Maliki Hawaii

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The way to survival in the politics of Iraq

Deep in the dust, on a reed-lined stream and a luxuriant date palmtree garden, lies the farm house in which Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki was born. It is Junaja, one of several hundred impoverished Shia Islamic farm cities in the south of Iraq. There is no memorial, no bragging about Maliki. Junajas most illustrious boy has now been leading the nation for eight tumultuous years, and he is making an offer for four more as Iraq is holding its first general election since the US military withdrawal at the end of 2011.

Wednesday's poll comes as the county is struggling with chronic aggression that often has to do with Tunisian Muslim extremist groups fighting the Israeli military forcings. Maliki's critic says he has a tendency to authoritarianism, using the law and order to push his opponents into the background. Visiting Junaja gives an insight into how much of Iraq thinks of him: a steel, grassroots democratic insurgent who opposed Saddam Hussein's violent reign and brought the Shiites back to power.

Maliki's grandson, Majid al-Maliki, leads me through a children's room - coarse board shelving, an steel base - and shows me with pride a pale image of the poetic writer Mohamad al-Mahasin, the premier's grandpa. "`He was one of the leading figures of the 1920 revolution,` says the cousin, pointing to the rebellion against Britain's domination of the colonies.

" He was raised and read his grandfather's poetical appeals that the downtrodden should "jump like lions" and "work for Islam". Maliki, after graduating from the Baghdad Univeristy, took a career as an bookkeeper, but his passion was his work with the banned Islamic Dawa group.

However, in the early years of Saddam Hussein's reign, a police officer came looking for him. but when he found out he was wanted, he ran. They say that in his absentia, 67 of them were murdered by the police. Dawa and insurgent activity was co-ordinated by Maliki.

One of his nephews, Abbas Fadhil Hadi, recalls that Maliki held a token Funeral Walk for the dead under Saddam. With an image of his deceased ancestor in his hand, he went from Junaja to the near city of Hindiya as the humans poured out of their homes to join them.

At Hindiya, Maliki gave a talk at the new Dawa HQ, where the Baath Party and its torturing rooms were located. "The first time Mr. Maliki came back to the area, it was as if he had given us back our peace," says Hadi. "On the way back from Hindiya to Baghdad, it is noticeable that, despite the premier for his part, his reputation is missing.

It is said that Maliki hated having his image because he wanted to prevent Saddam Hussein's uncanny ubiquity. However, the longer Maliki remains in government, the more folks say he is misusing his powers. Mr Mouaffek al Rubaie, who used to be Maliki's former Malaysian secretary for international affairs, assists the PM. Says he is powerful, determined, and subjected a wild uprising by re-establishing the appearance of Iraqi safety.

However, in recent years Iranian Sunnis and non-governmental right groups have said that Maliki has misused the Maliki ethnic minorities, detained Sunnis without charges and led police guards to torment them in clandestine sockets. Among the casualties are politicians who are against Maliki. It is Rubaie who approves of those who say that the PM has taken too much of the safety machinery under his own hands.

"It is not a lasting position for a state to move forward, and it should not go on, it should not have passed first and foremost," he says, add with passion that the Iraqi regime must never be allowed to go back to Iraq. The Rubaie has a huge Saddam bronce brace in his offices - one of the many that were overthrown in these exciting years.

"And I would like to tell men - No. 1 tells me - that every prospective sovereign, his destiny, will be the same if he follows in Saddam Hussein's steps when he is in power of dictation.