Opinion: Qubad Talabani interview confirms President’s misguided leadership
- KurdishMedia.com - By Rauf Naqishbendi
- 27/02/2009 00:00:00
Bloomberg's Mike Schneider interviewed Mr. Qubad Talabani, Washington representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), on Friday, Jan 30, on Night Talk. The purpose of the interview was to solicit a view of the Kurds as a prominent minority in Iraq and to express that perception with regard to the provincial election. Given Mr. Talabani’s background, with little or no knowledge of the history of Kurdish struggles, his unfitness for his post, and his lack of passion toward Kurdish issues, he surely embarrassed the Kurdish cause and the people of Kurdistan while he proved his disqualification as a representative of the KRG.
First and foremost, prior to his post as an ambassador to the United States for the Kurdistan Region, Mr. Talabani was an idle man in London. He has no history of involvement in the struggle within the rank and file of Kurdish movement; neither has he been a known politician or an intellectual figure in preparation for his current appointment. His only qualification is being the son of Mr. Jalal Talabani, Iraqi president and the head of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The senior Mr. Talabani’s passion to have members of his family and friends in positions of power and prestige is enough to elevate Qubad Talabani to a higher post regardless of his credentials. This reality is reflected in the KRG as cronies, family members, and friends of both Kurdish leaders Barzani and Talabani all congregate in high government positions and loot from the nation every dollar they can.
From the beginning of the interview, Mr. Qubad Talabani represented the Iraqi government more than the Kurdistan Region. Shamelessly, he avoided mentioning the name “Kurdistan.” Instead, he used the word “North” more than once, an utterly improper term for one who represents the Kurds, in particular for Qubad Talabani. He was appointed as an ambassador to Washington and was offered the luxury of money and prestige, yet he shied away from naming the country of the same people he ought to represent. Additionally, whether he made a mockery out of the name “Kurd” or an egregious speech, it is outrageously annoying for someone who is a Kurd to pronounce Kurd as “Krd,” which he did several times during the course of his interview. In fact Qubad Talabani didn’t mention the name “Kurdistan” until Mr. Schneider referenced it.
Trepidation and a sense of indignation should have been the reaction of any Kurd who watched the interview. Out of nowhere he brought up his father, Mr. Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president. He cherishes his father’s post as the president of Iraq , and he described how his father climbed to the top of his political career. It is obvious that Jalal Talabani was not a part of a Kurdish struggle for an independent Kurdistan; instead, he was a career politician who used the unfortunate situation of his people to arrive at his love for power, money, and the advancement of his own career, as his son confessed.
It is apparent that for Jalal Talabani it wasn’t a struggle for his people, but rather for his career as a politician. This is injurious to the Kurds, a nation with more than thirty million people, the largest nation in a world without national recognition which has suffered centuries of occupation and genocide, a nation that has struggled and sacrificed so many of her sons to the cause of freedom and liberty. Jalal Talabani has emerged in such a nation, claiming himself to be a true leader struggling for the freedom of his nation. Instead of serving as a son of a devastated nation, a true leader struggling to pull out his people from the tragic occupation forced upon them, he abuses his privilege and his moral responsibility and strives to advance his career as a politician.
In the interview, when Qubad Talabani talked of his father, he didn’t even mention that his father was a Kurd. Rather, he cited his father’s success, arriving at the top of his political carrier as a president of Iraq “a feather in his cap.” Jalal Talabani’s success is good for himself, and in spite of his lack of real achievement for his people, he celebrates his own personal gain and triumphs in his political career. Certainly, he has been merchandising his people’s life and blood in order to advance his own occupation as a career politician. It would seem God had created the Kurds to cater to Jalal Talabani’s personal achievement and the enhancement of his personal career, rather than to the need of his nation to be liberated from the shackles of occupation.
Mr. Qubad Talabani is new to the Kurdish struggle. He hasn’t sacrificed anything in his life; neither has he given anything from his own to the Kurdish cause. One thing he has mistakenly understood is that the Kurdish struggle is not about advancing or enhancing his father’s political career, but about Kurdish freedom from occupation. Therefore, what is one in Halabja to do with the news of Mr. Jalal Talabani’s celebrated political career, the feather in his cap? How can that relieve my hometown people, who have lost just about everything, including thousands of beloved ones during the chemical bombing of the town by Saddam?
What pride is there when Barzani’s and Talabani’s so-called leadership is written into Kurdish history, leadership which in reality is the shameless looting of their nation for their own comfort? Imagine a little child, born after his father (a peshmarga)has bestowed his life on a battlefield for the cause of freedom for his people. In light of the current leadership, what will be told to this child so he may proudly realize his father’s sacrifice was not rendered in futility?
Please See Rauf Naqishbendi’s “The Garden Of The Poets”, newly published book about, Halabja the Kurdish National Pride and Kurdish National Tragedy. You may order at:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=rauf+naqishbendi
- KurdishMedia.com - By Rauf Naqishbendi
- 27/02/2009 00:00:00