From Politics to Policies

When I was a kid, we had a couple of beehives at home. Every now and then, a group of bees were making a crowd in front of the hive and we, the kids, had to anticipate were they are going so that we could get them inside a new home and settle them close to the other beehives.
As similar as our life as human beings to the behavior of the bees, I wish we were less complicated. Once the new beehive settled in their new place, the only thing that was shared between the neighboring beehives with the inability of their members to invade the other beehive.
At this stage, the political picture in Kurdistan is very similar to that metaphor. The opposition was mainly created by prominent members of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of the Iraqi president Jalal Talabni, whose sun is the representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government in the United States.
it is understandable that the electoral process in Kurdistan have been rigged by a number of irregularities that we should not stop exposing and trying to fix. This could be a great political move for the present time in part of the opposition. But the strategic challenges that face us as Kurds are much bigger than tactical political maneuvering. We need to transcend our individual and political differences and disagreements and think about the bigger picture.
This becomes even more important and necessary when we take into consideration the little if any ideological differences between the leading two main political parties the PUK and KDP on one hand and the main opposition list on the other. In fact I don't see any differences, ideology-wise between the two. The only difference is the demand of the Change list, rightly, for more accountability and transparency in the work of the government, the eradication of corruption, patronage and limits on the rule of law.
The failure to transcend individual, political and regional differences and conflicts between the political establishment and the opposition, can results in political stagnation and stalemate.
What the people of Kurdistan need now are policies rather than politics. Lets go to work with bills in the parliament that can be passed in a bipartisan way. The embryos of Kurdistan need the flour that the mothers eat be enriched with folic acid, the kids of Kurdistan need the air they breath be empty from the lead our cars are emitting, the mentally ill need a mental health act in the parliament that respect, protect and fulfil their rights in a humane way, and our girls need a bill that protect their body from genital mutilation, this to name only few urgent matters in the public health arena.
Public health people, this is for you, lets come up with a bill that protects the health of our people and wish that politicians will forget their differences and go to work with us.