Apparently Iraq Does Not Have an Open Meetings Act

By DHinMI

Parliamentary democracy is not getting off to an auspicious start in Iraq:

Iraq's attempt to fill the first posts in a national-unity government erupted in shouting and factional strife Tuesday, as what politicians described as last-minute power plays overran a Shiite- and Kurd-led effort to form a coalition with Sunnis.

A National Assembly session meant to elect the essential post of assembly speaker opened with Islamic prayers followed by a veiled lawmaker rising to her feet in black robes to denounce "these behind-the-scenes" talks on a new government…

"Why don't you give us the details of what is going on in this democratic process?" said the robed lawmaker, whose identity was not discernible from a television feed that was journalists' only access to the session.

"What shall we tell those who sacrificed their lives in the 30th of January?" lawmaker Hussein Sadr, whose own bloc has been linked to this week's latest delay, asked the assembly.

"Speed up!" Sadr said.

Assembly leaders abruptly ordered news cameras out of the hall after 22 minutes.

For the Iraqi public, television broadcasts of what was only the second session of their new parliament snapped to black, then went to a Saddam Hussein-era-style tape of a popular singer warbling an Iraqi national anthem.

Anybody who’s had an introductory class in either political science or political theory knows that there’s a significant difference between conducting an election and being a well-functioning democracy. Apparently reporters and pundits, most of whom have such academic backgrounds, have forgotten what they were taught back when they were 19 year olds, because they lapped up whatever the Bush administration said about the January 30th elections heralding the success of democracy in

Iraq. What the press forgot is that elections are only a sign of a sound democracy when they are intertwined with a wide range of institutions and processes that together grant legitimacy on the entire political system.

Creating a legitimate democracy in Iraq is going to be very difficult. Iraq has all the religious and political differences of Lebanon, plus ethnic, linguistic and nationalist cleavages as bad or worse than Algeria. Since those two countries have had the two most violent civil wars in the Arab world since decolonization, the precedents aren’t favorable for a successful transition from Baathist dictatorship to Jeffersonian Democracy. It’s especially true since this transition to democracy has been conceived by neocons with ideas from Cloudcookooland and is being imposed by an Anglo-American occupation force of unworldly 18 year olds who look otherworldly in their body armor (if they’re lucky) and their wraparound sunglasses. Conducting an election doesn’t make these difficulties just fade away.

We now know, thanks to a report by the GAO, that election day in Iraq was one of the most violent days since Coalition forces first thrust north from Kuwait a little over two years ago. Most of that violence was in the Sunni areas, which is one of the reasons turnout among Sunnis was so abysmal. The current problems in the Parliament are related to that lack of legitimacy among Sunni, as the Kurds and Shia, both committed to naming a Sunni as Speaker, have been unable to agree on a willing candidate among the few Sunni elected to the body.

Any Iraqi government will initially lack legitimacy among the Sunni, so trying to name a Sunni as speaker is, in theory at least, a decent idea. But with this first step (out of about 15) toward creating a constitutional government proving so vexing that the Parliament has chosen to respond to charges of hidden deliberations by hiding their deliberations from the Iraq people—and resorting to Saddam-era canned music no less—one has to wonder how the Iraqi government will be seen as a legitimate manifestation of the political aspirations of those Shiites and Kurds who haven’t seen political progress in the two months since they cast their votes.

Comments

[Meteor Blades]

Couldn't they have switched to the Michael Jackson trial, instead?

[DHinMI]

Well, they don't have the Saddam trial to switch to, do they...

[al-Isqut]

No, they don't. What the hell is going in with that trial, anyway? When is Donald Rumsfeld going to be called as a witness for the defense?

Re: Democracy: People voted. But it didn't mean shit. They were just voting their ethnic identity. Essentially the vote was more of a poll than a vote. I don't see how that really helps you build a democracy. Especially when nobody could campaign publically. Does anyone know what they voted for? It's just a mess.

Congratulations, you are the new Saddam.

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