The new Iraqi cabinet faces an uphill battle to restore order and achieve national reconciliation It was perhaps no coincidence that at the time when the new Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki was making headlines about "a plan to protect Baghdad" by using "maximum force" to restore order, as many as 20 Iraqis lost their lives in a string of suicide attacks that hit Baghdad on Sunday in Al-Karada district. The killings were just another grim reminder that has now become an hourly occurrence of the kind of challenges the new cabinet will face during its four-year mandate. The plan, whose existence was disclosed by Al-Maliki during the inauguration of the new Iraqi cabinet, centered around forming new special forces to secure Baghdad. But hardly any details were revealed as to how this will take place. The 37-member cabinet that was approved by the Iraqi national assembly on Saturday emerged after more than five months since the country went to the polls on 15 December. Al-Maliki's inauguration speech focused mainly on the issue of the government's plan to restore security to Iraq. He was not oblivious to the fact that force alone will not defeat terrorism and that what Iraq needed most was to take steps towards national reconciliation. "We have a new plan of reconciliation for Iraq to restore trust," Al-Maliki said. He would not, however, disclose details of the plan. This left many to question the new cabinet's ability to achieve such a difficult objective. Such doubts grow stronger when considering the fact that for many Iraqis, the basis upon which the government was formed exacerbate sectarian tensions instead of muting them. After months of political bickering that left a huge political void in the country and rendered it vulnerable to sectarian conflict and civil war, the final count of the Iraqi cabinet was hardly a surprise since the same sectarian quotas -- first applied in the Iraqi Interim Council -- have been adopted to select cabinet members. The main Shia alliance, the United Iraqi Alliance, which holds 130 out of the 275 seats in parliament seized 19 of the 37 ministries including the powerful oil and finance portfolios. The main Kurdish bloc snatched seven ministries including the Foreign Ministry while the National Accord Front, the main Sunni bloc, grabbed six ministries. Former premier Iyad Allawi's Iraqi list secured five including the Ministry of Justice and Human rights. According to the Iraqi daily Azzaman newspaper, candidates for the Interior Ministry, such as former National Security Advisor Muwafaq Al-Rubaie and head of the Iraqi National Conference Ahmed Chalabi have been excluded from the list of candidates for the post due to a lack of consensus over them. Al-Maliki said in a press conference on Monday that both, ministers of interior and of defence, will be named during the coming few days. Some Iraqi commentators criticised the basis upon which the ministries were distributed among political blocs, and according to one commentator "it was more a cabinet selected by Zalmay Khalilzad -- the US ambassador in Iraq -- than it was by Iraqis." Writing in the Azzaman newspaper, Muthna Al-Tabakajli noted how the cabinet as such leaves no room for opposition forces in the assembly. "Most of the blocs represented in the assembly have their men in the cabinet which means that the assembly will pose little if no opposition at all to check on the government," he wrote. "The rule will be if you don't stand against me I will not oppose you and they will turn into 'Yes men', and in that case forget transparency because the ministries will be no more than fiefdoms for the party that holds it. Until the last minute, Iraqi parties could not agree on the two key security portfolios -- those of the interior and of defense. But according to Iraqi observers there will be no break with the tradition established in post-occupation Iraq; a Shia figure is expected to head the Ministry of Interior while the Ministry of Defense will be allocated to a Sunni, and a Kurd will take the Ministry of State for National Security. Many have insisted that the two security portfolios should be held by independent figures who are not influenced by partisan interests or militia groups. Politicians around the world have overreacted to the news of the formation of an Iraqi cabinet. While US President George Bush described it as the government which "will give a devastating blow to Al-Qa'eda," the secretary of state described Al-Maliki as "someone determined to do what is right for the Iraqi people". Stretching things a bit further, British Prime Minister Tony Blair paid a surprise visit to Baghdad on Monday, one day after the new cabinet was sworn into office, and held talks with Al-Maliki. Blair's exaggerated sense of euphoria, describing the event as "a new beginning for Iraqis to take charge of their own destiny", hardly cut any ice with the Iraqis who have been suffering. Many Iraqis say they have little if no cause to celebrate as their country is marching slowly towards civil war. "What Iraqis need is a government that represents the national interests of its people, one that is only accountable to the Iraqis and not to the Americans or the British or to the sectarian interests of ministers as we saw in previous governments," Nazim Al-Jasour, a professor at Al-Mustansyria University told the Weekly. The university has closed its doors after three of its students were shot dead. It is the second Iraqi university to suspend teaching due to rising violence. A statement issued by the Univeristy of Diyala said it was closing down for a week in protest of the killing of its professors. Al-Mustansiriya University is one of the largest in the country and had built a reputation for its postgraduate studies particularly in sciences, engineering and medicine. Al-Maliki repeatedly vowed to dissolve all the militia and death squads that have been terrorising Iraqis and committing atrocities. In a press conference on Monday, he repeatedly stressed the need to "resolve the issue of the militias once and for all". "We cannot fathom that security will be restored to Iraq while militias that murder people according to their sectarian and religious identities continue to roam the streets of Iraq," Al-Maliki said. In an attempt to soothe the fears of his partners in power, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Al-Maliki pointed out that disarming the militia should not be understood as targeting "those who resisted dictatorship". This was in reference to the Badr Brigade, the SCIRI's military militia known for its ruthlessness and who is said to have been behind the atrocities committed against Iraqi Sunnis. "We should realise that the militias that continue to undermine security should be dealt with forcefully." How Al-Maliki is going to do this without angering his partners in power is anybody's wild guess. On Monday, 11 people were killed in shootings and bomb attacks. In a press conference on the same day, Al-Maliki pointed out that the plan was for Iraqi forces to take control over operations from the multi-national forces, province by province, as they become ready, starting from June.
