Monday 12 May 2008

Letters

Prelude: Last February Dr. Muhammad-Ali Zainy attended a reception in the London Iraqi embassy made in honour of Dr. Mowaffak Al-Rubaie (Iraq’s National Security Advisor) and handed him a copy of an article (in Arabic, copy attached) regarding the draft Iraqi oil law. Dr. Rubaie, in turn, sent him a letter of appreciation and thanks. In the aftermath of this response, a couple of interesting letters were exchanged, reflecting the two men’s views of the political situation in Iraq. The letters are shown below:

From: Mowaffak AlRubaie

Sent: 21 February 2008 18:37

To: Muhammad-Ali Zainy

Subject: Salam

الدكتور محمد علي الزيني المحترم

اود ان اشكرك كثيراً على المعلومات القيمة التي ارسلتها لي في السفارة العراقية في لندن وهذا انما يدل على وطنيتك العالية اولاً وعلى حرصك على ثروات بلدك العراق واتمنى لك الصحة والموفقية وان يبقى التواصل قائماً بيننا وانا مستعد الى مد يد العون لك في اي وقت وبما يخدم العراق

Dr. Muhammad-Ali Zainy, Esq.

I would like to thank you very much for the valuable information you gave me at the Iraqi embassy in London. This only shows your genuine patriotism and care for the wealth of your country, Iraq. I wish you good health and success, hoping that the contact between us will continue, and I am ready to extend my help to you in the service of Iraq.

DrMowaffak al Rubaie

Iraq's National Security Advisor



From: Muhammad-Ali Zainy

Sent: 14 March 2008 18:17

To: 'Mowaffak Al Rubaie'

Subject: RE: Salam

Importance: High


Dear Dr. Mowaffak,

Thank you very much for your message of 21 February, 2008. It is only refreshing to receive a reply from an Iraqi politician since, I must admit, I never had a response or feedback from a high-ranking Iraqi politician currently in power when I sent them my articles or my concerns regarding the situation in Iraq.

It was nice to see you in the Iraqi Embassy in London after a hiatus of 5 years, during which time a lot of things happened to our country, some good but most bad. The last time I saw you in Iraq

was in the Republican Palace in June 2003. I was living there (in a caravan) and working as an "Oil Advisor" when you came and spent some three days, as I remember, talking with Bremmer about Iraqi issues, including, perhaps, formation of the Interim Governing Council, of which you became a member. A couple of months later, I resigned out of deep disappointment and went back to my work in London, believing in serving my country in my own way, while you stayed on to be part of the Iraqi establishment and an icon of post-Saddam Iraq.

What I see now, after these five years, is a crumbling Iraq with un-reconciled people, corrupt government, self-interested parties and politicians, crippled economy, battered infrastructure, rampant unemployment, absent basic services, severe lack of peace and security, and a political gridlock with no party in power giving in - not even one millimetre of compromise - to form a government of "patriotic technocrats" to take over the dysfunctional ministries presently run by incompetent and amateurish politicians.

Dr. Rubai you are, essentially, a very good man and very patriotic too. In the middle of the ongoing horrendous corruption and wholesale stealing of Iraq's public wealth, no one can claim you are a corrupt man, not at all! And I vividly remember that evening in the Iraqi embassy in London when you pleaded with us to ask ourselves at the end of each day, just before going to bed, what good have we done during that day for our country Iraq, and if the answer was yes we have done something good - however small it may have been - then we could go for a good-night sleep! I was deeply moved by that patriotic plea which, incidentally, reminded of a plea to the American people by the late President John F. Kennedy who said "Ask not what America can do for you but what you can do for America ". But, then again, what practical benefit can we bring to Iraq if most of what we can do falls in the realm of mere rhetoric, as long as we remain in the diaspora?

There are now thousands upon thousands upon thousands of good Iraqi men and women who chose self-exile and who can do a tremendous job for Iraq's re-building and revival, but how could they be effective for that matter while being outside Iraq? Your answer might be that the doors of Iraq are open for them and they can come back and serve their country, each with his/her own talent, just as you are doing now. My answer is that you are now part of the establishment and you have insured your own security, but how can those potential Iraqi returnees protect themselves from being killed or kidnapped, let alone getting engaged in effectively serving their country, at a time when those in government, ruling Iraq, are mostly selfish and inward-looking and consider those returning exiles as a threat to their power?

