The Role of Political Religious Discrimination in Financial corruption in Iraq
Iraq is the modern name of the area
used to be called Mesopotamia, refer to the sandy plain of the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers and part of the Middle East. Iraq was under aliens’ rule for
more than 400 years until independence in 1932 and joined the League of Nations
in the same year. At the beginning of the 20th century, Iraqis were
not considered one group of People or one political group. this did not refer
to the many minorities like Kurds, Turkmans, Persians, Assyrians, Armenians, Chaldeans,
Jewish, Yazidis ,Sabis , and others . Even the Arab, who represent the major
ethnicity in Iraq, were forming differentiated closed societies (Batato.P.31).[i]
Since 2003, after more than 70 years
of Sunni ruling, The Shia, the majority of Iraq’s population, have gained power
, many Shias are interested in preserving that power. However, Shia factions
are struggling for power—over regions, ministries, and Iraq as a whole. Sunni on
the other hand, feels ousted because of the loss of their traditional position
of power in Iraq. They feel annoyed at being governed by a majority Shia
administration but reject a federal, decentralized Iraq and do not see a Sunni autonomous
region as possible for themselves. Kurds have succeeded in presenting a united
front of two main political blocs (KDP) and (PUK). The Kurds have secured a
largely autonomous Kurdish region in the north and have achieved a prominent
role for Kurds within the national government, “The growing power of the ruling
KDP and PUK in Iraqi Kurdistan (partly because of the growth of gas and oil
sector), coupled with the Iraqi’s ruling elites’ increasing hostility towards
the KRG.” (Stansfield.Chapt.24)[ii].
The Current political leaders in Iraq
keep repeating that they do not want a division of the country, but on the
ground Shia and Kurdish leaders did not show enough commitment to national
reconciliation. On the other side Sunnis can not forget that they were the
governing power of the this country for more than 1400 years .
Since the early
days of the Islamic rule in Iraq, Shia were deprived of participation in
government and the military this pushed them to focus on commerce and trade.
However, with the British invasion of early 20th Century, British,
like the Ottoman before them, had balanced the economic power of the Shia by
placing administrative government in the hands of the Sunni. This led to the
creation of official religious discrimination in favor of the Sunni within the government.
This system worsened with the arrival of Baath part to power in 1968 until
2003.
The policies
adopted by the Iraq Governments since 2003, did not abolish the discrimination,
but by giving various factions a share of government and allowing them to discriminate
within their respective domain in favor of their political and religious affiliation.
This continued religious discrimination and resulted to Iraqi governments not effectively
providing the people with basic services: electricity, drinking water, sewage,
health care, and education. In many sectors, productions is below prewar
levels. In Baghdad and other unstable areas, the situation is much worse. The
main reason for that problem is corruption which is widespread which escalated
to the point that providing of services is subject to sectarian basis.
After the USA
led invasion, huge sums of money were allocated to the various ministries who
did not have the infrastructure or capacity to absorb it. Not surprisingly,
financial corruption exploded across the country. As the new sectarian elite
faced democratic elections, they used their wealth to buy support
(clientelism), necessitating ministerial corruption to support their powerbase.
Today, this “steal and spend” cycle continues as a primary political pillar of
Iraqi politics.
As sectarian appointments were made
pursuant positions were filled through bias, and political affiliation .
Because appointments are made without regard to merit, the provisioning of
public services has suffered. Despite the attempts to address specific
manifestations of corruption, there has been no realistic strategic
anti-corruption initiative to strengthen the existing of the wealth influenced
government whose corrupt leaders use political power to appropriate the wealth
of their nation, typically by embezzling or misappropriating . This has
resulted in diminishing security and will eventually pose an existential threat
to the Iraqi government. Economically, systematic corruption in the Iraqi
bureaucracy significantly increases ‘corruption risks’ in foreign direct investment. Finally, administrative corruption can be a uniting
voice for manipulators who use it for their own political growth.
To this end we can say that there is no magical solution for
the problem of corruption in Iraq since the unsophisticated nature of Iraq’s
sectarian elite and the weak nature of a government, tends to treat corrupt
actors and activities for fear of upsetting the status quo. Consequently,
counter corruption in Iraq is a problem requiring deep understanding to avoid
the destruction of the country .
· Stansfield, Gareth. The Kurdish Question Revisited. Oxford: Oxford University Pres2017.Page24.
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