Goran's country moves step by struggling step towards democracy

AS IRAQ emerges from a crushing 30 years of brutal dictatorship and the ensuing chaos of war, its citizens strive bravely to make sense of it all.  Conducting their daily lives in a changing society, an emergent democracy, they work with what they have.   

To hear first-hand experience of this daily awakening could remind more advanced democracies of just how far they have come from raw beginnings, of just how very fortunate they are as they continue to press for further change. 

Goran Zangana, a medical doctor from Kurdiestan currently studying in Edinburgh, takes a pragmatic approach.  He speaks passionately about how far Iraq has come, and how far it has to go. “Representative democracy is never perfect of course, but it’s better than a dictatorship,” he says.  “That has to be true.  In Iraq chronic nepotism still exists, with family members and relatives sometimes dominating ‘elected’ bodies.  And despotism still exists.  These are mind-sets that will not disappear overnight.  The move towards an effective and participatory democracy is an evolutionary process, and we are still a long way from this yet.

“Before 2003 we had no political parties, just one party, one leader, and no chance to vote for any other. The information that we received about our society was limited.  Our media, our economy was dominated by one family.  When the United States and United Kingdom removed the dictator, a society that had been homogenised for 30 years erupted with all the pent-up frustrations that had been suppressed for so long.  We are learning now how to work with this new atmosphere.”

Goran is a Kurd from northern Iraq, a minority population of 20 per cent in an Arab dominated society.  As he works to complete a PhD in international public health policy in Scotland, he longs to return to his country and address some of its many problems.  Committed to compassionate service to his people, he campaigns actively against some of the recently revealed ‘social disorders’ such as local despotism, polygamy, sexual violence, Female Genital Mutilation, corruption and access to health care, serious, endemic problems, some of which many in Iraq had never been previously aware. 

At the same time, Goran recognises some similarities between a new democracy and the more established concept in Scotland.   “As a people we must learn to take responsibility for our own governance,” he said. “It has been in one way so easy to assume that someone else has the power, solves, or creates the problems, and has all the rights to decide.  It is not only Iraq that suffers from this tendency.  Actually the problems are the same in most societies; it’s just that we approach them differently.”

Attending the recent event at Edinburgh University set up by the Public Policy Network, focusing on the ‘ psycho-sociological perspective’ of how bureaucracies work, Goran brought humility and humour to the round-table discussion.  “As a medical doctor I am aware that doctors can easily make assumptions about how much power they have in relation to their patients,” he said.  “After all a patient may know their own body much better than I. Perhaps I need to remember this as I make decisions for their health and well-being. ” 

His comments could have relevance to anyone considering how participation in

decision-making works best for everyone, be it in the consulting room of a medical doctor, the voting chamber of an elected body or the working group of a citizen’s jury. 

“Learning to listen and share decision making within power structures is a leap that we must all consider.”  Well said Goran.  No matter what structure we are working in, we can’t be reminded of that often enough.
                                                                                                 © 2012 JENNY MACKENZIE