Iraq is more than a challenge
Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Prime Minister:
As the date i have reached before parliament to complete the ministerial formation approaches, our people, their national forces, and our youth, who demand their rights, must be put in front of the challenges that they face that require everyone to come together to overcome them, and the constructive and intensive dialogues i are carrying out with all political forces aimed at reaching what satisfies our people and restores confidence in the crisis by overcoming the worsening political process that they face and putting Iraq at a crossroads.
I have met my duty and I already know the difficulties that stand before me, and the heavy legacy that will face me at all levels and in all vital fields that are linked to the lives of citizens, and the security, sovereignty and independence of the country. Aware that the crisis is comprehensive and enters the fabric of the state and its institutions, and hinders its economic strength, which has faltered during the past period, has not achieved what would comprehensively promote the food security of the country, or promote industry and diversify the state’s imports, expand investment, and rehabilitate eroded infrastructure.
The difficulties were compounded by the failure to seriously review the structure of oil production and marketing and interest in oil derivatives, while the crisis of administrative and financial corruption was recycled, and many state and institutional completion systems were dismantled. Instead of encouraging investments, labour sectors and restarting troubled factories by securing what they need edifying the unemployed workforce, the level of job inflation in state agencies has been raised, resource depletion and disguised unemployment.
All of this has made the challenges facing any government double. Knowing all these difficulties, I responded to take responsibility, relying on the understanding of the blocs and the political leaders, and before that the public of our people, who are afflicted, oppressed, and demanding their natural rights, for the necessities of the stage, especially since the serious decline in the country’s resources with the collapse of oil prices necessitates the government to look in all directions to find urgent sources to pay the salaries of state workers, and to cover the expenses necessary to manage the affairs and obligations of institutions, especially to ensure the safety of citizens from the Corona pandemic.
As I put these facts before our people and political leaders, I reaffirm that Iraq is bigger than challenges, crises and problems, no matter what, and that we need to cooperate and join hands with all the forces of our people, including parliamentary blocs, political parties, social and cultural events, and with understanding from our young demonstrators, enabling the government to do its duty.
This support is now required of the parliamentary political blocs to help complete the ministerial composition by voting on the list of candidates for vacant ministries, in order to further develop practical plans to complete the tasks entrusted to the government in the transitional phase, to respond to the legitimate aspirations of citizens to provide the possible limit of services and decent livelihoods and to stop the violations and abuses to which they are subjected, and to return their children who have been arrested and absent.
We should not lose sight of all of us that after seventeen years, we find ourselves in an unenviable situation, our sovereignty has continued to be diminished, violated or subject to suspicion, and the territory of our country is meant to become a field of conflict for others, and the security of our citizens is threatened, not only from the continuation of ISIS and its sleeper cells, but also from the weapons that have escaped outside the state, all manifestations of corruption, looting of public funds, waste of wealth, and the unacceptable level of iraq’s classification in terms of education, health and services.
Unemployment is no longer a phenomenon that can be contained, but the number of unemployed, especially among graduates, has exceeded levels that we have not reached in any previous circumstances. The poverty line now includes the mothers and families of the martyrs who took their lives in defence of the homeland. Although the wealth that has entered Iraq’s coffers over the past 17 years has been enough to rebuild the country and establish the Future Fund, corruption has drained it, some of which have been openly escaped out of the country, and I have not found responsibility for the near-empty treasury!
I found it my duty in these difficult and complex circumstances to put our people in the face of the difficulties we face, including the contradiction between the public promises that confirmed my freedom to choose the ministerial composition, and the behind-the-scenes manoeuvres, pull and attract some. This hinders and hinders the completion of the government in order to carry out its tasks with vigour and concerted efforts to reach the stated objectives.
It seems at times that the assurances we make of the need to correct the courses of the political process and put the country on the path of recovery does not find ears to some here or there, without paying attention to the fact that the country is threatened by what will put us all in the face of options that are not winners and the best of the decline to chaos, God forbid, which leads to the reaffirmation of the need to put all the higher national interests above the secondary interests, and to join the efforts of all blocs and parties and their understanding of our people, to cross this stage.
We have no choice but to respond to the just popular demands expressed by the protest movement and the demonstration sit-ins, which brought together the finest girls and young people of our people, and sincerely work to achieve their demands to restore iraq’s glory, strength and dignity, and to liquidate the legacy of the abhorrent quotas in all its manifestations, to cross this stage.
We have no choice but to respond to the just popular demands expressed by the protest movement and the demonstration sit-ins, which brought together the finest girls and young people of our people, and sincerely work to achieve their demands to restore Iraq’s glory, strength and dignity, to liquidate the legacy of the abhorrent quotas in all its manifestations, and to fight financial and administrative corruption.
It is not possible to take any serious step without initiating something that restores the state’s prestige and extendits its sovereignty, which requires that no party, whatever its affairs, strength or loyalty, be above the will of the State, the Constitution and the law, and that the weapon and firepower become in the hands of the State and the armed forces and under the command of the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
I would like to reiterate once again to remove any confusion, that the task entrusted to me is to cross the transition as soon as possible, and to respond to urgent tasks directly, most notably:
– Completing the electoral law with the necessary checks or amendments, finalizing the final version of the Law of the High Electoral Commission, securing all necessary elections as soon as possible, cooperating with the UNITED Nations representative and local and international observers, and ensuring that the right foundations are put in place to hold elections in a political and security atmosphere that ensures their integrity and fairness.
– Take all measures and measures in cooperation between the Ministry of Interior and all the security services to protect the demonstrators and ensure the safety of their squares, and express their will freely, peacefully.- I reiterate here that orders have been issued to all security services to release all detained protesters, search, investigate and investigate the finding of the abductees and diagnose those who carried out the assassinations and put them before the law.
– Take all urgent measures to address the economic and financial crisis, rationalize spending, fight corruption, start the necessary reforms, and protect our people from the Corona pandemic.
Before and during all this, the restoration of the prestige of the state, the affirmation of national sovereignty, the restriction of weapons in the hands of the official institutions concerned, the security of the country in the face of terrorist threats, the establishment of the rule of law and the establishment of the rule of law and the equality of all. As I pledge what I am saying here, I find it my duty to express the assessment of the blocs and their leaders who responded to me in voting on the incomplete ministerial composition, and I look to everyone to support our efforts and the meetings and dialogues we are doing to complete the composition and facilitate its tasks within the framework of our transition tasks.
I conclude with a reply to those who warned me that I have no political party or a parliamentary bloc that protects me in the past commitments made in the service of my people, saying:
“Who can be able to god to have loved him to God by not passing him may have made God for all that he has?”
The greatest of God.