Diyar Rizgar Qadir– Activist
Family-based parties refer to political parties where all leadership positions are controlled and managed by a single family or clan.
This type of party does not provide equal opportunities for political participation because family members participate in political activities while everything from A to Z is under their hands. They are the primary and final decision-makers in all party affairs and activities. Family members come first in the party and are exempt from climbing through the ranks of party work – starting from the bottom and gradually advancing step by step according to their abilities, skills, and experience to reach leadership positions and the pinnacle of party power.
In other words, assuming party responsibilities does not require ability, experience, or expertise for family members that’s why the sons, brothers, and nephews of the president start their political careers at the top. Even if one of the family members happens to be uneducated, inexperienced, or incompetent, they are still viewed as superior to all other party members.
In family-based parties, one of the main objectives – indeed the primary objective – is the family’s interests and the presidential seat. Therefore, we see that most family-based parties promote a collection of family flatterers and bootlickers to engage in praising and glorifying family members, claiming they possess extraordinary intelligence and exceptional abilities in management and politics, so that people see them unusually and place them at the level of thinkers, philosophers, and renowned scholars.
If we evaluate Kurdistan’s parties from the perspectives of the above characteristics, we can say that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is a family-based party with all the signs of being family-controlled. Evidence of this is that party leadership was transferred after the death of Mullah Mustafa Barzani to his son Masoud Barzani – from father to son.
Members of the Barzani family come first in the party, and the president’s sons and nephews began their political careers at the top without climbing through party ranks. In assuming any position, they are exempt from experience – tribal identity alone is sufficient to become a member of the leadership, political bureau, or ministers and deputy ministers in the party’s share of government.
Moreover, in such parties, family interests come above everything else. All cadres and supporters are busy praising and glorifying the family, while criticism and all forms of opposition are forbidden and taboo.
Also, if we look back to history, we see that Jalal Talabani and his companions separated from KDP precisely because the party had become a family party. After several years, they established the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). One of their slogans was opposing families and the familiarization of parties. However, we saw that in his late years, he brought his wife and both sons into the political arena, not only that but gave them high-level responsibilities! After his passing, his sons and nephews took over the party.
Regarding the Change Movement (Gorran), we see that after Nawshirwan Mustafa became disappointed with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and felt that the corruption of leaders had reached a dangerous level and the party was moving towards becoming family-based, he separated and established the Change Movement to oppose corruption and the familiarization of parties. But unfortunately, he was also given the title “father of the poor,” and before his death, he registered the movement’s companies, properties, money, and land (which is 122 donums of land) in the names of his two sons, establishing family rule over Gorran in the shadows.
Signs of parties becoming family-based have appeared in all other parties as well.
In conclusion, I want to say that unfortunately, this model of party existence causes great harm to the destiny of our good and selfless people.
