A week from today, Iraq’s election will take place in the midst of both fear and hope. Not much can be certain about the process itself but it is inevitable that parties representing the Shiite majority will surely dominate. If Sunni voters are unwilling through intimidation or resentment at the occupation to go to the polling stations, the dominance of Shiite candidates will be all the greater. It is inevitable in countries such as Iraq, which are strangers to representative government, that a victorious majority in an election will feel it has the right to exercise power purely on its own terms. The temptation in Iraq will be greater than ever, since Saddam’s Baathist regime strongly favored Sunnis. Some Shiites who felt as if they were second-class citizens in their own country will regard their assumption of power as time to pay back their former oppressors. Given that die-hard insurgents backed by Al-Qaeda killers, both representing Sunnis, have been targeting Shiite mosques and religious leaders, the desire for revenge will be high.
It is thus encouraging that a senior Shiite figure, Justice Minister Malek Dohan Al-Hassan, has used his authority to warn that however great the victory of Shiite parties on Sunday, the Sunni community must not be excluded from either the political process or from government jobs. The wise counsel is based upon two fundamental realizations. The first is the understanding that no Iraqi government will succeed unless it attempts to represent the interest of all Iraqis and avoids the promotion of any one community over another. That would lead to a repeat of the unjust regime created by Saddam. The second perception is that a Shiite-dominated Iraq must make its way in a predominantly Sunni region. Iraq will need the support and friendship of all its neighbors in order to rebuild itself and realize the economic potential of all its people.
Given that the election seems doomed to terrible disruption by the men of violence, there are likely to be all sorts of grounds for claiming that it was unfair. Yet the main purpose of the vote is to create an assembly which will form the constitutional backbone of a new Iraq. It is therefore essential that all the vertebrae of this complex and diverse country be included in the new constitutional skeleton. Sunni boycotts and voter intimidation may result in the election of pitifully few representatives from this community to the new Parliament; this will, however, in no way justify the resulting body ignoring the concerns and rights of the Sunni community. This concept may be hard to grasp and to get across, but it is encouraging that someone as respected as Hassan has chosen this moment to outline it. His statement is both brave and worthy.
Unfortunately it stands in stark contrast to the million Iraqi voters abroad, of whom it emerged yesterday, only ten percent have bothered to register to vote where they live in complete safety. Such a lack of interest in Iraq’s future is not only shameful but mystifying as well.
