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Reviving Public Trust: A Necessity
from 2019 Sulaimani Forum
by Awder4
Reviving Public Trust: A Necessity
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Hennis-Plasschaert spoke of how decades of conflict have had a deep and damaging impact on the country, forcing many Iraqis to make great sacrifices. Ethnic tensions and internal political strife have added to conflicts between Iraqi citizens and their political representatives. She underscored that the formation of the Iraqi government remains incomplete in both Baghdad and Erbil, also highlighting that parliamentary committees have yet to begin the vast work ahead. Against this context, she asked, how could the Iraqi people be blamed for being disillusioned and distrustful of the government? She stated that leadership failures and the rise of violence were closely connected. Community groups, youth, minority groups, and especially women, need to be able to participate in bridging these societal divides.
“The President rightly pointed out that this wonderful country has great qualifications, but one can certainly not deny that the road to well-deserved sustainable stability in Iraq will be long and far from easy. “
Continuing to alienate women and youth is a mistake that the country cannot afford. Despite these shortcomings, Hennis-Plasschaert commended the 2018 elections, noting that for the first time the major political parties in the elections reflected the diversity of and within Iraq. The sectarian divides of the past were largely replaced with cross-sectarian political alliances due to the drive for a national narrative. That being said, she also mentioned that half of the voting population decided not to cast a ballot in the elections, revealing the widespread distrust of the government›s ability to meet their expectations. The Special Representative lamented that despite the hundreds of millions of dollars of aid and Iraq’s immense hydrocarbon wealth, millions of Iraqis remain poor. She attributed the gap between the country’s growth domestic product (GDP) and socioeconomic well-being to corruption. In order to bolster and sustain international aid and investment, Iraq needs to comprehensively deal with this endemic problem. The interests of the nation must rise above individual enrichment.
