A year since Al-Kazemi became prime minister .. What has been achieved?
A year since Al-Kazemi became prime minister .. What has been achieved?
Posted, 05/08/2021 20:17:42
Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi came to power a year ago after a protest movement overthrew the previous government and successive attempts to establish a new government failed.
The decline in the chances of a decent life, and the insecurity that Iraqis have been living for years, were among the reasons that stirred the streets most, and precipitated the fall of the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi (October 2018 – November 2019).
Was the Kazemi government able to meet the protesters’ demands? How is the state of the Iraqi economy under his leadership?
In a joint analytical article, published on the US Institute of Peace website, Sarhanak Hama Said, director of Middle East programs at the Institute, and Eli Abu Aoun, director of Middle East and North Africa programs at the American Institute of Peace Regional Center in Tunis, addressed the most prominent results achieved by Al-Kazemi during his first year in office.
“Although Al-Kazemi promised to meet many of the protesters’ demands, he did not achieve many tangible results,” the article reads, “despite his commendable efforts.”
However, the authors of the article added, “Nevertheless, given the nature of the demands, it is unrealistic to expect any government to meet them within a year or two only.”
“The protesters demanded a lot of things, which need a long-term approach and extensive resources to achieve,” Abu Oun wrote.
He said that this wide range of demands can be classified within political reform such as the power-sharing system and fair elections, economic reform based on dealing with financial crises and creating more job opportunities, improving access to basic services such as electricity, health and education, combating corruption and holding those involved in the use of lethal force accountable. Against the protesters.
Political results
The elections are scheduled to take place in October 2021, but there are doubts about the extent to which they can be held under conditions of fairness and transparency.
The reasons for this, according to the analysis provided by the US Institute of Peace, include the continuing use of their own armed groups by political parties. Law enforcement agencies are still hampered by corruption and the instability this causes for the country.
The analysis also indicated that the perpetrators of the political assassinations that took place in Iraq during the last year are still unpunished, which opens the door to more insecurity.
Sarhanak Hama Saeed said in this regard that Al-Kazemi tried to gather the political diaspora with a comprehensive speech since his inauguration, but many activists in Iraq refused to join the coalition path that is required by any political or economic shift.
He gave an example in his speech during the historic visit of Pope Francis to Iraq, which was followed by the killing of demonstrators in the Iraqi streets, while armed groups managed to carry out deadly attacks, which made “negative views advance the scene in Iraq,” as he described it.
On the economic level, the Al-Kazemi government tried to introduce important reforms through the “white paper”, which included solid and objective ideas, but it required several years to investigate on the ground, in addition to it needing strong political will.
And all of this depends, according to the analysis, of social participation leading to engaging in structural reforms that may be painful at the social level, because the inability to launch economic reform impedes the creation of job opportunities and the improvement of basic services such as electricity.
Despite government attempts to prioritize investigations into shootings that have killed hundreds and injured thousands of protesters since October 2019, no serious measures have been taken to identify, arrest or prosecute the perpetrators.
The two analysts attributed this failure to the absence of an effective and transparent judiciary, in addition to the absence of effective security agencies working to perpetuate the political will shown by Al-Kazemi.
Al-Kazemi improved the government’s control of multiple border crossings in Iraq, as this step saved $ 60 million to the state treasury, and deprived armed groups and other criminal gangs that were controlling these crossings from accessing millions of dollars.
He has also appointed new leaders to some of the most sensitive security positions.
He engaged in intensive communication with Arab countries, improved relations with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and worked on bilateral and multilateral agreements with Jordan, Egypt and others.
alforatnews.com
