The New Cabinet

by John Tierney, September 03, 2003

Two days ago, the Governing Council declared that the new Iraqi Cabinet had been selected. The composition of the Iraqi cabinet is identical to that of the Governing Council: 13 Shi’a Muslims, 5 Sunni Muslims, 5 Kurds, 1 Christian, and 1 Turkoman.

After a long, tedious speech given this morning by Ibraheim Al-Jaffari, the ministers were ‘sworn in’. Correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t there supposed to be a constitution the ministers should swear to uphold? Apparently not.

Only 16 of the ministers were sworn in today because 9 of them couldn’t be there for ‘technical reasons’ (i.e. they’re still outside of the country). I don’t know how the ministries are going to function when the majority of the ‘ministers’ were living abroad for most of their lives. There’s going to be an American ‘advisor’ for each of the ministries, which is supposed to help. I hope the American advisors are better than the ones Bush stocks the White House with…

Some points of interest…

- Ahmad Al-Chalabi, Jalal Talabani, and Ibraheim Al-Jaffari were swearing in the ministers.

- There is one female minister- Nisreen Mustafa Bawari. After she was sworn in, she started shaking the hands of Al-Chalabi, Talabani and Al-Jaffari, like her male counterparts. Al-Jaffari refused to shake her hand because Al-Da’awa consider it a ‘sin’ to touch a female who isn’t a direct relation.

- Mohammed Jassim Khudhair (Minister of Expatriates and Immigration) wasn’t wearing a tie. Many Muslim fundamentalists (like the ones in Iran) don’t wear ties because they believe that along with the head, and arms, there’s symbolism of a ‘cross’ and a cross symbolizes Christianity and… well, you get the picture.

- The Minister of Oil is… Ibraheim Mohammed Bahr Ul-Iloom- the son of Mohammed Bahr Ul-Iloom of the Governing Council (the one who suspended his membership in the 9-member rotating presidency). Can anyone say nepotism? Brilliance must run in the family…