Iraq Assembly Names Speaker

Progress was made today in the recently-elected Iraqi National Assembly, and this progress wasn’t of the baby step variety. Rarely is a blatant compromise such a huge stride towards the future. Then again, rarely has compromise even been seen in this country.

Acknowledging that last week’s acrimonious and nationally televised failure to reach a deal had angered voters, Iraqi lawmakers moved quickly and calmly Sunday to elect a speaker for the National Assembly and clear the way for the formation of a transitional government.

Much remains to be settled. But the appointment of Hajem al-Hassani is seen as a crucial step in recapturing the political momentum provided by Iraq’s extraordinary elections more than two months ago.

Al-Hassani, 50, is a Sunni Muslim. His deputies will be a Shiite Muslim from the most dominant bloc in the parliament and a Kurd from the second-biggest group. And al-Hassani, a U.S.-educated economist who is the minister of industry, has good relations with the allies of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

Though the speaker’s post is not expected to wield much power, the Sunni-Shiite-Kurd lineup is intended to send a message dear to Iraq’s incoming leaders: Everyone who wants to join the political process will have a voice in the new Iraq.

“We passed the first hurdle,” said al-Hassani, who first rejected the speaker’s post in hopes of becoming defense minister but acquiesced under growing pressure for the parties to find a compromise candidate. “The Iraqi people have proved that they can overcome the political crisis that has plagued the country for the last two months.”

The standoff hit its peak Tuesday, when the National Assembly’s first working session broke down amid shouted protests from the floor and finger-pointing along ethnic and sectarian lines.

Despite having braved violence and intimidation to go to the polls Jan. 30, Iraqi voters were waiting for the men and women they elected to decide who should lead the assembly, who should be president and who should run the government as prime minister and Cabinet members.

“There was public pressure from the people,” said Ali al-Dabbagh, a member of the Shiite alliance that dominates the National Assembly.

“They showed their anger,” al-Dabbagh said, including Shiite pilgrims marching by the hundreds of thousands in the holy city of Karbala last week and chanting their demands for political action. “I think everybody got the message.“

Read those last two paragraphs again. And again. Let it sink in — the new Iraqi government is answering to the Iraqi people.

Several deputies said forming a government would take days, not weeks. Their next session is scheduled for Wednesday, with the goal of naming a president and two vice presidents. Sources with the Shiite and the Kurd coalitions said Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani remains on track to become president. Once that is done, the assembly will turn its attention to prime minister, and the Shiite alliance has set aside that post for Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

This has been the expected shakeout — Kurdish president, Shiite prime minister — for some time now. With this bold showing of open arms by the elevation of a Sunni to head the national assembly, I would expect the other pieces to fall into place quickly.

Now, what more of this Sunni, al-Hassani?

Speaking to reporters, al-Hassani focused on the theme of one Iraqi voice – an ideal that got drowned out last week amid all the shouting.

“I always say I am Iraqi before anything else,” said al-Hassani, whose family fled Iraq about 1979 and who spent most of the next two decades in the United States. “I am not going to talk in the name of Sunna or Shia or the Kurd. We will talk in the name of Iraqis, nothing else.”

Unity, compromise, progress. Ya gotta love it. Well, at least you should if you actually share hope with the Iraqi people.