Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Al-Karbalaei
Dear brothers and sisters…
I bring to your attention the following matters:-
First Matter:
Yesterday, the savage terrorists carried out a car bomb in Alawt al
Jamila, Baghdad that resulted in the death and injuries of hundreds of
innocent citizens, to which ISIS announced its adoption of the criminal
act for this heinous and unashamed sectarian crime, as these brutal crimes
coincide in retaliation to the decent Iraqi people who blessedly stood by
their sons in the armed forces and heroic volunteers and all those who
care as a strong barrier in the face of them to stop them achieving their
ominous aims, as we express our sympathy and solidarity with the
bereaved families and their loved ones asking for peace on the souls of
who died in this vicious attack, and we pray for the speedy recovery of
the wounded. We emphasise that these atrocities will not break the will of
the Iraqi people, but rather increases his determination to continue
fighting until we achieve the final victory and rid the country of terrorists’
abomination with the help of Allah The Almighty. We also emphasise
once again on the responsible government agencies the need to speed up
the reform process of the security and intelligence institutions, in order to
perform its required role in providing security and stability and detect
terrorist acts before they occur.
Second matter:
The fight against rampant corruption in government institutions
was one of the most important concerns of the Supreme Religious
Authority since the early years of the regime change, confirmed over and
over again in the past ten years in the issued statements in its office in
Najaf Al Ashraf and its Friday sermons, on the importance of adopting
serious steps in the fight against financial and administrative corruption
and that no security, no development and no progress can be witnessed
without it. I would like to read for your attention segments from data
released by the Supreme Religious Authority’s Office in this regard over
the past years; In April 2006, a nearly ten years ago and after the first
session of the House of Representatives elections and prior to the
formation of the government, the office issued a statement stating:
“Other than that the next government tasks that are anti-administrative
corruption, rampant in importance in most state institutions degree
portends grave danger, it must develop practical mechanisms for the
elimination of this incurable disease and prosecute corruptors judicially
whoever they are”
In September 2006, after the formation of the government, the
office issued a statement reiteration emphasising once again the need to
combat corruption and abuse of power that causes the loss of Iraqi state
resources, stressing the necessary role that enables the judiciary to
exercise its role in corruption cases issuing the appropriate legal
sentences as soon as possible.
In February 2011, the office issued a statement stating:
“The supreme religious authority calls the House of Representatives and
the Iraqi government to take serious and concrete steps to improve public
services, especially electricity and the allowance items, and provide
work opportunities for the unemployed, and the fight against rampant
corruption in various government departments, and before this and that
make critical decisions to cancel unacceptable privilege granted to
existing and former members of the House of Representatives and
provincial councils and senior officials in the government of ministers
and those with special grades and others, and to refrain from the
introduction of non-essential government positions annually, costing vast
sums of money belonging to the oppressed peoples, and the abolition of
currently existing ones”
These are examples issued by the Supreme Religious Authority
previously and currently calling on the continuing need to combat
corruption in the state, which unfortunately we did not witness any
attentive ears for in the past years.
Third matter:
Several decisions to reform government institutions and the fight
against corruption has been announced in recent days, to achieve a degree
of social justice, which we value and we hope those decisions find their
ways into actual implementation in the near future. We would like to note
that the most important requirements of the reform process:
Firstly/ Reform of the judiciary; it is an important milestone in the
completion of the reform compilation and cannot be actual real reform
without it, for rampant corruption is existent even in the judiciary, but
there are certainly quite a few honourable judiciary who did not
contaminate their hands in bribery, who cannot be blamed for any aspect
of the corrupted system. They are whom we must rely on in the reform
process of the judiciary, to be based as a foundation to repair the rest of
the state institutions.
Secondly/ There are many laws and decrees issued in the past years,
which have opened broad prospects for the practice of corruption in its
various forms, which must be assigned to the government and the House
of Representatives to reconsider these laws and decisions and to work on
modifying or abolishing what it sees as required in the sole public
interest. In contrast, there is an urgent need for legislative laws and
decision-making which reform cannot be practised without, which it is
the most important of reform laws; the Law on the ranking salaries to
state employees, that takes into account social justice as it is not
acceptable that some senior officials have salaries amounting to tens of
millions per month, not reaching the monthly salaries for many
employees of mere three hundred thousand dinars. We hope that the
government and the House of Representatives and the Supreme Judicial
Council conduct the required reforms are well thought out without
reluctance and delay, bearing in mind that the decent population are
watching their work and will be watchful to see them pursue their
performance and take appropriate stance against those who hinder or
procrastinate in performing reforms and anti-corruption. Logically, this
offers officials a reasonable opportunity to prove their good intentions to
the process of reform without apprehension of pushing the country into
chaos and in disabling the interests of people and engaging in any futile
rhetoric matters.
… We ask Allah The All Almighty to help all to what is good for Iraqis…
