Study The Past If You Would Define The Future

By Dr. Bayad Jamal Ali

We always here the usual literature about the greatness of any nation and its past glories, Kurdistan and Iraq is no exception of that, even with its troubled history, yet it has historical points that the nation is proud of, in addition being in the Mesopotamian area which Iraqis are very proud of and mention on a daily bases. The nostalgia is not only felt for the far history, but there are many discussions that argue the country and the region were better 50 years ago in the matters of management, social interactions, religious tolerance and many other things.

While we are dreaming of our past and can’t get over our nostalgic feelings, we notice that other countries that don’t have considerable history, yet have surpassed us from being miserable poor countries to highly educated technological and wealthy countries. An example of such country is Singapore, which started as a country suffering of poverty with a GDP per capita of less than $500 to a first world country with a GDP per capita of more than $70,000. When a country can manage to increase the average income of its citizen’s one hundred and forty folds in a scope of fifty years, then this country has a success story and Kurds and Iraqis should be able to learn a few lessons from Singapore.

History is a source of learning but without proper actions about the future history will be useless. Kurdistan had a good shot at being able to create an economic infrastructure with the large amounts of money received from its share of the Iraqi government as well as oil sales, but unfortunately lack of long term plans and solely depending on one source of income crashed the economy by not having contingency plans.

In the matter of population and size, Kurdistan and Singapore are similar in population size with around 5.5 Million for both, however in the country size Singapore is 719 km² whereas Kurdistan of Iraq 40,643 km² without the disputed area which together could form around 80,000 km². The land and agricultural resources that are available for Kurdistan is not available for Singapore yet they are managed poorly, it is important to keep in mind resources and size will not matter if the education level as well as economic productivity level is not utilized.

Singapore lacks the natural resources of oil and gas and others resources, but that wasn’t an obstacle against its strategy in putting itself as a significant center of finance and logistics, in addition to focusing on high technology industries which resulted in a huge leap in the country`s GDP. Thus, Kurdistan is much richer in the matter of natural resources, but it became an obstacle against focusing on economic reforms and the building of an economic system and strategy, but actually became a victim of the Dutch disease.

On the other hand, one of the challenges of Kurdistan is in its geopolitics that is creating many obstacles toward many goals, and Singapore also was born out of a regional conflict between Malaysia and Indonesia. And due to the difficult position of being caught between those two larger and more powerful countries it was expected that Singapore will not take long to fall, but the government was successful in balancing its regional relations hand to hand in the internal economic development and create plans not only to have a successful economy, but also a strong army equipped with the best training as well as the highest technological weapons.

Singapore was born in the midst of severe economic challenges with no natural resources along with massive political and social difficulties, yet it managed to create a success story for other countries in just few decades. It is time for Kurdistan to look toward the future and have a vision to the nation where we want to reach and learn to overcome the challenges we face today, and we face in the future.

Kurdistan: Between rule of law and rule of politics

(This artice was published in the Jerusalem Post on 2nd of May 2016)
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Kurdistan-Between-rule-of-law-and-rule-of-politics-452889

By Dr. Bayad Jamal Ali

During the past two years, and even before, Kurdistan has been in a critical spot, which resulted in tensions both politically and legally. It is crucial to understand the current relationship in the region between the political institutions, the citizens and the rule of law.

The question that must be asked is: does rule of law govern the Kurdistan region, or it is being governed by arbitrary decisions of individual government officials? This question is difficult to answer, both in the legislative as well as the political arena, however, a member of parliament in the Kurdistan region stated that 70 percent of the legislation issued by the parliament is not being enforced by the executive branch.

Moreover, the ongoing term issue of the Kurdistan region presidency led to the freezing of the legislative branch and the closing down of the Kurdish parliament, and created a severe tension between the political parties surrounding different interpretations of the law, and also the issue of whether given the political status of the region along with the war against Islamic State this is a suitable time for change in the presidency. This legal-political obstacle that the Kurdistan region is facing is a critical moment in which to determine whether Kurdistan as an entity abides by rule of law or whether it is essentially a dictatorship.

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In addition to the current internal disputes, the Kurdistan region as part of Iraq is located in the bottom percentile of Worldwide Governance Indicators.

Currently Europe, too is facing a related crisis, having to decide the question of whether security or civil liberties and respect the rule of law will win the day in the face of the terrorist threat Europe is facing.

Rule of law is a key foundation of any civilized society, and its significance is not limited to civil liberties and politics but also economic development and integrity. Kurdistan is facing as serious test right now, and the world is watching to see if, as a nation, it will pass.

The author is an academic and businessman. He holds a doctorate in Business Administration from the Paris School of Business and other academic degrees from the Harvard Business School, London Business School and the American University of Iraq – Sulai.