BAGHDAD: State television is working overtime to persuade Iraqis to help Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki confront an Al Qaeda offshoot that has seized wide tracts of the country, but its unifying call has been blunted by his sectarian reputation.
Since the humiliating loss of much of Iraq’s north to Islamic State insurgents, the official Iraqiya channel has been churning out patriotic videos of marching soldiers, heavily-armed commandos and even singers and actors to rally the public behind the government. The theatrics are reminiscent of life under Saddam Hussein, whose propaganda machine put a positive spin on disasters like his 1990 invasion of Kuwait or 1980-88 war with Iran.
Instead of increasing confidence in Maliki, the campaign has highlighted what critics say is the Shi’ite Muslim premier’s failure to unite Iraq against Islamist insurgents who have put the country’s survival as a unified state in jeopardy.
“We laugh, of course with pain, when the government repeats the same bullshit as Saddam,” said Qassim Sabti, a 60-year-old artist.
Mohamed Abdul Jabar Al Shaboot, head of the Iraqi Media Network that broadcasts Iraqiya, said feedback on the videos had been generally good across Iraq’s communal spectrum. “There have been some voices that did not approve of these kind of activities, saying they recalled the patriotic songs that filled TV screens under Saddam Hussein,” he told Reuters.
“But there’s a big difference because our songs emphasize love of homeland and steadfastness and tolerance while the songs of Saddam’s time glorified one person, certified worship of the one and only leader focusing on Saddam’s personality.”
Still, many Iraqis see Maliki as a polarising figure who has deepened sectarian divisions, and Iraqiya as his propaganda arm rather than the unifying public service it says it is. His marginalisation of Sunni Muslims has caused some to find common cause with the Islamic State, which aims to reshape the Middle East and impose its radical ideology.
Maliki, who has served in a caretaker capacity since an election in April, has defied calls by Sunnis, Kurds and even some Shi’ites to step aside in favour of a less polarising leader needed to lead a unified response to the insurgency. The man who spent years in exile plotting against Saddam seems content to use the same tactics the dictator, a Sunni, employed to create the impression of invincibility.
REUTERS
