postcon
07-27-2007, 05:20 AM
Progress slow in Iraqi parliament - Votes on benchmarks distant
BAGHDAD – Missing from Thursday’s session of the Iraqi parliament were about half of the members including the speaker, the former speaker and two former prime ministers.
Also missing: a sense of urgency.
American officials have been pressuring Iraqi leaders to prove their determination to overcome sectarian strife by approving landmark legislation before the Bush administration’s next report to Congress on Iraq in mid-September.
But even as parliament’s monthlong August break approaches, key issues are not under discussion. Quorums are marginal, or fleeting.
Despite the high stakes, the Iraqi parliament appears to be deliberating at a plodding pace to rival legislative bodies around the world.
On Thursday, the parliament’s 50th session of the year, members convened a half hour late. The opening Muslim prayer and 275-name roll call took another half hour, a quarter of the time in what turned out to be a roughly two-hour session.
A bell rang in the convention center in the fortified Green Zone reminding members to take their seats and raise their hands for roll call (the electronic system is broken). It showed 145 in attendance. That dropped to 137 as members walked out after the first vote, leaving them perilously close to losing their quorum. The speaker has dismissed parliament in the past for falling below quorum with fewer than 100 legislators, but on Thursday, they proceeded.
Those present circulated an agenda of 11 items, none related to the benchmark legislation Washington has been demanding, including laws concerning oil investment and revenue-sharing between regions, re-integrating former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime into government, disarming militias and mounting local elections.
The parliament is under pressure from many in Washington and from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to stay at work the rest of the summer. But having already sacrificed one month of vacation in July, and shifting from three- to six-day workweeks, many are unwilling to give up their August break and unlikely to make progress before it starts next week.
Al-Maliki’s spokesman, Ali Dabbagh, blamed legislative delays on tension between political blocs in parliament and the Cabinet. On Wednesday, legislators from the largest Sunni bloc withdrew from the Cabinet, stalling a portion of the oil law, he said.
Still, President Bush remained upbeat Thursday about parliament’s efforts.
“The Iraqi parliament has passed quite a few pieces of legislation and they’re trying to work through their differences,” Bush told an organization of state officials in Philadelphia. “Sometimes legislative bodies aren’t real smooth in getting out a piece of legislation in a timely fashion, as some of you might recognize, but nevertheless, they’re working hard learning what it means to have a parliament that functions.”
Thursday’s session began in earnest with members congratulating the Iraqi national soccer team on their Wednesday victory over South Korea in the Asian Cup competition. One member mocked South Korea as a “paper tiger.” Another chided him, saying sports should unite not divide countries. That ate up about 10 minutes. Then the chairman of the sports committee took the podium and chastised the lawmakers.
“Our team promised us they would win. Where are the politicians who promised us electricity and cold water?” said Hassan Othman, who leads the sports committee.
No one responded.
Instead, two members began complaining about U.S. military operations earlier this week in the west Baghdad neighborhood of Amil and in Husseiniya, about 20 miles north of the capital, where witnesses said an American air strike left 18 dead.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nationworld/story/119720.html
BAGHDAD – Missing from Thursday’s session of the Iraqi parliament were about half of the members including the speaker, the former speaker and two former prime ministers.
Also missing: a sense of urgency.
American officials have been pressuring Iraqi leaders to prove their determination to overcome sectarian strife by approving landmark legislation before the Bush administration’s next report to Congress on Iraq in mid-September.
But even as parliament’s monthlong August break approaches, key issues are not under discussion. Quorums are marginal, or fleeting.
Despite the high stakes, the Iraqi parliament appears to be deliberating at a plodding pace to rival legislative bodies around the world.
On Thursday, the parliament’s 50th session of the year, members convened a half hour late. The opening Muslim prayer and 275-name roll call took another half hour, a quarter of the time in what turned out to be a roughly two-hour session.
A bell rang in the convention center in the fortified Green Zone reminding members to take their seats and raise their hands for roll call (the electronic system is broken). It showed 145 in attendance. That dropped to 137 as members walked out after the first vote, leaving them perilously close to losing their quorum. The speaker has dismissed parliament in the past for falling below quorum with fewer than 100 legislators, but on Thursday, they proceeded.
Those present circulated an agenda of 11 items, none related to the benchmark legislation Washington has been demanding, including laws concerning oil investment and revenue-sharing between regions, re-integrating former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime into government, disarming militias and mounting local elections.
The parliament is under pressure from many in Washington and from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to stay at work the rest of the summer. But having already sacrificed one month of vacation in July, and shifting from three- to six-day workweeks, many are unwilling to give up their August break and unlikely to make progress before it starts next week.
Al-Maliki’s spokesman, Ali Dabbagh, blamed legislative delays on tension between political blocs in parliament and the Cabinet. On Wednesday, legislators from the largest Sunni bloc withdrew from the Cabinet, stalling a portion of the oil law, he said.
Still, President Bush remained upbeat Thursday about parliament’s efforts.
“The Iraqi parliament has passed quite a few pieces of legislation and they’re trying to work through their differences,” Bush told an organization of state officials in Philadelphia. “Sometimes legislative bodies aren’t real smooth in getting out a piece of legislation in a timely fashion, as some of you might recognize, but nevertheless, they’re working hard learning what it means to have a parliament that functions.”
Thursday’s session began in earnest with members congratulating the Iraqi national soccer team on their Wednesday victory over South Korea in the Asian Cup competition. One member mocked South Korea as a “paper tiger.” Another chided him, saying sports should unite not divide countries. That ate up about 10 minutes. Then the chairman of the sports committee took the podium and chastised the lawmakers.
“Our team promised us they would win. Where are the politicians who promised us electricity and cold water?” said Hassan Othman, who leads the sports committee.
No one responded.
Instead, two members began complaining about U.S. military operations earlier this week in the west Baghdad neighborhood of Amil and in Husseiniya, about 20 miles north of the capital, where witnesses said an American air strike left 18 dead.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nationworld/story/119720.html