Page 25 - Issue-30-En

ELITE Vol.1, Issue 30, April 2021
and they were all colored in the color of the
totalitarian regime. During the 2003 system,
the number of TV channels reached about
100.
As for the formation of parties, it has
inevitably had its share of change during the
2003 system.
Instead of a single party, 300 parties are
officially registered in each election cycle.
Since everything has two sides, the multi-
party system in 2003 has been characterized
by the true circulation of power, no deputy
has been able to win a second round of
elections, which allows the other deputies to
take the lead. The downside is the inability
to make a political decision among all of
these parties, owing to their divisions.
One important note is that the totalitarian
regime did not allow pluralism or change
people with power and office. The Iraq
experience in 2003 tried to avoid what had
happened before, so its goal was to
empower everyone and recognize
multilateralism.
The question that we have in mind after all
is: Can we say that the 2003 regime has
succeeded in getting rid of a dictatorship
and transforming it into a democratic
system?
The truth is that it cannot be determined by
saying explicitly that it succeeded or failed,
but we will review some of the criteria of
the 2003 system that will clarify the
transformation that the Iraqi experience has
achieved.
One of the most important criteria to
mention is that the 2003 regime was a
special experiment for Iraq.
Happy
Ramadan
It was an attempt to build a new solidarity
on the ruins of a regime that was
complemented by discrimination and
sectarian repression. Unfortunately, the
system of consensual democracy was
established and a strong State could not be
built on it. We could put the Iraqi system in
place in 2003 with the hybrid regime, where
it is a community that is beset by fascism
and mutual fear, which has caused a crisis of
trust among the components of the State.
That system was called "National Unity and
Empowerment for All." This led to the
formation of governments with about 90%
of members of Parliament. The first basis
for building a strong state, the balancing of
government and opposition, was thus
absent. The democratic system shifted to the
client system by buying votes.
With this closed regime, the State of
corruption, consisting of a client regime, an
irresponsible government, an absence of
parliamentary opposition and an absence of
citizen oversight, has been integrated.
In sum, the 2003 regime failed to build a
country because of the political
fragmentation caused by the inability to
establish genuine political parties on the
ruins of the totalitarian regime.
The changes required to improve the status
of the Iraqi system are comprehensive
reform in terms of reducing sectarian
sensitivities, as well as the need to reduce
the race for unelected incomes and eliminate
political corruption through the emergence
of a new political class representing the
Iraqi people.