Why seek virtues in the Iraqi prime minister alone?

They are busy and preoccupied with the qualities of the next prime minister. They claim to be writing down the desired attributes without caring about the names. They also claim that they want the premier to be, as they put it, firm, courageous, efficient, fair and patriotic.

They are liars for sure because they will only accept a Shiite figure, and they will not accept anyone who is not Shiite even if he is the most decisive, courageous, efficient, fair and patriotic amongst all Iraqi people. It is as if the mothers of the rest of the Iraqis did not give birth to anyone with these qualities. Or it’s as if the Shiites who do not belong to any Shiite party haven’t given birth to children with such qualities yet!

Sectarian preferences

They are liars because they turned back on what they had said about rejecting the quota system and how it had a role in creating several crises and disasters that continue to afflict Iraq to this day. They elected the speaker of the parliament on the sly based on the quota system through a corrupt deal that was exposed by footage taken via mobile phones inside the parliament.

They never cared and will never care about the qualities of the parliament speaker and they did not inquire about his agenda, as if they were appointing the head of a municipality in a district and as if he is not the head of the highest-ranking, most powerful and important authority in the country.

When it comes to the president of the republic, they only care about his sectarian and ethnic origins and the party he belongs to. This is what is required by the quota system which they want to maintain and keep as the sword directed at the Iraqi’s heads.

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To only be concerned about the qualities of a prime minister, (that is if this concern was genuine and not a way to distract people’s attention from making another corrupt deal) is wrong. The speaker of the parliament should also hold similar virtues. All former parliament speakers played a big role in compounding the failure of the state. They thus bear great responsibility in this regard as they were not fit for their post and they did not keep the constitutional oath they had taken, and they were not even questioned by anyone.

The same case applies to former presidents who stuck to the ridiculous notion that they hold an honorary position when in fact it’s an essential position that is a strong partner in the executive authority. In fact, the constitution gives the President the power to reject all legislation and practices that violate the constitution. There have been dozens and perhaps hundreds of violations of the constitution from the executive and legislative authorities in the past, starting from the president himself to his assistants and counselors.

After all the damage that has taken place, we are in a desperate need of a decisive, courageous, efficient, fair and patriotic prime minister. We also need, for the same reasons, a president with the same qualities, and we had a similar need of a Parliament Speaker with the same qualities.

This article is also available in Arabic.

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Adnan Hussein is the executive editor-in-chief of Al-Mada newspaper and head of the National Union of Iraqi journalists. Previously, he has held the position of Managing Editor in Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. He tweets under the handle @adnanhussein.