The Iraqi councils

[Michael Pollak <mpollak@xxxxxxxxx>]

[So this is the basis of democracy, huh?]

New York Times
November 30, 2003

   BUILDING DEMOCRACY

Iraqis Learn Bureaucracy at Town Hall Meetings

   By JOEL BRINKLEY

   B AGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 29 They are the vanguard of democracy in Iraq,
   and they like to say they are a most unhappy lot.

   "I resent my work; it's very frustrating," said Imad Salih, shaking
   his head, "I hate it."

   Mr. Salih is among more than 800 men and women who were elected, or
   selected, to serve on 88 Baghdad neighborhood councils, nine district
   councils and one city council, at the encouragement of the American
   occupation authorities.

   They have no authority, no budget, no real power. And for many Iraqis,
   that is demeaning, if not insulting.

   The national Governing Council ignores them. Government ministers will
   not see them. The City Council members do not merit much respect even
   at City Hall. A few days ago the lobby receptionist told the City
   Council chairman he did not recognize him and at first refused to let
   him in the building.

   On top of those problems, some local council members have become
   targets for anti-American guerrillas. One member of the Mansour
   council reported during a meeting last week that he had found a hand
   grenade in his house along with a note ordering him to stop working
   for the council.

   Now the council members, and others like them chosen by the Americans
   in cities and towns across Iraq, are part of the acrimonious debate
   over the future of the American plan to speed up the transition to
   self-rule.

   Under the American plan, the council members are to play a role in
   choosing the "transitional assembly" that is to select the next
   interim government, though some of the council members hope to remain
   on the ensuing councils.

   Hardly anyone, however, seems to think playing a role in the
   transition is a good idea.

   "These people who have been appointed, we can't say all of them are
   loyal to the new Iraq," said Jalal Talabani, who is the current head
   of the Governing Council.

   Mowaffak al-Rubaie, another council member, said some members "are
   former Baathists," referring to the party of Saddam Hussein.

   No one anticipated this. When they set up the local councils, the
   Americans appeared to have believed that they were performing an
   important civic function for the Iraqi people. It is the Americans who
   pay them: City Council members get $296 a month; those on the district
   council receive $176; and the neighborhood council members are paid
   $104.

   Even with their frustrations, many of the Iraqis chosen to serve say
   they have been proud to be part of the experiment. What is more, many
   of those council members' friends and neighbors are clamoring to be on
   the councils, too. And even those council members who clench their
   fists as they complain about their lack of any real power will
   begrudgingly admit that they appreciate the opportunity.

   "Most Iraqis don't know the meaning of democracy," said Yaquob Yousiff
   al-Bakhatti, who is on the Baghdad City Advisory Council. "So this is
   a good thing. It is above good."

   The American military, in concert with civilian occupation
   authorities, created the city's elaborate council system last summer
   out of need and civic ambition.

   "The purpose was to lay the foundation for local democratic
   governance, but at the same time, the military needed people to
   communicate with," said Lt. Col. Joe Rice, a former small-town mayor
   from Colorado who helped create the councils and continues to work
   with them.

   A look at the councils' work may provide a glimpse of what democracy
   in Iraq will look like.

   At a Baghdad City Council meeting last week, 27 council members 23 men
   and four women were ranged around a large rectangular table in a
   formal meeting hall at City Hall. The council chairman, Adnan Abdul
   Sahid, sat at a raised dais. To his right, at the short end of the
   rectangle, sat a group of American military and civilian officers,
   including Colonel Rice, each with a translator whispering in his ear.

   Late in the morning the council plunged headlong into a discussion of
   national health-care financing. In capsule form they articulated
   problems that, in the United States, have consumed millions of hours
   of study and debate over the last decade. The Iraqis disposed of them
   quickly.

   "We have been trying to finance the system from our own revenues," one
   councilman explained. "But it isn't working. The prices are too high
   for the citizens, but they aren't enough for the hospitals. The
   minister of health has ordered prices reduced by 50 percent. But we
   should cancel this whole system of self-financing. We need a system
   that makes sure everyone gets complete medical care."

   Without dispute, the council agreed to send a letter to the Health
   Ministry calling for the abolition of free-market health-care
   financing. And that, some Americans say, is the chief weakness of the
   infant councils.

   "They jump to big conclusions without enough critical thinking or
   study," said one American adviser. "It's almost an emotional thing.
   It's getting better, but it will take time."

   At the same time, the council members are being given rude lessons in
   government bureaucracy. Later during the meeting, midway through a
   discussion of problems many Iraqis have acquiring a reliable supply of
   propane canisters for cooking, a council member blurted out in
   somewhat surprised frustration: "Whenever I try to investigate the
   problem, everyone gives me 6,000 excuses. I can't find the truth!"

   During the 35 years of Baath Party rule of Iraq, democracy was as
   foreign a concept as freedom of speech. So when local military
   commanders began encouraging prominent people in their neighborhoods
   to form the councils over the summer, none of the officers knew what
   to expect.

   "It was pretty rough at first," said Capt. Joseph Escandon, the
   military commander in the Gazalia neighborhood. "They didn't have much
   experience with this democracy thing."

   Captain Escandon said he more or less chose the council members. But
   in many other areas, rudimentary elections were held.

   In the Aadel neighborhood last May, Iraqis called their neighbors to a
   meeting at the high school by broadcasting an announcement from an
   ambulance as it cruised the streets. Once congregated, people cast
   ballots for a handful of sometimes-reluctant nominees.

   Khalid Mahdi, a council member for the Aadel neighborhood, said the
   primary concern there was security, so the council hired 38 guards,
   using money raised by selling Baath Party office equipment.

   Six of the guards protect three schools; 32 guards protect the council
   members.

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