To Sawa, Sayed Ammar Al-Hakim, Dawa Is our Strategic Ally and We Will Support Mr. AL-Maliki all along

Baghdad, The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, The Private Office: In the context of an interview conducted by the Sawa Radio reporter and broadcaster of the radio program “ما قل ودل” or roughly in English “To the Point”, his Eminence Sayed Ammar Al-Hakim stressed that Iraqi people interact with what comes out of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

 “We are watching the Iraq street and we are present there; we find that there is a strong response from the street, in thousands of social and cultural projects, activities, symposiums, and festivals we have conducted we found that there is considerable rush, wide attendance and zeal shown by the Iraqi citizens in most areas,” his Eminence said.

 Moreover, his Eminence pointed out that powers in this country all have the serious political will to contain any difference in views, arbitrating instead the Constitution and this is what we are all committed to, largely facilitating our task; all want to engage in a fair competitive environment and peaceful atmospheres where love, brotherhood, Islamic morals, and patriotism dominate.

 The interview was done on Sunday afternoon dated 28/9/2008 in the office of His Eminence Mr. Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and the leader of the United Iraqi Alliance bloc; many issues were highlighted in the dialogue and below are some excerpts from the interview:

 Sawa Reporter: In the years that followed the fall of Saddam regime, the Supreme Council, having a number of prominent figures, had a role to play; how do you evaluate the work of these figures?

 Sayed Ammar Al-Hakim: In spite of  the limited powers and capabilities they have during the last four years, the provincial councils were undoubtedly able to deliver more services to citizens such as paving roads and building clinics, schools and other infrastructure facilities; some of these councils were able to achieve giant projects such as the massive projects of Najaf airport  and  building bridges; moreover, Al-Nasiriyah and other Iraqi provinces saw the birth and opening of thousands of significant projects implemented through the so-called Regional Development Budget which is very small funds (3 billions for all Iraq provinces including Kurdistan’s) if compared to the Iraq General Budget of 2008 which is estimated as 70 billion dollars.

Though having such small funds, the provincial councils achieved noteworthy projects and this also means that they are capable of carrying out high percentage of their duties within the limited powers available to them.

 Sawa Reporter: You have representatives in the parliament as well as in the provincial councils; have you ever noted that they deficiently do their duties during the last period?

Sayed Ammar Al-Hakim: No one can claim perfection; there might be inadequate or ill-performance happening somewhere; however, what is important is to identify that deficiency and fix it.

 With respect to our MPs, I think members of Badr and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq blocs are always marked honorably with regular attendance in the parliament sessions; being closely monitored, they would rarely absent themselves from any of the parliament sessions.

 As for women and men from Badr, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and any other Al-Mihrab Martyr foundations, who are representative members in the provincial councils, we also believe that they are, being part of the councils committees, efficient enough to score an acceptable level of effectiveness.

 It is natural that we will review their performances; whether positively or negatively evaluated, their performances will be the benchmark to reselect those women and men as our future nominees for those councils.

 However, the upcoming provincial elections will witness the emergence of new bloods in the lists of our candidates.

 Sawa Reporter: We have noted that Iraqis are reluctant to participate in the upcoming provincial elections and to elect Islamist parties? What is your opinion?

 Sayed Ammar Al-Hakim: There are two points to be considered here; first, I think that  that Iraqis are reluctant to participate in the elections is not true; at the beginning, people would not go to the elections registering centers to update the voter register and we have an explanation for that, they have such a dominant feeling: since a great number of people participated in the previous elections and found their names therein, those people would not check their names again at those centers because their names are still, already recorded there. I think those people need to be educated against such a way of thinking.

 Furthermore, psychologically speaking, people may be growing unzealous to check their names because of other factors such as the slowdown in passing the provincial elections law and the absence of a clear timetable for the elections in question.

 Yet, while the election campaign has not started yet- the psychological factor that may influence and encourage people to take part, a number of different institutions confirm that the today percentage of people going to check their names at the registering centers is 70%  and some polls speak of 66% who want to participate in the elections.

 Second, concerning the people’s unwillingness to support the Islamic political parties in elections, in fact I cannot say to what extent it is precise.

However, as we are watching and being part of Iraqis’ daily life, from our perspective, we the Islamic Supreme Council have found that the Iraqi street is actively and positively responding to our projects; a huge number of people were rushing to attend and enthusiastic to be part in thousands of the social, cultural and humanitarian projects as well as the seminars and festivals we conducted in the majority of areas.

