“Amending these laws would be much appreciated by Iraq’s Sunni Muslims, who believe that the way the laws are currently formulated, they can be used to target Sunnis,” MP Haider al-Mulla from the mostly-Sunni Muslim Iraqiya bloc, told NIQASH. “Iraq’s Sunnis believe these laws are a reason behind the killing and imprisonment of thousands of innocent people.”
“Working on these laws would be a major step toward real reconciliation between Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite Muslims,” al-Mulla argues. “It is going to help persuade Sunni Muslim militias that this government is serious about reconciliation – unlike the previous government, which betrayed them.”
On an economic level, Parliament must also pay attention to the national budgets for 2014 and now, 2015. The previous government failed to pass 2014’s budget, delaying thousands of construction, development and other projects right around the country as well as leaving the nation to cope with a growing and dangerous deficit.
“There are more than 6,000 uncompleted projects because of the delay in approving the last budget,” local economist Basem Antoine notes. “And the ongoing security problems – including fighting with [Sunni Muslim extremist group] the Islamic State – have meant that the government is just using this money anyway, even though it hasn’t been properly allocated.”
This has had an unforeseen impact on Iraq’s unemployed. Thousands of locals are waiting for budgets to be approved but because they haven’t, the youth have opted to volunteer for work in the security services, army or unofficial militias. Mainly because there are no other jobs – jobs usually created by government-funded projects – elsewhere.
Another extremely urgent job for Iraq’s new government will be to take a closer look at the Iraqi Constitution. This national document was written in 2005 and many believe it was done too hastily and that there are some flaws that need to be corrected.
“The Constitution has been creating conflicts rather than helping to resolve them,” says Hassan al-Yasiri, a member of the previous Parliament’s legal committee. “However to make the right amendments we would need a stable political atmosphere.”
Comments are closed.