Iraq's government is too confessional, says Bishop
Amadiyah (AsiaNews) Iraq's first free, democratic government was sworn in this morning. It reflects the country's ethnic and religious divisions. Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari is Shiite; the three Deputy Prime Ministers are respectively Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni.
The cabinet is made up of 17 Shiite ministers, 8 Kurdish, 5 Sunni and an Assyrian Christian, Ms Bassima Youssef. Even though it is a predominantly Muslim country, Iraq now has five women cabinet ministers: science and technology, environment, public works, communications and emigration.
However, not everyone is happy. Mgr Rabban al-Qas, Bishop of Amadiyah (northern Iraq, is one of them. He tells AsiaNews why.
The new government is without a doubt a good thing. It is the first democratically-elected government in the country's history and there are very capable people in the cabinet. This said, one can chide it for four reasons:
1) It took too much time to be set up. This stems from one weakness, namely the excessive importance given to religion and ethnicity, on being Shiite, Sunni, Kurdish, Christian, Turcoman. These divisions did not exist in the past.
To me, there is something wrong in this because we must consider the whole country, not only one's own group or religion.
People should be selected and voted in on the basis of their qualities, not their ethnicity or confession.
By using ethnic criteria, people with neither the right abilities nor background have are now in government. They were chosen only to cater to their group.
2) It is a government that is quantitatively representative of the various groups. Shiites are present in great numbers, for instance. But it is a pity that former Prime Minister Allawi did not join. He ran on his own ticket and had relative good results (more than 30 per cent), but no one took him into the government because his party was secular and not religious. This is a mistake.
3) The new cabinet seeks to please everyone and to share power. But this is another mistake because pleasing everyone delayed the setting up of the new government and created an institutional vacuum. This government came into being three months after the elections.
4) Whether there is a Christian minister in the cabinet or not does not interest me. I believe that it is not a good idea to have someone who is the sole representative of the Christian community.
The Church must choose those people who work for the good of the whole country rather than for narrow confessional or partisan interests.
In any event, there will be new elections in six months and our bishops have decided that there should not be a Christian party. Christians must vote for certain people, but not for their own party.
In the last elections, Christian groups were split and lost. If we include Iraqi Christians living abroad we could have elected 14 members of parliament. Instead, group interests (Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriac, etc.) failed us.
I want to make it clear that despite failures and difficulties this government was chosen by the people in a free election. And those elected are representatives of the people even though they might not be completely representative.
I hope that ministers work together for the good of the country rather than for the narrow interests of their own group. This is a danger to be avoided. What we must do is focus on personal capacities and the greater good of the country.
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22/04/2006
