In Iraq, a parliament in disarray
The response to last week's bomb attack underscored that the 275-member body is stymied by partisan divides that undermine hopes for political progress.
from the April 16, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
The Sadrists, who are part of the UIA bloc, had just returned to parliament in February following a two-month boycott that had left the institution in virtual limbo.
Sheikh Jalaleddin al-Saghir, a Shiite cleric and lawmaker from the UIA who was reached by telephone Friday night, says the attack should be "a wake-up call" to Sunni Arab politicians that they are as much of a target of Al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists groups as the Shiites.
Sheikh Saghir, who was feet from the blast and survived unscathed, says he was sure that one of the bodyguards of a Sunni MP carried out the attack, while the vest and explosives were smuggled in by employees of the catering company that ran the cafeteria.
"I had a bad feeling when we switched the caterer from someone we trusted to another that employed people that came from a milieu dominated by Al Qaeda," says Saghir, insinuating that most of the employees of the new caterer were Sunnis.
Sunni MP Saleh al-Mutlaq, who heads the NDF, said from Amman that the only solution to solving the government's problems is to start with new elections without the interference of religious parties.
But Zaki Chehab, political editor at the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, says that this would be a recipe for another cycle of bloodshed.
"There is a huge gap now between the MPs and their constituencies. The problem is that the Americans have no plan 'B' and must rely on these people to make it happen," he says.
The next elections are scheduled for January 2009.
Amir Taheri, another London-based analyst and journalist, says MPs should display a greater sense of urgency but that "they have done a good job so far, considering the circumstances."
"It's a good sign to see Iraqis complain about their MPs. That's what happens in a democracy," he says.
Saghir says the problem is that most Iraqis "do not understand how parliaments work and are not used to debate and direct confrontation."
Now, parliamentarian Thafer al-Ani told his colleagues on Friday, "We need courageous decisions in which compromises are made not for each other, but for Iraq. People have to feel we represent them."
And one lawmaker, Nada Abdullah al-Jubouri, who was rushed to a US military-run hospital inside the Green Zone after Thursday's attack, had this to say: "It's about time for all of us as representatives of the people to think for one moment of the Iraqi people who are wounded and killed and who have no access to the medical care we received at the Ibn Sina hospital at the hands of US doctors."
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