Wednesday, Jan 14, 2009

Gulf News

As Iraq prepares to hold local and provincial elections this month, the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki is coming under pressure from some of its supporters to organise show trials for the alleged "anti-state plotters" arrested in December.

Strategists in the Shiite bloc of parties supporting Al Maliki believe that such trials would play on the average Iraqis' fear of a return to the bad old days either of the despotic Baathist rule or of insecurity and terror.

Al Maliki should resist the temptation to transform the issue into an electoral prop. What the new Iraq needs above all is justice that is independent of narrow partisan considerations. Show trials are best left to despotic regimes that seek their legitimacy in the vilification of their opponents.

The truth is that no one is quite sure what the alleged "conspirators" were up to.

One claim is that at least some of the 50 or so army and police officers and NCOs arrested were associated with a group known as Al Awdah (The Return). This semi-clandestine organisation of former officials under Saddam Hussain is allegedly trying to revive the banned Arab Socialist Baath Party under a new name.

Another claim is that the plotters were trying to stage a coup d'etat against Al Maliki's government in the hope of creating a new regime led by a military junta.

A third claim links at least some of the plotters to Iranian intelligence that is allegedly trying to help its clients win control of all the nine Shiite-majority provinces in the south of the country.

As if all that were not enough, we also have the claim that the alleged plotters were in contact with unidentified "terrorist groups" in a joint effort to trigger a new wave of violence.

Of all the claims mentioned above only the first merits special attention. All the other claims indicate possible criminal activity that should be dealt with through ordinary courts.

The first claim, that the alleged plotters were trying to revive the Ba'ath Party, is important because it points to an issue that the new Iraqi leadership cannot ignore. There is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Iraqis still bear deep spiritual, and in some cases even physical wounds, inflicted upon them by the Ba'ath during its decades' long domination of the country. This was why the new Iraqi constitution explicitly bans the Ba'ath Party and its ideology in any form and under any name.

Nevertheless, it is equally clear that some segments of the Iraqi society remains attached to the Baathist ideology and feels nostalgic about a movement that, theoretically at least, sough to unite the Arabs in a socialist utopia.

It is difficult to gauge the extent of the support that Baathism as an ideology may still enjoy in Iraq. The only way to find out is to submit that ideology to the test of free, fair and multiparty elections.

This is why the banning of the Baath, understandable as kneejerk reaction in the early days of the new era, was a bad move from the start.

Much to learn

New Iraq has much to learn from the experiences of other nations that have emerged from decades of domination by totalitarian ideologies. The eastern and central European nations, not to mention Russia itself, did not ban their ruling communist parties once they had shaken off the despotic yoke.

In most places, they allowed communism to survive as a magnet for those feeling nostalgia about the past. In one or two cases, new, reformed, and re-named communist parties even managed to return to power briefly as part of coalitions that emerged from free and fair elections.

The experience of Algeria is also interesting. There, the Front for National Liberation (FLN) that had exercised exclusive power in the one-party system, managed to survive and has been part of different coalition governments since the 1990s.

Since 2006, the new Iraqi political elite have been debating a set of constitutional amendments. Removing the constitutional ban on the Baath Party could be included among proposed amendments.

However, why should new Iraq give the Baath a second chance? One reason is that the Baath Party itself was among the victims of Saddam Hussain and his Tikriti clan. By 1970, the Baath no longer existed in Iraq, except in name. The regime created by Saddam Hussain was a personal tyranny based on terror.

Rather than imposing a blanket ban on an ideology and a party one abhors, Iraq would do better to ban individuals convicted of criminal activity from participating in the nation's political life.

New Iraq has the distinction of being the only country in the region that allows all parties - from monarchist to Trotskyite - to operate freely and enjoy a share of power. The only exception to that rule is the Baath. That exception is not necessary. Even if a new version of the Baath turns out to be a club for Tikritis, there is no reason to force it underground. All that is needed is to make sure they obey the law.

Amir Taheri is an Iranian writer based in Europe.

Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.