Baghdad, January 29: To hear Iraq’s prime minister tell it: the country’s future depends on purging its past links with Saddam Hussain’s regime.
And Nouri Al Maliki is saying it every chance he gets. He has become something of a one-man tribunal passing judgment on the reach of suspected loyalists to Saddam’s now-outlawed Ba’ath party.
Al Maliki’s pronouncements — whether in parliament after deadly bombings in Baghdad in December or in talks last Saturday with visiting Vice-President Joe Biden — all dwell on one theme: that Shiite-led Iraq can never be secure until it has weeded out all remnants of Saddam’s Sunni-dominated power base.
However, Al Maliki’s preoccupation with hunting Ba’athists comes with potential pitfalls.
On a pure political level, it risks alienating Sunnis at a pivotal time for his government. These Sunni votes may be needed by Al Maliki’s bloc in March 7 parliamentary elections to fend off challenges from rival Shiites who want to unseat him.
Rigid approach
In the more cluttered realm of public image, Al Maliki looks increasingly rigid just when key ally Washington is looking for some political finesse.
He appears unwilling to temper — even slightly — his drive to name and shame perceived Saddam-era throwbacks.
Sunni leaders object more to the method than the message. They say the steamroll approach cannot distinguish between those who were key Saddam apparatchiks and others who expressed support for the Baath party to secure jobs, study in universities or simply get exit visas for international travel.
Iraq’s Sunni Arabs enjoyed a privileged position under Saddam. The US-led invasion in 2003 opened the door for the majority Shiites to take the upper hand.
“Al Maliki sees Ba’athists everywhere,” said David Schenker, who follows Iraqi affairs at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“This kind of policy, however, fails to take into account the depths of Ba’athism. It was far-reaching. It didn’t just have its hard-core ideological followers, but also other Iraqis who were supporters just to get on.”
To be sure, Al Maliki’s worries have some real grounding. The US military and others believe elements of Saddam’s former regime became part of the wider Sunni-led insurgency.
Al Maliki has gone a step further: directly accusing Saddam loyalists for carrying out three huge bombings in Baghdad since August and denouncing neighbouring Syria for allegedly harbouring them.
In December — days after a series of blasts killed 127 people — Al Maliki came before angry parliament members and repeated his fist-pounding against the Ba’ath party threat.
It was widely interpreted as an attempt to divert attention from serious security lapses around government buildings — the main targets of Baghdad bombing in recent months. The latest run at suspected Saddam-era sympathisers has put Al Maliki under even more heat.
Al Maliki has strongly backed a vetting process that has blacklisted at least 512 candidates from March elections because of suspected Ba’ath Party ties. The roster includes Shiites as well as Sunnis.
Some Sunni leaders, however, see it as political tool to knock out candidates without any clear evidence and raise suspicions before voting.
Such rancour runs straight to the White House. American officials worry about anything that could raise questions about the fairness of the election, which is seen as an important step in Iraq’s political reconciliation and a boost toward accelerating US troops withdrawals.
Biden came to Baghdad to drive home that point. Yet Al Maliki was not swayed during talks Saturday.
He repeated the need to exclude Saddam’s followers from any important roles in Iraq — a policy known as ‘de-Ba’athification’ that was launched in 2003 by America’s post-invasion overseers.
In an Iraqi-style inquisition, Al Maliki also is demanding formal repudiations of those accused of Ba’ath party ties.
In a speech to Interior Ministry workers on Sunday, Al Maliki openly taunted the remnants of Saddam’s backers.
“We challenge them to try a coup or change the path of the political process,” he said.
“They cannot.”
——-Agencies