MESOP SOUTH KURDISTAN : Gorran movement may no longer be in charge of its fate

By Mufid Abdulla – Kurdistan Tribune – 13-4-2014 – It was back on 18th September 2013 that the Gorran leader told his followers: “we must earn the power .. . it is not going to be given to us by the two ruling parties”. More than six month have pased since Gorran, according to the votes, became the second force in Kurdistan. Yet for months the party has not known what positions, if any, it will get in the long-awaited new cabinet.

According to the pro-KDP Rudaw website, the eighth Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet is being formed and will be announced in the next few days. Rudaw says Gorran’s main ‘share’ will be two major KRG ministerial posts. One is the Minister for Peshmarga and the second is the Minister for Finance. If this statement is correct, through these two departments Gorran’s fate will be handed over to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), because Gorran will then have much less room for manoeuvre than it should. Gorran must know that the Peshmarga ministry is a front to disguise the reality of forces controlled by the PUK and KDP militias. It is a similar story with the finance ministry. The KRG’s vast oil monies are controlled, not by the state, but by the KDP. Taxes on exported goods are controlled by the KDP and PUK. There is no central bank in south Kurdistan. The finance department’s funds come from the KDP and PUK and, if Gorran nominally takes over, these parties will still control its budget. Have the two old ruling parties come to terms with Gorran in order to put the party’s promised reforms into action? I doubt it. It seems that Mr Nawshirwan Mustafa knows his fate is no longer in his own hands. We can now understand why the KDP has so much had the upper hand in this cabinet formation process. The Gorran leadership is so thirsty for power, posts and payments and therefore the KDP knows that Gorran can no longer play to win from an opposition platform.