 I believe that the elections would be a good criterion to weigh such speculations. 

Sawa Reporter: The Islamic Supreme Council is accused of being dependent on the tribal side of the electoral propaganda; do you have any studies over the Iraqi people to see their point of view on this issue?

 Sayed Ammar Al-Hakim: Firstly, it is well known that tribes stand for Iraq's social fabric, originating back to thousands of years in Iraq.

No party, side, or group, however, can have control over these clans.

 They are representing a huge social institution having its respective privacy.

 The Islamic Supreme Council, its leadership, and its historical roots back to the Referential Authority of Imam Muhsan Al-Hakeem (may Allah cast mercy on his soul) who paid considerable attention to, communicated with, and respected the privacies of those clans, all found it unshameful to deal with the reality of such an institution.

While we admit however that we have bias towards the Iraq clans, we have gut links with the Iraq elitist communities which are not separated from their tribal roots.

 With regard to our assessments of the Iraqis’ viewpoint over the role of clans in elections, it is well known for everyone that, beside suffering from other problems, people have shortages in services presented to them by the government; part of the shortages may demand more time to be overcome owing to different reasons such as: the country infrastructures that were subject to damaging and devastation for long decades, the terrorism circumstances that hit the country during the last years, and finally part of the problem may be due to ill-performance, shortage, complexity, and slowdown of Iraqi-laws-passing that would not go in line with the new constitutional Iraq.

 Moreover, the new constitution intersects with thousands of resolutions issued by the so-called the Revolution Leading Council. In fact our governmental circles and establishments are still working under those resolutions, enforcing them in all their daily performances.

 Consequently, there would be many problems that lead to the shortage in services that are needed to change such a reality. 

We hear today from the Iraq Prime Minister a series of important decisions, investment opportunities and development of security and this is what makes us look hopefully forward for a promising future for Iraq and the Iraqi citizens.

I do not think that the problem is linked to the Islamic parties as such, especially when it comes to the fact that Iraq successive governments over the past five years were not all Islamic and the crisis of services was present with those governments as well.

 Thus the religious commitment is neither the obstacle to the delivery of services to citizens nor the cause of destruction of Iraq infrastructure and the tremendous shortage it suffers from.

 Strong budgets and highly experienced companies which must contribute and provide opportunities for Iraqis to lead a decent life and prosperity are our reliable tools.

 I believe that we are heading for a new phase where the competition in terms of programs and not of emblems that are characterized by being religious, sectarian, or national.

 Sawa Reporter: Some people say that the Islamic Supreme Council and Dawa Party have differences against a backdrop of accusations from the former to the latter to have formed the Iraq back-up councils by governmental funds and tools; what is the reality of this issue?

 Sayed Ammar Al-Hakim: There is no doubt that the brothers in Dawa Party are the fundamental and strategic ally to those in the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq who continue to support over the past four years two cabinets led by figures from Dawa party; the alliance still exists and we are, still supportive to Mr. Maliki in his mission to the end, Allah willing.

 The difference between the two was a difference in points of view on some issues and I think it is natural that political powers differ with one another in understanding of the Constitution and in the distribution of jurisdictions; the remarks are technical in nature with no political significance; they do not stem from political differences between the Council and Dawa and we both stand in the same trench and we are working with other national powers to build Iraq and make Iraqis prosperous.

 Sawa Reporter: Don’t you think that such differences can grow wider while you both are getting closer to the provincial elections?

Sayed Ammar Al-Hakim: I do not think so because there is serious political will in all the power in the country to contain any difference in views and resorting to the Constitution and this is what we are all committed to in order to largely facilitate our task.

Everybody wants to engage in a fair competition environment and calm atmospheres dominated by the required love, brotherhood, and patriotic and Islamic ethics; each party would assess its political program and it would eventually be the citizen’s decision who to put his/her trust in.

 Sawa Reporter: Do you criticize Dawa party for their recurrent call to maintain central governance and for the centrality of Baghdad in particular?

 Sayed Ammar al-Hakim: We believe that a strong Iraq must have a strong federal government and that the authority of must always be strongly present to play part in solving Iraq files; we support such a vision.

Nevertheless, we also believe that Iraq provinces must be strong too. Iraq’s strength lies in the strength of its components, of its establishments, and of its decision-making circles; we need (a) strong Prime Minister, Presidency, Parliament, ministries, judiciary system, and local governments.

Today we face the necessity to respect all the jurisdictions and empower all the Iraq state components and authorities to fulfill their jurisdictions in order to reach a strong Iraq.