I was very happy indeed when I recently heard in the news that you and Deputy Prime Minister Berhem Salih went to Basrah to reclaim the vital Iraqi port of "Um Qasr" from the hands of the controlling militias, by deploying the Iraqi army to take over. This was a step long overdue, since how can a country be run properly when, at the same time, there are militias - sometimes allied with gangs of crime engaged in stealing, kidnapping and killing - who have practically stripped the elected government of its power to rule, and spread havoc in the cities of Iraq, particularly in Basrah (Iraq's economic capital), and put the Iraqi citizens' lives and their property in constant danger?

This illegal control and the necessity to eradicate it also apply -and maybe more so - to the Iraqi ministries which have become under the hegemony of certain political parties in power. This brings to my mind, as an example, the formation of the Jafary government in early 2005 when a certain Director General in the office of the Council of Ministers contacted me by telephone and offered me the cabinet job of oil minister. After thinking the matter over, I decided to accept the offer, only to realise later that the Iraqi oil ministry, through a process of division of power, had become a fiefdom of a particular party and the oil minister was merely a tool in the hands of that party. Needless to mention, the oil minister's job went at that time, with the help of some family influence, to Ibrahim Bahr al-Olom, who was later replaced by another surrogate of the controlling party. A few months later, when I was offered the job again, by the same Director General, in a pending cabinet reshuffle, my answer was a vehement no! I also explained to him in an electronic letter, copy attached, that I will come to Iraq, within a group called "Pioneers for Reconstruction and Development" and will run, within the group, for parliament in the end-2005 general elections. But, alas, the political arena in Iraq at that time was dangerously charged on sectarian and ethnic bases and eventually crystallised into the identities of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. There was, therefore, no room whatsoever for some patriotic technocrats, like us, whose only goal was to properly serve their country, to compete in a general election polarised as such - so we simply lost.

The shameful episode of political parties controlling certain Iraqi ministries must come to an end, and, more importantly, the tragic sectarian polarisation and division of the Iraqi people in the general elections into Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds must come to an end!!!

When I saw you last month I handed you a published article - essentially a plea to the Iraqi parliament, copy attached - concerning the draft Iraqi oil and gas law. A couple of weeks later, I attended a conference in Paris about Iraqi oil policies. I am hereby attaching a copy of the paper I presented to the conference for your review, as it contains a road map for the re-building of Iraq's economy and setting it on a path of sustainable economic development.

The end of next year will see Iraq's second general parliamentary elections. I am hoping to see you there, perhaps as a rival, as I intend to run for parliament again. I can envisage you running within a Shiite coalition list and myself running within a democratic coalition list. However, the list's name should not be that important. What should be vitally important, though, is for the list to be open for the general Iraqi public to assess and scrutinize. The closed lists of the last parliamentary elections produced, as I am sure you will agree, incompetent and, even, some worthless parliamentarians, who represented not the Iraqi people but the party leaders who selected them. The result was a disaster, to put it charitably! What the Iraqi people got from that election was a self-interested parliament, almost completely dissociated from the general public's needs, interests and aspirations, and very much bound by narrow party politics, with a hitherto pathetic performance that will run down as a stigma in the political history of modern Iraq.

Until then, I pray that Almighty God will guard you and provide you with the vigour and power to faithfully serve our country and our beloved Iraqi people.

With best personal regards,

Muhammad-Ali Zainy

P.S. I request your permission to have this correspondence plus your pending reply (together with a pertinent Arabic translation) published for the review of the Iraqi people. Thank you.

