Iraq News Now

Luqman Hma Salih | Exclusive to Ekurd.net

A Team of Vipers with a broken train is starting to move from Hewlêr [Erbil], capital of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. It is a cabal of members from the three Kurdish parties and there will be lots of gaslighting. In June 2019, Masrour Barzani became a leader of this team. He and his squad established the Kurdistan Regional Government’s new cabinet. Of content and trait, this Team of Vipers is worse than previous cabinets.

So, how do people in Kurdistan pile their wishes on these people who were chosen by the politburos of the three Kurdish parties: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Gorran movement? The members of this coalition came together after biting and breaking the necks of their friends in their parties. Therefore, I consider these Vipers the most dangerous cabinet in the history of the Kurdistan Region.

In the onset of the formation of a government, Masrour Barzani, the leader of this faction, made an outright lie. He said they are given a government that owes billions of dollars and it seemed like he was saying that his government will not be able to improve the finance of people of Kurdistan’s income. This government clique lies so blatantly as well because they are setting up a precedent. Once they tell a huge lie to the people, most are not sure if anything the government says is true. As a result, keeping people unsteady and off-kilter is the goal of this team.

Alienating Ashti Hawrami, the former Minister for Natural Resources in the Kurdistan Regional Government, by the leader of the team who gaslighted us that he could combat corruption and will carry out reforms. When Masrour Barzani removed Hawrami’s name on the list of the cabinet, this shocked everyone.

In fact, if there was the rule of law in Kurdistan, Hawrami would be in jail. For nearly fourteen years, he did not prove his commitment to transparency in the oil and gas sector in Kurdistan and did not send all the information appropriately about that sector to general opinion and press.

In attracting followers, The Team of Vipers wears people down, which is one of the insidious things about gaslighting. It is done gradually over time. Deference and courtesy of the leaders of three parties in a new coalition of the government will cause people to not place hope in any government that it can reform the system. Then, this faction will use propaganda to make people believe that they could not reform. Therefore, it is doubtful to people that anyone can do it. Ultimately, Masrour Barzani does not want to appear irresponsible, so he makes every effort to make up an excuse – a lie- to save face.

The past political activity of Masrour Barzani does not qualify him for leadership of government administration. How can the members of this team convince us to forget the killing of Sardasht Osman, a young journalist and well-known person among critical thinkers in Hewlêr? Since 2010, Barzani has been accused of killing Osman. Why have not one of the council members in the first of the sessions of council of ministers asked Barzani why he killed Osman? This is utter bankruptcy of morals.

At the same time, there is a group of bullies who praise and eulogize Masrour Barzani in the media, on some fake website and on Facebook. In fact, these bullies try to align people against those who criticize the power of Barzani as a leader of The Team of Vipers. However, Barzani is a master at manipulating and finding the people he knows will stand by him no matter what and he uses this bullying to his benefit. Clearly, he and his Team of Vipers rely on bullying to evade frank criticism about the new cabinet.

The facts are simple and we can say the scary part of this faction is that each member has been placed in the Team of Vipers according to the mood and request of one of the politburo’s three Kurdish parties. As much as their request and personal agenda in the Kurdish parties have compelled, they do not proceed with the public agenda of Kurdish people.

So, the high probability is that these four years will be a terrible year and the government will try to silence the voice of the opposing people. Undoubtedly, the Kurdistan Region Security Council supports Masrour Barzani. So, it is likely that, due to the small criticism against him, Barzani’s government will shut down many more media channels. In conclusion, the civil conflict that occurred in the last 10 years will continue. Without firing a shot, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Gorran movement helped Masrour Barzani take control, which is the beginning of the destruction of democracy in Kurdistan.

Luqman Hma Salih, a Kurdish writer and student in the Minnesota State Community and Technical College in USA. Salih is a senior contributing writer for Ekurd.net, see below.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Ekurd.net or its editors.

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