By Shaker Anbari *
At last the Arab summit in Baghdad has ended
and the distinguishing point in holding it was the week of the suffering
of the people of Baghdad, closed roads and the disruption of official
working hours.
Security forces secured the atmosphere and no
explosions or surprising stories disturbed the summit, which enjoyed the
lowest level of acting, projects, and decisions. There was general,
prior agreement to avoid any file that would address the fragile Arab
contract and the caution surrounding Iraq.
The most prominent
gain behind the success of the meeting was taken by Baghdad after twenty
years of ostracism, siege, suspicion, and internal conflicts as a
result of sectarianism, nationalism, political disorders and unstable
experience in drawing a clear identity.
So, the delegations have
left, but the struggle for power, identity and democracy still goes on
and were not affected by the success achieved in the reunification of
Arabs within the walls of the capital.
There is a general popular
conviction that the success of the summit will not change anything
important in the course of the internal situation.
Another
popular conviction is the existence of the sense of revenge Iraqis have,
from an unknown source, but something that hits in all directions. The
rest that the sense of revenge took during the summit is like the
warrior stoppage that will return again in an unclear vision about what
this unknown perpetrator want from Iraqis.
Before, and after, the
summit, citizens are humiliated in the street at each checkpoint,
intersection and yard, and they asked to move away from the cars of
officials.
Revenge in the official circles is manifested in the
killings and bribes scattered at the doors of every employee,
favoritism, and disregarding the dignity of a person who leaves his
work, and his shop, and time, to get a signature.
But if he sat
in his house, the curse of this world turns to him from the small screen
that broadcasts seminars and dialogues between politicians,
commentators and analysts who mostly lie, fabricate excuses and distort
facts.
blatant mixing of papers (loyalty to different parties)
Moreover,
there is a blatant shuffling of papers that are not satisfied by the
scattered bodies of victims after each blast, bomb and armed robbery.
Analysts, experts and members of Parliament, give the day after various
pretexts, even contradictory to what they said the day before, depending
on the whims of their parties, coalitions and communities.
Someone
wants to take revenge on these people with all its sects, ethnic groups
and religions, and but the concept of this revenge remains unknown,
because it hits left and right like a ghost, without revealing its
identity, as if it seeks to remove centuries of civilization produced by
this people.
It takes revenge on the country's philosophers, doctrines, books, heritage, history, future, and present.
Some
don't want our lives to go on easily. This is shown through the
accumulation of clashes and the daily and general dilemmas, that can be
resolved in a way that saves permanent suffering inherited year after
year.
The simplest example of this is the overcrowding created by
control points that leaves but one single, narrow path for thousands of
cars to pass through, sometimes without the presence of security men
who inspect vehicles.
There is a severe housing crisis in all
provinces and the obvious solution is the establishment of companies and
construction of housing units in each province. To this end we have a
rapid and extraordinary way to resolve the crisis that is reflected in
sky-high rents, where real estate in Baghdad has became equivalent to
that of London in selling and renting.
After the passage of
almost a decade, electricity remains the biggest social crisis we face.
It is known that time solves all problems, but here it is noted that the
problem of electricity gets worse year after year.
And this done
at the expense of the prosperity of the generators market, fuel trading
on the black market and the profits of generator operators. All of
which raise doubts about the seriousness of the efforts made by the
state and its ministries to resolve this problem in the life of the
individual.
What is the purpose behind the creation of such a
social and political crisis and the treatment of simple phenomena such
as the emos, leisure clubs, liquor, and women's clothing and youth
fashion whether in the street or in public institutions?
Is it
worthy that such social phenomena that exists among the peoples of the
whole earth turns into a national crisis and becomes a concern to all of
the press, satellite TV, police, the Council of Representatives,
international press and human rights organizations?
There are
alternatives to such solutions that do not threaten the civil peace, and
do not hinder the effort of prosecuting financial and administrative
corruption, fake contracts and certificates as well as counterfeit and
organized crime gangs.
This would address the imbalance in the
application of the law and a create a successful judicial environment
that does not raise suspicion and doubt all around.
The
philosophy of raising an issue among public opinion to cover another is
one tested by the failing regimes. It was practiced by more than one
regime but in the end this didn't work bu accelerated the moment of the
big explosion among citizens.
Future elections may turn things up
and down among the creators of the crisis philosophy to put them at the
end of the list in the countries that have an electoral system.
Our
problems are well known and they are: the law of parties, the issue of
Kirkuk, political sectarianism, submitting corrupt and counterfeiters to
public trials, reliance on competencies not loyalties, returning
millions of Iraqis to their country including thousands of scientific,
cultural, and artistic minds, emptying universities from the ideologies
especially the religious one, the relationship between the center and
the provinces including the relationship with the region, the
independence of the Iraqi decision from interventions and building civil
society for all components and parties, individuals and communities in
addition to having equal rights.
Everything mentioned above is
the infrastructure of the confused and concerning situation in Iraq. The
infrastructure that was not seen by the visitors to Baghdad, who did
not sleep their one night on the banks of the Tigris, and did not enjoy
the Iraqi fish behind the trees of Abu Nawas Corniche.
The Arab
summit has ended, but the map of our phantom crisis will not end soon.
It is in the stage of exacerbation and explosion, in the absence of
wisdom, and the presence of a mentality of revenge on the other.
RN/SS/AKnews
*Shaker Anbari is an Iraqi writer and media commentator