No clear program for Kurdish MPs in Iraq's parliament

In most countries around the world, lawmakers compete to serve their people and defend their causes, seeking to gain the trust of voters and win elections, as the Muslim candidate for New York in the United States proudly did.

However, what we see with the majority of candidates from the Kurdish parties is a focus on electoral appearances: huge pictures filling the streets, food distribution centers, and propaganda campaigns on television channels, without being accompanied by clear and declared programs that specify how they will serve the citizens and their future projects.

Each MP or candidate should have developed a practical program with specific points that clarify his vision to serve the people of the region in various fields, and the most prominent issues that should be given attention include the following:

1. Managing the region's institutions with sincere national competencies in ministries and educational, cultural and social bodies, instead of relying on partisan favoritism and appointing unqualified people so that the region has a government of individuals (the government of globalization) and not a government of components.

2. Radically resolve the issue of salaries of employees in the region, and ensure that they are paid on time without linking them to disputes with the federal government in Baghdad.

3. Manage the oil file with full transparency, from drilling operations to refining, storage, and sale, while utilizing local competencies.

4. Paying attention to the education sector in terms of developing schools and buildings, providing educational means, supporting educational staff financially, and reducing reliance on private schools and universities that lack the necessary laboratories and equipment and aim to profit only, which has led to an increase in the number of unemployed graduates and a decline in the demand for study in the intermediate and preparatory stages.

5. Developing the industrial and agricultural sectors, encouraging the use of modern methods in agriculture, livestock and beekeeping, and supporting solar energy projects to heat water and generate electricity, as the region still lags behind in this field compared to its neighbors.

6. Improving public transportation between the region's cities, reducing the traffic chaos resulting from the large increase in private cars, and strictly enforcing traffic laws.

7. Reconsidering the policies of taxes and fees imposed on citizens, whether in professions, government services, education and health, as financial burdens in the region have become higher compared to the rest of Iraq's cities, which constitutes an unjustified burden on the population.

8. Activate the tourism sector by improving the infrastructure and services provided to tourists, and support the private sector working in this field. In the 1950s, Iraqi Kurdistan rivaled Lebanon in attracting tourists, and this sector can be an important source of income and an opportunity to promote cultural exchange, as is the case in Britain and France.

9. Supporting villages and the countryside by improving educational, agricultural and livestock-raising services to reduce the migration of villagers to cities and the resulting unemployment and out-migration.

10. Clarify the position on the Turkish military presence in the villages and mountains of the region, stretching from Zakho to Amadiyah to the Iranian border, where Turkish forces have built roads and airports and control the movement of residents. It is the duty of the regional government to explain the reasons for this presence in a transparent manner to the citizens, as this is a real crisis.

11. Appeal to the winning deputies:

As a citizen of the region, I invite you to adopt these points with courage and responsibility, and to work hard to serve the people of Kurdistan with sincerity and intellectual independence, without courtesy or praise. My goal is to contribute to building a strong and sophisticated regional government, capable of keeping pace with the changes in the Middle East and the world in light of globalization.