When People Are Suffering, Advisors Are Living in Luxury!

Awat Jamal Salih – Activist 

This Kurdish local government that has lasted for 34 years If there is a flood it is covered by its advisors. Yet no one questions whether appointing an advisor brings any real value or serves to protect the people from crisis or propose policies in the public interest.

However, based on clear evidence that no essential services such as freedom of expression, health, or economic stability exist in practice, it is obvious that in the Kurdistan Region, we must believe that our advisors exist solely for their own salaries, while ignoring the people’s future.

A former member of the Iraqi Parliament revealed that in just three months, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) advisors earned $150,000. That’s $150,000 for what kind of dignified service? What plan or solution has improved people’s lives?

Don’t forget: not long ago, a female advisor at the department of Media and Information revealed that she was asked for sexual favors and accused her department head of harassment. How many other advisors are chosen for similar personal desires, while tenants and young couples struggling to survive are left behind? I wonder has the memory and dignity of the people faded? Are they now left to the mercy of the claws of the KDP and PUK?

Until now, every day a new crisis emerges and yet the government cannot meet the people’s most basic needs: Water, electricity, salaries, infrastructure, justice, education, and healthcare. Instead, what we see is repression of free speech, the arrest of activists and journalists, and the violation of civil liberties.

Without a doubt, this situation is the result of a system designed to serve the interests of partisan loyalists, spies, and so-called “advisors” who are either fashion models or dancers appointed and rewarded by both major parties (KDP and PUK). These “advisors” are granted privileges while stealing those meant for the people. Their three-month expenses reach 150,000$ while the people’s salaries are paid just once every three months. This is what they call an “advisor” in our region.