Shaswar Abdulwahid, the president of the New Generation Movement (Newey Nwê), Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan, January 2020. Photo: Abdulwahid’s FB
SULAIMANI, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— New Generation (Newey Nwê) Movement President Shaswar Abdulwahid has said that Iraqi Kurdistan Region has more than enough wealth and that the ruling parties do not need to resort to theft in order for their members to thrive.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Abdulwahid criticized the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), saying that they should give up “looting and destruction.”
“How much do the KDP and the PUK take for themselves? We will pay them double by law, but give up corruption and wasting the money of this country,” he said.
“The wealth, money, and revenue of Kurdistan is plenty to give them to power through law and, even then, billions of dollars will remain for the people, the country’s development, and job opportunities,” he added.
Abdulwahid argued that the revenue produced by the Kurdish region’s economy is enough to provide a better life for its people.
“If its revenue and the natural resources had been in the hands of a clever and skillful government, the people of the Kurdistan Region would be living in comfort and their lives would have changed.”
For many years, transparency organizations, lawmakers, and international organizations have accused senior KRG officials of corruption, especially with regard to expropriation of the Kurdistan’s oil income.
The government has long promised action to combat graft, but has never made much headway.
Kurdistan considered as the most corrupted part of Iraq. According to Kurdish lawmakers and leaked documents billions of dollars are missing from Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil revenues.
The ruling Barzani clan have been routinely accused by critics of amassing huge wealth from oil business for the family instead of serving the population. KDP party leader and ex-president Massoud Barzani remains the most powerful leader in the shadow according to analysts. Massoud’s son Masrour is the Kurdistan region’s prime minister and his nephew Nechirvan Barzani is president of Kurdistan.
There have been few, if any, high-level corruption prosecutions resulting in substantive penalties recently that would back up KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani’s assertions of progress against systemic abuse.
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