MPs trying to represent Iraqi people’s will: Expert

Press TV has interviewed Zayd al-Isa, Iraq affairs expert in London, about Iraqi lawmakers reportedly voting to unseat Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri and his deputies amid a major dispute in the chamber over a plan to overhaul the cabinet line-up to counter corruption.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How do you feel about this issue about Salim al-Jabouri and him apparently being ousted by MPS?

Isa: Well what actually happened is that MPs who were doing a sit-in, protesting against the ... wavering by Salim al-Jabouri of not actually paving the way for a session in order for Haider al-Abadi to present his first list, a list of independent  technocratic officials who the Iraqi people and the representatives have been pushing hard for because they are sick and tired and fed up to the back teeth with officials that are appointed by the leaders of the political blocs and because he did not attend, he was given a one-hour deadline to attend, he adamantly refused to attend because he knew that his removal was at the forefront of the list of objectives.

So they moved ahead with utilizing part of the constitution to vote to withdraw confidence in him and oust him and by the way it was not anything personal, it was against the committee which was headed by him as Parliamentary Speaker. Now for him to come out and reject, fiercely reject that decision by the parliamentarians who are supposed to represent the Iraqi people and who acknowledged that they had adequate numbers in the parliament that speaks volumes about the defiance and arrogance that actually the parliamentarians are faced with when it comes to dealing with the Parliamentary Speaker who tried to sow the seeds and set the stage for further sectarian strife by saying that this decision has been promoted and pushed by a desire which is actually singing from the same Saudi hymn sheet or echoing the Saudi accusations that this is part and parcel of marginalizing and alienating the Sunni community and as the representative of the Sunni community he has been targeted for that particular purpose which defies [logistical] sense in terms of that two other representatives of the Shias and the Kurds were actually ousted in the same process and ample time has given till next Saturday for the parliament to appoint a new Speaker of Parliament.

So it is very important to point out that there are other forces, particularly the Saudi forces who did not hide away or did not make any secret of its varmint opposition and fierce rejection of the entire political process and its overarching goal trying to destabilize, discredit, derail the entire political process with the main objective of dismantling the democratic achievements of the Iraqi people.

Now the Iraqi people have made it clear they want a list of technocrats, independent people who are not affiliated to political blocs which is exactly the first list that Abadi has presented on the 31st of March. What they saw is a steadfast determination by the Iraqi Parliament Speaker to give some of the leaders of the political blocs ample time to derail that initiative and to come up with a new list of ministers who belong to those political blocs and answerable to those political blocs which basically defeats the entire purpose of political reform and fighting corruption and also making sure that there are tangible concrete measures in place in order to fight the widespread graft taking into consideration that Iraq is facing unprecedented circumstances.

So what we witnessed in the parliament is simply parliamentarians that are trying to speak their mind, trying to represent the will of the Iraqi people who are being totally disregarded and their case has been dismissed by the head of the Parliament Speaker who is basically backed up by some political blocs that are steadfastly determined to maintain their overall dominance of not only the parliament but the government.

We have seen the Sadrists, we have seen the Dawa Party, we have seen other political blocs asking and demanding complete and total change. We have seen other parties led by the Islamic Supreme Council, Ammar al-Hakim steadfastly determined to maintain the status quo and to maintain the dominance of the political blocs over keeping and maintaining ministers who are in a highly important position ...   

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