlled electoral process does not provide the tools for changes; it threatens the process and only covers-up the inevitable. 

This is not to say that Barzani-Talabani are awful persons in any way. Certainly, they are intelligent men of ‘reasonably’ good character and skilful power keepers, but that does not qualify them as representative of the people of Kurdistan or the democracy they so desperately need. People are optimistic that the presence of a democratic opposition has already frightened Brazani-Talabani voters away from supporting the old fabricated democratic jingles. A democratic opposition is the real choice of the reputable and accepted view all along.

It is important to notice that the KDP-PUK marketing strategists have funneled the votes toward opposition and away from untruthful promisees. That is where the real fight for democracy stands. If the Kurds vote for the same policies that have been in play for decades they certainly will continue on and we will keep getting a similar result. Just take Halabja as an example. What they have done for the victims of the inhumane chemical attacks.

It is the corrupted and family pride system that is at fault, not the second tire candidates themselves who play the game according to the dictum of its inventors. They, too, as despicable as some of them are, are its unwitting victims.  What hope is there for genuine democrats. If we are ever to become responsible citizens, we must learn how to separate the contents of the box from the fancy packaging. The same old ideology, regardless of who espouses it, will not lead to significant change; nor will pursing the same old methods.

If we are going to continue with that, then we can carry on to accept the results of the game without complaint. If we actively anticipate, then we must begin by demanding better of ourselves by recognizing what is being done in our name and doing something about it. But first of all we must awaken from our trance and come to the realization that democracy means direct citizen achievement.