My interview on Peshang radio station
Sunday, 21/02/2021, 10:34
Listeners of Peshang radio station, we are continuing to present our radio programs.
We have prepared a subject wich is a dialogue with political activist, Chia As'ad about corruption on the international anti-corruption day, 09 December.
What are the reasons and causes of corruption in the world and in kurdistan specifically, and what is the level of corruption at the moment?
Radio presenter / thank you very much for giving us this opportunity.
Chia As'ad / thank you very much for having me.
Presenter / Mr. Chia today is the international anti-corruption day, can I ask you what corruption is? ( can you describe what corruption is)?
Chia As'ad / according to me corruption is a global(international) virus, and in any nation this virus should be prevented in the beginning of spreading it, if it is not it will come down to the entire community and strata of society and sectors.
And for this, 9th of December has been designated as an international anti-corruption day by the United nations. Corruption has been a very serious problem and has a very big political impact on the social security and social values as well as the role of courts.
Presener / As we know corruption exists in the whole world, therefore the United Nations have designated an international day for this purpose.
I would like to ask you what are the reasons of corruption and what does corruption come from? And why is there a corruption in such way that we have an international day to confront it?
Chia Sa'd / In my opinion, the reasons and the forms might differ from a country to another but I emphasise and focus on What is happening in Iraq now wich is where I have lived in and our society has been affected to this deadly disease.
Generally speaking, lack of supervision(observation) is one of the main causes of corruption in the world, and same reason works for Iraq and Kurdistan as well, but the only difference is the political parties that made the crisis deeper by controlling the main power elements, specially three main sectors, economy, security and court.
Controlling these three sectors are the main factors of rising corruption.
Presenter/ It seems that corruption in Kurdistan is very widespread phenomenon, even the authorities themselves say there is corruption, on the other side the corruption is more than just corruption it has been theft and looting.
I would like to ask you how the corruption in Kurdistan is done and how it has been practised?
Chia As'ad / In my opinion, saying government that there are corruptions is a disaster, Because the government's work is not to say that there are corruptions, the government's work is to eradicate corruption.
And this is two stages/
(2014 and 2015) we were a group of people who were standing against corruption and had attitude towards it, but the government was trying to hide and deny it then.
We literally don't have a government now, all we have is the political parties that have taken over the power as I mentioned before.
Acknowledgment and confession of the existence of corruption by the government is a good thing, but tackling and fighting corruption is government's responsibility.
But at the moment we have a party(corrupt) government.
I would like to mention one important point wich is (energy sector, oil industry) if we only take one sector out of these corruptions.
Because the economy of Iraq and kurdistan specifically is dependent on oil.
The media released yesterday that the government's corruption cost is 40 percent of Iraq's income (40 percent of Iraqs income is being taken by corruption) which is a very high rate.
And now people have become conscious and aware, therefore the government and parties say there is corruption.
If you notice, yesterday and the day before yesterday thousands of people in Slemani went out on the streets and protested, and it has been started today in Darbandixan, and I'm sure that same will happen to other cities in the next few days.
This is the evidence of people awareness, today people want to live.
Most of the Public sector employees and civil servants haven not got paid yet, they say there is no salary, and that's because the revenue of the oil is missing.
It's clear that every day thousands of barrels of oils are being exported through the two main cross borders ( Haji Omaran) and ( Parwezxan) the question is where are the revenue of these exports, where are they going?
One of the disasters back in 2014 and 2015 when I was in Kurdistan was, people were being tortured over standing for their rights.
25 people were arrested yesterday, Why?
Because they fight for their initial rights, and protested against corruption.
In general, the ones who combat corruption, protest against corruption, have articles against corruption, and fight corruption are being suppressed by the government and parties with militia forces.
For instance, how people were arrested in the Slemani demonstrations and tortured in the prisons, including all strata of society especially those who attended and arranged the demonstrations.
Presenter/As you have gathered evidence in the investigation of corruption cases and many other sectors, like oil, why have you mentioned this sector so specifically? Is corruption at a higher level in this sector? As they say corruption is everywhere in the government?
Chia As'ad / I was fully aware of exporting oil, an if you notice there were some members of Parliament before me talking about corruption, they have always released corruption reports on media, for example (Ali Hamasalih) was one of the MPs who talked about corruption the most.
And the economy of Kurdistan depends on oil, therefore such a subject can't be ignored. People should care about this process especially academic people and they are the ones who are aware of it.
Presenter/ We could say that there are more corruptions in this sector, and I would like to ask you what can we do to eliminate corruption?
Chia As'ad/ people must keep protesting against corruption, I've been one of the demonstrations activist since they started. People should go out and stand up for their rights, unfortunately people are arrested, getting shot and tortured by the government in a very brutal way.
And these actions are expected, what people should do is not giving up because we have been in this situation for several years, this is related to our rights and lives.
Presenter/ Thank you very much
Chia As'ad / Thank you very much, I hope corruption will be eliminated around the world.
Chya Asad M.
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