Shwana H Hama – Activists
It has now been over two months since the people of Kurdistan last received their salaries and entitlements. Across the region, citizens are navigating an unstable and exhausting reality—living without income, struggling to survive in worsening economic conditions. And yet, in this same period, Kurdish media—whether loyal to those in power or aligned with the so-called opposition—has spent the last ten days obsessively focused on the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel. Their headlines have been filled with fearmongering and war hysteria, all designed to distract people from the urgent, unresolved issue of unpaid public sector wages.
As activists, we are firmly opposed to war and violence anywhere in the world. But let’s not be naïve: the current Iran-Israel conflict has been a gift to the ruling parties in Kurdistan. It has allowed both the KDP and the PUK to flood the airwaves with distractions, using fear to cloud the public’s memory and push the salary crisis off the agenda. Meanwhile, their own media arms have fully aligned with this propaganda campaign.
At the same time, party-affiliated elites and officials from both the KDP and PUK have completely disappeared from public scrutiny. No one knows where they are hiding, or in which luxurious safe haven they are spending their time while people suffer. This silence is happening even though the Kurdistan Region’s own Minister of Finance has publicly stated that the government is capable of paying salaries—but evidently, the political leadership sees no urgency in doing so.
This isn’t a matter of incapacity. It is a matter of will. The ruling parties are not concerned with the people. Their energies are focused solely on looting the wealth, oil, and public resources of Kurdistan.
And just when there was a sliver of hope—namely, the prospect of resolving the Baghdad-Erbil budget disputes through the Federal Court of Iraq—those hopes, too, were crushed. Due to “certain complications,” the judges who were supposed to arbitrate the issue have suspended their duties. As things stand, there is no clear path forward for disbursing Kurdistan’s share of the national budget.
