Iraqi author warns opposition has lost its role as a check on power

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A commentary published this week argues that Iraq’s parliamentary opposition tradition, first shaped during the monarchy that ended with the 1958 revolution, has gradually been hollowed out by decades of single-party rule and repeated coups. Writing in the regional press, the author says opposition movements across the Middle East are weakened not only by repression but also by the habit of copying the tools of the regimes they replace once they come to power. In post-2003 Iraq, she argues, former dissidents now hurl “Baathist” and “collaborationist” labels at their rivals, while Baghdad-based groups that use the language of “change and reform” criticize the government from the outside while sharing in its benefits, turning opposition into a privileged post rather than a political stance. The commentary also examines the Kurdistan Region, where the long-standing power-sharing arrangement between the two main parties has produced both partnership and opposition rhetoric at the same time. It notes that two years after Kurdistan Parliament elections, no new government has been formed: even though the vote produced a 39-23 split, negotiations have continued to be framed around equal partnership, leaving salaries and public services caught in the political stalemate. The author concludes that a functioning opposition requires the capacity to accept electoral defeat, allow the transfer of power and bear the political cost of losing. Without those qualities, she writes, Iraqi opposition will remain a route to share rather than a check on those in power.