----- Original Message ----

From: Muhammad-Ali Zainy

To: mowaffakalrubaie

Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 11:42:57 PM

Subject: FW: Salam

Dear Dr. Mowaffak,

I have been waiting for a reply from you regarding this message but, so far, I haven't received any. I am going to wait until Friday 21 March when, by then, one week will have passed on my message to you, during which time I will, hopefully, receive some reply or comment from you. Then I will publish the message with a proper Arabic translation. I know that I have asked you, out of courtesy, for permission to publish this correspondence, but being a public figure as you are, there is, indeed, no need for such permission since what you do, write or say belongs to the public anyway. Again, I hope that I will receive a pertinent reply concerning your plans, ideas and hopes for our country and our people. In this way the correspondence will be richer and the Iraqi people will be more enlightened. I wish you good luck in your endeavours, and I wish our beloved Iraqi people peace, progress and prosperity.

With best personal regards,

Muhammad-Ali Zainy


-----Original Message-----

From: Mowaffak Al Rubaie

Sent: Wed 3/19/2008 12:56 AM

To: Muhammad-Ali Zainy

Subject: Re: Salam

This is the reply I sent you on Friday 14th March without the permission to publish it.

Dear Dr Zainy,

Thank you very much for your elaborate email. You are great Iraqi patriot. I certainly agree with most if not ALL of its contents. I know we face huge challenges but we have achieved a lot as well. I can assure you that I will never run in the next general election as part of a Shia closed list. I am so happy for your courage, honesty, frankness and assertiveness. I benefited great deal from your email because I found myself in it and reflected my views. The choice for me is either to chicken out and run away or to stick it out and try to mend whatever I can mend. Believe me Syed Zainy, there is nothing close to my heart than walking out. Take it from me that the WHOLE political elite is corrupt, one way or another and we need a revolution to change this political class in its totality. I have no choice but to plod on, pending the right opportunity to make the real changes. Meanwhile, carrying on my duties trying to minimize the damages. May Allah Almighty protect Iraq.

Akhook Mowaffak

Dr Mowaffak al Rubaie

Iraq's National Security Advisor


-----Original Message-----
From: Muhammad-Ali Zainy
Sent: 19 March 2008 08:15
To: Mowaffak Al Rubaie
Subject: RE: Salam

Dear Dr. Mowaffak,

I am so happy to receive your reply. This shows your good nature and goes a long way to heal some open wounds. People like you who have gone at full speed with the political process in the aftermath of the collapse of Saddam's regime have now learned a lot and have accumulated great and valuable experience which should be employed for the benefit of the country. My advice to you is not to drop out of the strife that you are currently in, but to continue. Armed with so much experience, you can offer, in the coming episode, a great service to Iraq and our beloved Iraqi people, and help in the process of making right of what went wrong, so long as your innermost aim is to sincerely help your country and no other worldly interest.

As for not giving me permission to have this correspondence published, I re-iterate that you are a prominent public figure and divulging such dialogue will show the Iraqi people what went wrong and what is right. Furthermore, it will give them hope that there are still some good people out there who are genuinely working to salvage what remained of Iraq and put it in the right direction of development for what it deserves to be: united, strong, modern and prosperous, with a happy people who are at peace with themselves as well as with the rest of the world.

With best personal regards,

Muhammad-Ali Zainy

From: Mowaffak Al Rubaie
Sent: 19 March 2008 14:55
To: Muhammad-Ali Zainy
Subject: Re: Salam

Thank you Syed Dr Zainy.

Dr Mowaffak al Rubaie
Iraq's National Security Advisor

3 comments:

RhusLancia said...

Thank you for posting that, Syed Dr. Zainy, and welcome to the blogosphere!

Are you at liberty to announce any others who will join you on your list in the '09 parliamentary elections?

Iraqi Mojo said...

rhuslancia, I spoke with my father earlier, and he told me that he doesn't want to get mired in answering questions on this blog. Basically he just wants a blog where he can publish his writings.

But I did ask him your question, and he said at this point he has no idea who might join him - his compatriots are disunited and are weak as a political front.

He also says thank you for the comment.

RhusLancia said...

Thanks, Mojo and Abu Mojo!

You know, the Dems appear to be disunited (but not weak) at the moment- I'm quite sure they'll pull together before November. Hopefully your father's party will too as plans & platforms solidify and the election nears.