Iraqi Parliament
Iraq nowdays May 7th, 2007About a month ago, there was a proposal for a new Iraqi Parliament Law that should set the “rights” of the Iraqi Parliament members. It was published in some Iraqi newspapers and was circulated among many Iraqis by email.
I will mention some of the elements of that new law proposal:
1. The head of the parliament has the degree of the president of Iraq and has ALL the rights and privileges of the president.
2. The deputies of the head of the parliament have the degree of deputies of the president of Iraq and have all the rights and privileges of this degree.
3. The parliament members have the degree of PRIME MINISTER of Iraq and have all the rights and privileges of this degree.
4. All members of the parliament and their family members shall have diplomatic passports and shall continue to have these passports after the end of the member’s service time (which was set to 4 years). So, lifetime diplomatic passports for ALL members and their families..!!!
5. The president and members of the parliament after the end of their service shall have half the number of security personnel they had during their service time. And the other half should be transferred to the staff of the Ministry of Defense with their full salaries and privileges.
6. Each member will be given a piece of land in Baghdad or in any other city of his/her choice.
I was wondering if the parliament in the United States or the United Kingdom gives such privileges to its members. Few days later, Al-Sabaah news paper published a piece of addition to this law proposal here (Arabic). The addition says:
“As a replacement of the lunch meal that used to be provided to the parliament members during their sessions, an monthly amount of money will be given to them that is between 3 to 5 million Iraqi Dinars (about 2350 to 3900 USD).”
Usually there are no more than 12 sessions per month for the parliament, taking into consideration that actually no more than 4 are actually held. This leaves the members with no less than 200 dollars per meal for each parliament member..!!!
In Iraq, a fancy meal in a fancy restaurant CAN NOT cost, no matter what, more than 60 USD. This whole lunch meal thing, costs the people of Iraq about 10 million dollars a year.
The problem with this big bunch of thieves called the “Iraqi Parliament”, is that they are the highest authority in Iraq now. No one can say no or no one can change what they do but them.
By this open stealing law, they have proved that they are nothing but a bunch of thieves that suddenly found themselves as the highest power in Iraq. The big horrible fact is that they are elected. I will not discuss now the forgery that happened in the elections. But I have to admit that a big part of the Iraqi people actually voted for those shitbags. Day by day they are proving all the people who elected them wrong. I have seen a couple of sessions of the parliament and it was ridiculous to the maximum. They don care to discuss the things that actually matter to the weary people of Iraq.
Maybe passing this law is a down payment of the reward to be given to them for passing the new Oil and Gas law. This Oil and Gas law, which will be approved no matter what we do, is the gift to all the countries who have participated in “Liberating” Iraq. You can see the draft of the law here.
This is absurd. I mean every one in Iraq knows how fucked up thing are getting, and about 40% of the Iraqi parliament is out of the country. They are being patriotic by getting drunk in the night clubs of Amman, Dubai, Beirut, Damascus, and Europe. Isn’t it time for a change, people?
This is the kind of “freedom” that the US brought us. Thank you Mr. Bush. And more to come.
May 13th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
[…] Iraq discusses a new law passing through the Iraqi parliament that gives each member $200 a day just for lunch. […]
July 15th, 2007 at 1:42 am
“I’m sorry” seems pretty shallow at this point.
You’ve been infected with the US government. They tout themselves as the enforcers of democracy; they get to vote themselves pay raises and all sorts of interesting things without our consent. They’ve given themselves the power to be above the law. Watch out for that.
I was for the war at the beginning. I thought, as did most people, that it really was what the Iraqi people wanted and needed. Only later did the disillusion come.
I can’t say that everyone wants the troops back home so that we can finally put a stop to all this madness. Some people actually think it’s a noble cause. From what the news here is saying, it may have been if Bush hadn’t mucked things up so badly. We don’t know, however; we don’t get the real news from Iraq. We get what we’re given.
I can say that there’s a large faction in the US to leave Iraq alone. There are some members of Congress that are trying to put their feet down, but since the president has the power of veto, it’s not going anywhere.
We’ve realized too late that this was a business deal. There’s nothing we can do about it now, and for that, I know I’m not the only one who’s sorry. I wish for all the world that we could fix this. The irony is that, while we complain about gas prices over here, most of us want an alternate fuel source for various reasons, and we’ll all know that when the gas prices go down it’s because of what’s been done to Iraq. Please know that not everyone is infested with greed.
I know it doesn’t help to hear that our thoughts and prayers are with you, because what good does that do for the here and now? But at this point, thinking is all that can be done.
I doubt seriously that when Bush is out of office that any type of solution will be found, but we’re hoping. We’re trying. We’re doing all we can, which unfortunately means regretting it and hoping that the vote actually counts for something.
Stay safe. And keep using your voice. We need to hear it.