Baghdad, June 24: The Iraqi electricity minister has resigned over power cuts that have sparked fatal protests. However, the move has failed to quell anger over what Iraqis widely describe as a war being waged against them by uncaring and corrupt politicians.
Electricity minister Karim Al Wahid, considered close to Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, resigned on Monday night after violent protests in the southern cities of Basra and Nasiriyah killed one Iraqi and injured dozens of citizens and police. But Al Wahid criticised the “impatience” of the Iraqi people and excessive expectations.
On a street of small blacksmith shops in Baghdad’s Karrada neighbourhood, shop owner Mohammad Mahmoud Al Tikmachi said he had to spend more than $10,000 (Dh36,722) on a generator to keep his business going. The fuel costs for the generator have more than doubled the prices of iron window frames and gates, making them unaffordable for many homeowners.
“That’s why business has slowed down,” says Al Tikmachi. “Everything in our life depends on electricity. This is warfare against the citizens.”
“Maybe it will be better in 300 years,” jokes a customer in Al Tikmachi’s shop as workers weld together iron bars in sweltering heat after sleepless nights in homes with no electricity.
The Iraqi government has promised Baghdad residents two hours of electricity out of every six, but even that modest target has fallen far short. The inability of the government to provide reliable electricity seven years after the fall of Saddam Hussain is seen as more potentially destabilising than the continued car bombs and suicide attacks.
While the US and Iraq have invested heavily in security, the lack of electricity has denied Iraqis not only basic comforts, but also the ability to rebuild their country, their economy, and their own lives. With the onset of summer, when temperatures can reach 65.5 degrees Celsius, public discontent has erupted across the country.
At a Baghdad traffic circle — where a statue of Kahramanah from “1001 Nights” pours boiling oil on some of the 40 thieves — a banner from the “citizens of Karrada” strung along the wall asks: “Where is the electricity, oh Minister?”
The protests have spread throughout the country. In oil-rich Kirkuk, the provincial government has threatened to cut off the rest of the country from the electricity grid if the central government does not give it more of a share.
-Agencies