A Fan of Ayatollah Sistani (Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? New York Times Edition)

My college roommate Robert Waldmann is a fan:

Robert's Stochastic thoughts: I'm back in the Sistani fan club. Ayatollah Sistani just argued in favor of provincial lists for future parliaments as opposed to a national list. This would mean that predominantly Sunni areas will be represented proportional to population even if turnout was low. I argued that, of course, the election of the constitutional assembly should have been on a provincial basis. So, I just learned did Ayatollah Sistani. Unfortunately the crack UN elections team considered the national system easier to set up and the rest is in the daily papers....

Oddly.... Sabina Tavernise repeats the line that Sistani's efforts have been focused on maximizing power of Shi'ites. The logic of this is that Sistani had the crazy idea that Democracy involves elections. Since Shi'ite Arabs are the majority, this exposed him to claims that he wanted absolute power of the majority. The evidence is that he opposed fake Democracy in which Paul Bremer would appoint the people who appointed the people who elected the people who would claim to represent The People.

The latest evidence would tend to undermine this theory, since Sistani is advocating a change... which would give Shi'ites less overwhelming power. One could argue that this is a... concession... [to] the insurgency.... Tavernise manages to argue this:

The statements by Ayatollah Sistani are the latest foray into Iraqi politics by the Shiite leader. Pressure from him was a major factor in establishing an accelerated timetable for the elections in January. That pace, however, largely dictated the election's countrywide system, because United Nations organizers considered it the simplest and quickest way to organize the vote. When United Nations officials met with the ayatollah in March, he chastised them for choosing the system, and said he favored setting assembly seats aside district by district, a preference he reiterated Monday. Mr. Yasiri, the Shiite politician, said Ayatollah Sistani had characterized the January election as flawed. In the past, the ayatollah has reserved his efforts to pushing for measures, like nationwide elections, that were likely to enhance the power of Iraq's Shiite majority.

Try to make sense of that quote. In particular try really hard not to notice that the last two sentences directly contradict each other. I am correct that "March" is currently "in the past". Weird. Also the idea that it is Sistani's fault that after the CPA stalled for months the UN organizers had to rush and so needed to make a national list because... they "considered it the simplest and quickest way to organize the vote." Odd I thought the problem was the census, not ballots and such.

Unhappy is the country that needs heroes. Especially the country that needs foreign born, reclusive clerical heroes with bad hearts. Still I say buy that man some Caspian Sturgeon Caviar (and remind him who explained that it is halal).

Comments

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/international/middleeast/28iraq.html

Top Shiite Cleric Hints at Wider Voting Role for Sunnis
By SABRINA TAVERNISE

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric appeared to offer a major concession to the Sunni Arab minority on Monday when he indicated that he would support changes in the voting system that would probably give Sunnis more seats in the future parliament.

In a meeting with a group of Sunni and Shiite leaders, the cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, outlined a proposal that would scrap the system used in the January election, according to a secular Shiite political leader, Abdul Aziz al-Yasiri, who was at the meeting. The election had a huge turnout by Shiites and Kurds but was mostly boycotted by Sunni Arabs.

Such a change would need to be written into Iraq's new constitution, which parliamentarians are drafting for an Aug. 15 deadline. Although there has been little public talk about what form elections might take under the constitution, Ayatollah Sistani has been highly influential in Iraq's nascent political system.

Under the proposal, voters in national elections would select leaders from each of the 19 provinces instead of choosing from a single country-wide list, as they did in January. The new system would essentially set aside a number of seats for Sunnis roughly proportionate to their numbers in the population, ensuring that no matter how low the Sunni turnout, they would be guaranteed seats.

Sunni Arabs welcomed news of the suggestion....

[Zathras]

I fear everyone has been so impressed by the emotion of last February's election that they miss the point that CPA's original scheme would have made minority group representation in writing an Iraqi constitution much easier. This isn't to say the direct elections last February did not have value, only that they also had significant drawbacks, which Sistani along with the Iraqi government and the coalition forces are struggling to overcome now.

I am always impressed by the tone of commentary on issues like this. So frequently complex issues with many unknown variables -- and nationwide elections in a country just recently liberated from decades of totalitarian rule would certainly fall into that category -- are assumed to have been perfectly simple because they appear perfectly simple with the benefit of hindsight. Ironically this has the effect of reducing the impact of the Bush administration's critics, because these make so little effort to distinguish between real, avoidable blunders and the inevitable mistakes that happen when decisions need to be made in a fluid and alien environment.

[Lewis Carroll]

"The evidence is that he opposed fake Democracy in which Paul Bremer would appoint the people who appointed the people who elected the people who would claim to represent The People."

IIRC, wasn't this Sistani's main complaint with the elections? I think he wanted direct election of representatives, whereas the elections as implemented called for the election of some unknown (at that time) "electors" from each province who would then name some unknown (at that time) representatives to the assembly.

[Robert Waldmann]

The plan which did not please Sistani was democratic in the same sence that the peoples democratic republic of Korea is democratic. The hinted rules were very vague, but it was clear that the names of electors would start in Baghdad with the IGC (itself appointed by the USA) grow with nominations then shrink with elections by the representatives of the representatives of Bush.

I don't think anyone ever seriously pretended that the proposal was democratic. Sistani has consistently argued that, in Democracy, elections are not optional. It is a sign of our times that the New York Times insists on interpreting this in terms of interest group politics and doesn't mention the possibility that someone somewhere might really think that elections are a necessary part of the democratic process.

