Daryan saman – Activists
While civil servants have now gone over two months without receiving their salaries—and due to the theft and looting committed by the KDP and PUK, along with their refusal to honor agreements with Baghdad—the federal government has withheld public sector wages. Yet Masrour and Qubad’s cabinet still refuse to come to an agreement with Baghdad.
To the people of Kurdistan, it is clear that the well-being and livelihoods of the population mean nothing to these rulers. None of the demands they make from Baghdad concern the salaries of the people. They haven’t even softened their stance to prevent further suffering of civil servants.
This government is stubbornly clinging to oil as leverage, refusing to hand it over, even partially, in the name of the people’s survival. They aren’t even willing to allow 42,000 barrels to be retained for internal needs and send the rest to Baghdad. Nor are they prepared to share local revenues or customs income with the federal government. Simultaneously, they refuse to allow salary distribution through the federal banks.
What the KDP and PUK are doing is nothing more than staging an electoral campaign at the expense of the people’s food and survival—using elections as a show, a distraction.
While Baghdad’s government is, in this election season, reaching out and calling for coordination, the first to suffer the consequences are the people of Kurdistan.
Therefore, if the survival and livelihoods of the people truly mattered to the Kurdistan Regional Government and its ruling powers, they would have already reached an agreement with Baghdad—and could even do so tonight—to rescue the people and civil servants from this crisis.
