Calling for Organizing the Work of the Civil Society Organizations, Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim Says Elections Is a Redline and without such Elections Bad Possibilities Are the Most Plausible
Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, called for organizing the work of the civil society organizations through the law that makes them carry on their activities, and ensures their independency from the direct intervention of the public institutions, considering such organizations as one of the main products of the fair communal contemporary state that need to play a more important role and preserve their professionalism. He said an ill society produces ill politicians and policies, stressing the importance of a deepened political awareness in the society since it is one of the main requirements of the political action. To him, the spread of awareness is one of the most dangerous tasks undertaken by the civil society organizations, yet even outdoing the educational institutions whose role is only giving regular education, instead of educational culture. Moreover, he maintained that the elections are a redline and without such elections, all possibilities, often bad ones, are the most plausible, urging the civil society organizations to play their real role by spreading the right culture of the difference and come up with initiatives that serve the society. Here, he reminded them that they are not political parties, but organizations working in different domains, including the political one, and whose role is to control, detect and advise, expecting the rise of communal movements that can contribute to the required reformation if the civil society organizations are committed to their role.
This came during the speech delivered by his Eminence during the 2nd national conference of civil society's leaders and activists in his office in Baghdad, Saturday 2/11/2013.
General Constants of the Political Process and the Diverse Policies
His Eminence explained that the political process in Iraq has been, and is still, facing lots of difficulties and challenges, and took serious arbitrary turning points, warning against the consequences of such tendency and the accountability by history for all, underlining the general constants of the political process and the diverse policies, including the unity of the country and the people, the sovereignty, the constitution, the destiny, the democracy, the liberties, the justice, the security, the stability, the development and the welfare, while policies differ since they are the product of the different parties in their interaction with them. He maintained that the challenges the political process has been facing since 2003 still exist to this date: Terrorism, with all its consequences, still represent the major danger to the unity of Iraq and the Iraqis. In his opinion, terrorism is not a mere individual act of persons that refuse the current change, rather a project funded and supported by institutions and states that do not which to see Iraq recovering and rising up. Here, he reiterated that facing terrorism is not the pure responsibility of the government, yet a big communal effort that must involve all the society forces, including the civil society organizations, through condemnation and the spread of the culture of tolerance, national unity, building and development, stating that the difference of viewpoints is a positive human phenomenon and the idea of election is inspired from the multiplicity of opinions and the difference of visions, and that the difference must be conforming to the law and subject to the respect of the constitution. Furthermore, he explained that the political process is one of the most activities that highlight such difference, since it concerns the interests of all parties and of the nations, and everybody has a responsibility of directing such difference towards building a healthy social culture, not towards division and clash.
Civil Society Must Carry out its Reformatory Obligations
His Eminence called on the civil society institutions to carry out their reformatory obligations, not only to criticize, since negative criticism is a social symptom, describing the civil society's leaders as the human revolutionaries of any community, because they act with the community and in its service, not with the state and in its service, saying the awareness starts from the human being himself who transfers it to others, and we must bet on the spread of awareness in our society and link things to each other. He wished that the people can recognize that a part of its suffering is due to its choices and stick to its rights and not waive them, since the citizens has the sovereignty and the superior power in the country and it is them who grant the trust and legitimacy, and they must know how to exercise such power, otherwise they will pay for it. Furthermore, he remarked that there are wrong policies and both wrong and unfair policies: the first being unintentional and can be reversed once errors are detected while the second is intentionally exercised by parties to satisfy their interests and thirst for power.
Efforts to Build a Terrorist State
Regionally, Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim said the region is witnessing an important regional change that will reshape it, adding that through violence and killing, terrorism is trying to expand its geographic limits taking advantage of the regional turmoil and the conflicting policies of the regions' states, warning against efforts being made to create a terrorist state that would take control over a part of the western territories of Iraq and another part of the Syrian eastern and southern territories all the way up to the Turkish borders. He explained that the attacks are intended to create a popular sense of revenge while targeting the state foundations in al Anbar and Nineveh to destroy the legitimacy of the state in these provinces, so that they fall under its control and the claimed terrorist state. He said, "unfortunately neither the government nor the political and tribal forces in both provinces dealt harshly with such attacks", warning against more intensive terrorist acts amidst security, political, public and tribal negligence in these regions.
