Two years after the formation of Al-Sudani's government.. What has it achieved and what has it faile

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[size=52]Two years after the formation of Al-Sudani's government.. What has it achieved and what has it failed to achieve?[/size]

[size=45]Two years have passed since the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was elected by parliament on October 27, 2022, after the Sadrist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr withdrew from politics and gave the forces opposing him the opportunity to form the government.
During the past two years under al-Sudani’s government, there have been no qualitative leaps in the country, or even solutions to the problems that Iraqis have demanded through protests for years to end, including the dominance of the principle of partisan and political quotas over important positions, in addition to the problem of restricting weapons to the state, or the problem of the Iraqi economy that depends only on oil.
Observers and activists believe that Al-Sudani’s government failed to implement real and tangible measures on the ground, especially in the file of the displaced in “depopulated” areas occupied by armed militias, such as Jurf Al-Sakhar, Al-Awja, Yathrib, and others, in addition to compensating for destroyed homes, removing armed crowds from city centers and residential neighborhoods, as well as the rampant financial corruption in the country, not to mention the problem of the decline in the value of the dinar against the dollar (the dollar is equal to about 1311 Iraqi dinars).
Al-Sudani was content with implementing reforms related to paving and building roads and bridges and employing huge numbers of unemployed people in state institutions, while filling hundreds of thousands of jobs despite warnings from economists about the danger of this to the state budget and the large amount of job slack that has affected the government sector in the country.
Al-Sudani said in a speech following the vote of confidence in his government on October 27, 2022, that “the corruption pandemic that has affected all aspects of life is more deadly than the Corona pandemic, and was the reason behind many economic problems, weakening the prestige of the state, increasing poverty, unemployment, and poor services. Accordingly, our program includes firm policies and measures to combat this pandemic.”
Al-Sudani stressed the need to “build a strong Iraqi economy capable of achieving qualitative change in services, creating many job opportunities and opening the doors to investment, as well as contributing to strengthening the foundations of cooperation with countries of the world, based on the principle of common interests and mutual respect for sovereignty.”
He pointed out that “there is importance in returning the displaced to their areas of residence after completing the requirements for return, and also paying attention to human rights and women’s empowerment, and working to start campaigns to confine the loose weapons in the hands of the state, and holding accountable those involved in killing Iraqis, whether in popular demonstrations or during security problems.”
In the same context, the leader of the ruling Coordination Framework Alliance, Amer Al-Fayez, said that “Iraq needs governments that complete reforms and work, not to start over while neglecting the decisions of the governments that preceded it,” adding that “therefore, Al-Sudani’s government worked in this way, as it completed the past successes in the Iraqi state, and drew up new service plans, agreed upon by all parties in the State Administration Alliance.”
He pointed out that "it is difficult to say that Al-Sudani's government has succeeded in everything, but it has made great progress in service files, in addition to the successes in the field of dialogue with the Americans regarding ending the role of the international coalition in Iraq." Al-Fayez considered that "Iraq needs a renaissance in all areas, and there is a need for political support for the government's measures and choices."
The political agreement paper concluded between the parties and Al-Sudani included 23 paragraphs, most of which were not implemented due to political circumvention of its provisions after the formation of the government. The most prominent of these understandings, which were considered conditions in exchange for a vote of confidence in parliament in favor of granting the government confidence, were ending the presence of armed factions and militias in cities and residential neighborhoods, launching a program to restrict weapons to the state, ending the phenomenon of “depopulated” cities controlled by some armed factions, and forming an independent court for corruption files retroactively since 2006.
An agreement was also reached to legislate a general amnesty law, which primarily targets those from whom confessions were extracted under torture or by secret informants, and to allow them to have fair trials again, compensate those affected by terrorist operations and military errors, and reveal the fate of the kidnapped.
The understandings included addressing the housing crisis, launching a strategy to combat poverty and unemployment, and other pledges related to implementing reforms in the economic, financial, and service sectors, and abolishing the “Accountability and Justice” Commission.
The understandings also included justice for Iraqi minorities harmed by years of violence and terrorism, canceling security checks on residents of cities in northern and western Iraq, reconsidering the balance within state institutions, especially the army, police and other security services, justice for Basra Governorate and other oil cities in the country, bringing the killers of demonstrators and activists to justice, and implementing the agreement to normalize the situation in the city of Sinjar in northern Iraq (between Erbil and Baghdad in 2020 with the aim of removing non-Iraqi armed groups from Sinjar in preparation for the return of its displaced people).
For his part, political activist Ayham Rashad explained that “Al-Sudani and his government are not much different from any government that took power after the American occupation, because it is based on political consensus and not on political legitimacy or social legitimacy.”
“Therefore, the great praise that Al-Sudani receives from the parties indicates only one thing, which is that he appeased all these political entities with financial contracts, appointments, and the deployment of their members in important positions. However, during the past two months, a dispute emerged between the government and the parties regarding the eavesdropping issue (in Al-Sudani’s office) and opened a new door of conflict,” he added.
Rashad pointed out that “the campaigns to build and open roads and bridges are important work, but they do not represent everything the people need. Rather, many files are required, including lifting political dominance over the Iraqi decision, ending loose weapons, and improving the economic reality.”
He pointed out that “the current regime, not just the government, may be shaken in its pillars with the growing problem of the decline in the value of the dinar, and the regime may fall within a short period if the price of oil in the country declines, which means that the structural problems in the Iraqi regime cannot be addressed by building bridges as an achievement.”
In turn, Ali Al-Baydar, a political analyst, said, “The challenges in Iraq are many and great, and any government will face challenges, and unfortunately some of them are deep-rooted, but in any case, Al-Sudani’s government has achieved progress in the field of infrastructure, which had been neglected for more than 40 years, and he was able to achieve political calm.”
“Over the past two years, we have had clear political calm, even the quarrels and problems were quickly resolved,” he explained. Al-Baydar added that “what the government has achieved in two years is an important accomplishment, especially in the field of reconstruction, road expansion and bridge building, which has contributed to alleviating congestion, in addition to the good progress in building residential cities on the outskirts of the capital, Baghdad, and other areas.”
He considered that “Al-Sudani’s government enjoys great political support, which is one of the reasons for its success.”[/size]
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