[Pancho Villa]

What is an 'Ayatollah '?

[Brad DeLong]

Title of high ranking Shi'ite Muslim authorities, especially in Iran. It is a recent (20th Cent.) title for exceptional jurists. Literally, "a sign of God's presence," or perhaps "a Sign of God's presence."

[Oskar Shapley]

The Scientific American has these nice riddle on the last pages. Some years ago they had one about gangs building coalitions to defend from bigger gangs. The goal was to find combinations of strength which are stable (or not). 5,3,2 is stable while 4,4,2 is not.

What Iraq needs is a political system in which the Sunnis and Kurds can together cast a veto. Since the Shia make up 60% of the population, a 65% qualified voting majority would do the job. Or a quorum.

[Frans Groenendijk]

About one year ago I wrote on my site: (www.fransgroenendijk.nl/reactieding.php?id=367_0_1_0_C)

It is sad to read that Iraqi people actually seem te be asking mr Sistani if it is allowed to play chess and it is even more sad that in his Q&A-page Sistani answers that
"It is absolutely unlawful"
but it is completely wrong to decide on this that he is like the Taliban ruling out kites.
In many comments by bloggers and journalists the crucial role of Sistani is emphasized again and again. Crooked Timbers John Quiggin for example wrote:
"The key to all this, almost certainly, is Ayatollah Sistani. He is not the person I would want running my country (or more precisely acting as the eminence grise for its day-to-day rulers), but he seems like the only plausible choice who wouldn not be an absolute disaster."
As I commented recently "The real challenge we face is to compromise with the Sistani's of this world without destroying the hopes of Iraqis for a prosperous and really democratic Iraq".
I must confess however that I wrote this while I only read about Sistani; I never visited the website of his organization.
Now I did, and in spite of the quotes I am hopeful about what I found on the site of his organization.
The Question-and-Answer-page of his site in itself is of some interest but much more interesting is the text on his method that can be found in his biography (can not be reached with Mozilla):
"a : He speaks about the history of the research he is discussing, to know its fundamental sources which might be philosophical, like the issue of the simplicity of "mushtaqq" and its constructions. Or, they might be concerned with beliefs and policy, like the research of "ta`aadul and taraajeeh", in which he had explained that the difference of hadiths returns to intellectual clashes and the political circumstances of that time during which the Imams(a.s.) had lived.
b : Ayatullah Sistani always connects between the thought of Hawzah and the contemporary civilizations. .....c :.... He thinks that the hawzah students became bored because most of scholars are dealing with subjects on Usoul exaggeratedly, by repeating the others researches, instead of innovating new researches of their own. Thus, the students cannot be enticed with such unuseful and boring repetition.....e :. His Social View About the Text: There are many Faqihs who deal literally with historical texts and remain stable upon their mere words and meanings, and do not try to move even one step forward....The Sistani's method in Fiqh has a particular feature, some of which are related herebelow:
1) Comparing between the Fiqh of Shia and other Islamic sects' Fiqh.
2) Benefitting from the modern laws (like the Iraqi, Egyptian, and French laws) in some Fiqh subjects, especially when he discusses the subjects such as the Sale and the Choices.
3) Renewal in Discussing some Fiqh rules and according to this era's circumstances, contrary to some scholars who deal with the historical texts as they are without attempting to change any part of it as the conditions may request that"
If this is the most important Shia leader in Iraq this sounds really hopeful to me. We should take into account on top of this that Sistani let himself be convinced by UN Sectary Generals special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, to agree with the postponing of direct elections in Iraq to January 2005.
I am a little bit ashamed that I did not notice the stature of Sistani first hand before.
But then again I realise that sometimes, -unfortunately!-, in spite of my miserable achievements I am still ahead of quite a number of politicians.
In my opinion European (and other democratic) politicians should reach out to the moderate forces in Iraqi and the greater Middle East. Beyond any doubt Sistani qualifies and surely governments of European countries and maybe members of the European Commission and Parliament already have their talks with Sistani.
Or not?
Although I googled some time on Sistani and European politics I found very little on the subject.
Searching the Gateway to the European Union results in
"Your search on "sistani" matched 0 of 1540821 documents. You have 25 per page"
Texts adopted by the European Parliament:
"No result - please modify search"
Strange.
The EU-observer on "Sistani":
"Search returned no results"

That was one year ago.

My doubts grew and so I mailed all MP's in the dutch parliamentary committee on foreign affairs asking them if they shared my view that the Netherlands (as acting chair of the EU) should build, maintain and extend relations with Al-Sistani. Only 5 (out of 40) reacted at all. Just three of them reacting with respect to content. The contents for two suggested that it was evident to maintain relations with and support the efforts of Allawi's interim government....

So I tried the Dutch press
I sent this article (dutch of course) as a letter to the editor. They did not print it. I don't like that of course but I know that not being a professor and not being well known for any reason the chances of having a big letter published is very small. What I really don't like is the explanation they gave for not publishing it. This included a remark
"...het gaat uit van minder zekere vooronderstellingen en het is ook niet zo heel feitelijk..."
(it builds on assunmptions that are not very sure and is not very factual).
Could make you really cynical. Blogging helps to prevent this.

[Ari]

Well done, Frans. I think a Shiite coalition government can prevail if we leave Iraq, and I think we should leave. We won the war, but we are not colonialists.