Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Al-Karbalaei
Dear brothers and sisters… I would like to point out the following matters:-
First Matter:
At this time when, as our armed forces and volunteers and the brave sons of the tribes, in achieving more victories in various areas, liberating more territories from the contamination of ISIS criminals and as further losses are expected in their fronts, these bunch of criminals are trying to saturate the criminal instincts and compensate for its defeats by sectarian revenge of innocent citizens, young and old men and women, by bombing crowded shops and markets, as Khan Bani Saad in Diyala province experienced in the past days, and in the capital, Baghdad, which left hundreds dead and wounded, and in times that these victims are supposed to be living the joy of Eid al-Fitr, rather the gangs of ISIS convert it into an occasion of grief and sorrow, we attribute and console the families of the martyrs may The Almighty embrace them with His infinite mercy, and stand in solidarity with the wounded may God grant them a speedy recovery, we address the responsible security authorities; we say that it is not logical and reasonable nor ever acceptable, neither legally or morally, to find that the heroic fighters from the armed forces and volunteers who offer their lives and sacrificial offerings to Iraq in order to liberate its territory and protect its sanctities from the plague of ISIS, as they have left their loved ones and their families and their cities for the protection of security forces, to become easy baits for the evils of terrorists, victims of ISIS’s cars of death, murder, arson and destruction, as a result of betrayal, neglect or lack of tolerance or capabilities or so, the government strongly encouraged to follow a policy of firmness and strongly accounting the components who are involved in these criminal acts, or it may tarried and tolerated in the performance of its duties, therefore enabling terrorist gangs to commit these security violations, so they are not only required to adopt deterring procedures but as long as they are left feeling secure of their negligence notified by security of their negligence, which increased their audacity in leniency toward the lives of citizens, the government also asked to provide adequate equipment and devices, and advanced in the discovery of car bombs, and the adoption of adequate and advanced training for the development of capabilities and capacities of the security services, to discover hidden cases of booby-trapping and analysis of the security fundamentals, they should also activate the intelligence matters in areas with a higher rate of potential ISIS presence, and to provide the intelligence services, including requesting sophisticated means to detect terrorist communications and movements.
Second matter:
The Council of Ministers decision to reduce allowances of the three presidencies, ministers, MPs and senior officials, is a step in the right direction if gained through a mandatory formula through legislation and Parliament’s approval, so that it is not just words on paper and a non-binding resolution that preoccupies people and the media for some time, then doesn’t find its way to implementation, as it has previously happened with a number of similar decisions, and this decision should be integrated along with other decisions to achieve social justice for citizens, including equalising salaries as they are unbalanced and offered luxury to certain groups of citizens at the expense of the disadvantaged majority of the oppressed, as there is also a need to reconsider many of the government expenditures, that are unnecessary and can be laid off, especially since the country experiences difficult economic circumstances that requires scrutiny in exchange financial resources.
Third matter:
The financial crisis that Iraq is experiencing and the expenses of fighting ISIS as its financial disbursements mounting as a result, with what is seen from the country’s essential dependence on oil income resources, necessitates taking effective measures to address the real reasons for the depletion of the massive financial resources of the country, with the lack of economic development and proportional evolution commensurates with its total financial inputs, the required procedures that are repeatedly discussed is the fight against financial corruption that has spread in an unprecedented manner, in most of the states institutions, and especially the important ones, in spite of the numerous statements of specialists and officials that have referred to the role of financial and administrative corruption that the country has reached, and one of the prominent reasons for the fall of a number of important cities under the control of ISIS is financial corruption, and unprofessionalism that sways a number of security and other institutions, which only the finest of Iraq’s young men pay the price for in the time being, with a huge delay in areas of development and services, for if this isn’t enough to wake up the conscience of some, and wakes up consciences by the impacts of what has happened to Iraq and its people from disasters and calamities, as cold hard facts remain on the ground display big cases of corruption in important governmental positions in government agencies, and which needs to be treated with courage and daring national stances of officials to express the great sense of danger and the unknown future of the country if this matter goes untreated, therefore we call on everyone who is in positions of responsibility, especially leaders of the blocs and senior officials in the judicial, legislative and executive powers in themselves to grasp the size of legitimate responsibility before God the Almighty and national responsibility to their own people, to commence a phase of real management and we frankly say that leaders from their offices and their associates in these measures then there is no soon hope in the treatment of these matters,
There’s no strength except with Allah Almighty…
