The world today, with its formations and blocs, is based on the arts of administration. The strongest is the one who runs his country, not the one who rules it. The world has changed a lot, with qualitative shifts of cosmic distances in technical, informational, and conceptual development. Yesterday’s world was mired in politics, and today’s world has been liberated from these concepts and has begun to rely on other ideas which ensure progress and development.
This is what we see in several East Asian countries and the Arabian Gulf region. If we talk about European countries, for many centuries, they were captive to the political idea of governance, and after getting rid of this narrow mindset, they moved to rely on the principle of “administration before politics.”
In Iraq, if the political class gets rid of the idea of the “political rule” and adopts the “administrative rule” approach, it will be an advanced level model for the country. I believe that the process is not impossible or extremely difficult. We need a public culture led by elites in this direction. Then, the Iraqi voters will reach the conviction of moving from politics first to administration first. This is how we will overcome the biggest obstacles and come on the right track in brining fundamental changes in approach, idea and vision of a future.
Despite excessive pessimism about the future of Iraq, I am full of hope and confidence that the Iraqis are capable of reformulating their concepts and produce a new practicality which carries administrative concerns before political ones, and works to run the administration as a system approved by the state.
[by Mustafa Al-Kazmi in Asharq Al-Awsat]
Compiled and Translated by Faizul Haque