WE Gulf people may wonder why the tenuous task of drafting a new Iraqi constitution should bother us. We should not dismiss it as an exclusively internal matter of a neighboring country and should be, in fact, very much concerned about it. The new constitution will determine the future course of the country and will, apparently, affect the security and stability of neighboring countries and regions, including ours.
There are, mainly, two issues that render the task of drafting an acceptable constitution for Iraq, which is already ridden with severe ethnic and sectarian divisions, more challenging.
The first and foremost is related to Iraqi identity. Is it Arab, Islamic, Kurdish or all of them confusingly smelted together? The clash of identities among the dominant forces in the ruling coalition is being revealed in their frequent wrangling.
Perhaps the emergence of a modern Iraq in the last century without an opportunity for sectarian voices to gain ascendancy might have been the reason for the present identity crisis.
The late Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser reportedly asked the then Iraqi leader Abdul Salam Arif about the percentage of the Shiite population in Iraq. Arif’s reply was that they constituted roughly eight percent of the total Arab population. The joke is being quoted to support the complaint that Arab governments on most occasions attempt to push real issues under the carpet on the assumption that no one will notice them.
Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites are the three major components in Iraq’s social and political set up.
Iraqi leaders’ frequent calls for the unity of all Iraqi people to form an integrated single nation can be compared to a dish of appetizers consumed before the dinner. Just as when the dinner starts and the appetizer is forgotten, when major issues surface every leader becomes the spokesman for his original sect, tribe or ethnic origin. So no issue can be solved without a consensus between all the sects and parties.
Another major problem confronting the Iraqi leaders is the political and administrative character of the new nation. Should the country be made into federation with autonomous regions for Sunnis in the center, Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north? Or should autonomy be given to the Kurds in the north while the remaining regions, that the Sunnis and Shiites live in, become an integrated political entity?
Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, head of the Supreme National Council for Islamic Revolution, one of the main ruling parties in Iraq, has recently called for a southern region with Shiite autonomy, while in the other regions Kurds and Sunnis would hold power.
Though the idea is unacceptable to some Iraqis, particularly Sunnis, a federal system may prove to be a way out from the current impasse. In this case some acceptable formula will have to be found for the division of the wealth and power as is being experimented with in Sudan.
It is pointed out with caution that an autonomous Shiite region in the south may eventually become a Shiite state forming a Shiite crescent stretching from Tehran to south Lebanon.
With the rich water and oil resources gone with the autonomous regions in the north and south, Sunnis will, undoubtedly, be the pathetic losers in the federal arrangement.
The federal system, on the contrary, is acceptable to most of the Kurds and many Shiites.
Many Shiites strongly support the idea of a federation with the view that this is a historical opportunity to retrieve the rights that have been denied them for so long. The enlightened Shiites who reject the idea are not well organized like the supporters of a separate region.
The enlightened Shiites, on the other hand, argue that a proposed region for Shiites will only create ghettoes. Their argument is blunted by their support of Kurdish autonomy. They justify the Kurd demand pointing out the long history of the Kurdish freedom struggle.
Shiite autonomy in the south will pave the way for the extension of Iranian influence in the region. The sectarian affinity between the people of southern Iraq and Iranian regime may, presumably, lead to the disappearance of the geographical borders with Iran and the establishment of close relations that go even beyond national interests.
The sensitive topics, which many view as not fit for discussion, are being discussed nevertheless, and will leave behind several festering wounds. It could be more painful than all the wounds caused by the earlier regimes and will, undoubtedly, trigger fresh clashes leading to a fierce civil war, damaging not just Iraqis but neighboring countries as well.
The best option for Iraq is to unite and be a fully integrated nation. National feeling should rise above all other considerations and the law should be equally applicable to all with absolutely no regard for ethnic origin, position, language or dialect. The profits of the country should be distributed to every citizen commensurate with his effort and contribution.
