Fragmentation undermines Iraq unity

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The air-conditioning has been broken for three months in the cavernous convention center where Iraq's national assembly meets, so the members were sweating profusely in the 115-degree heat.
Male delegates in Shiite turbans or the flowing robes of sheikhs or shirts and slacks, along with women in enveloping black chadors and colorful Kurdish dress -- and a few females with uncovered hair -- gathered in clusters Sunday as they waited for the session to begin.
This was supposed to be the meeting that finally confirmed the key members of an Iraqi government, five months after elections last December. This is supposed to be the national unity government of Shiites, Kurds -- and Sunnis -- on which the Bush administration counts to undermine the Sunni-led insurgency. The success of this national unity government is a key to bringing American troops home.
The delay in forming this government has sparked the worst chaos in Baghdad since Saddam Hussein fell. So delegates were eager for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to keep his pledge to name the ministers of interior and defense. Those ministers are essential to restoring some security to Iraq.
Suddenly a buzz rippled through the hall.
The session had been canceled.
Squabbles among fellow Shiites over who should get the ministries had prevented Maliki from keeping his promise. That day painted a stark picture of the challenges confronting this national unity government, on which Iraqi and U.S. hopes hang.
Rather than bring Iraqis together, this government has reflected Iraq's fragmentation. The situation may be salvaged, but it will take determined leadership from a handful of key Iraqi politicians, as well as from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.
Lack of power
Maliki tried from the start to act like a leader. He promised a new plan to secure Baghdad and flew to the key oil city of Basra to try to halt wars between Shiite militias and gangs. He made the pledge to name the ministers.
But Iraq's new constitution keeps the prime minister impossibly weak -- a reaction to the Hussein dictatorship. And the Iraqi political culture ties him in knots.
In order to choose his two ministers, Maliki first had to get seven Shiite factions to agree among themselves on the names (they couldn't), then win over Sunnis and Kurds and Khalilzad. The prime minister lacks the power to take decisions on his own.
"We all feel sympathy for the prime minister," I was told by Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi, an adviser to the former prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari. "The constitution puts too many ties on the prime minister, and political leaders give themselves too many privileges."
Indeed, the current system, in which ministries are doled out like fiefs to ethnic and religious parties, has led to incredible corruption.
"Political position in Iraq has become a way to steal money and then leave the country," says one official in the defense ministry, where tens of millions of dollars vanished. With few exceptions, the new crop of ministers, also picked by party, does not appear much better than the old.
This system has made many Iraqis sour on democracy quickly. They are hungry for strong leadership. Over and over, I've heard Iraqis say Hussein could have restored order in two weeks.
This is why it is so crucial for Maliki to be able to act as a national leader who stands above the interests of sectarian parties. But it isn't easy for Maliki to make that leap. For one thing, he has virtually no experienced staff; much of what he does have is limited to his Shiite religious party, the Dawa.
I asked one of the bright lights in the new government, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, what was to be done. Salih, a Kurd whom I met over a kebab feast in his garden with his peshmerga (Kurdish militia) guards, manages to combine ethnic loyalty with a commitment to building an Iraq for all its people.
"Prime Minister Maliki says he wants to transcend his Shia affiliation and act as a national leader," Salih said. "It is incumbent on all of us in Iraq and Iraq's friends in the international community to help us realize that objective."
It is unclear how or if that can be done. But the prospects for Iraq and for U.S. troop withdrawals depend on whether Maliki can lead.
Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.