Tensions were high inside Beirut's Le Commodore hotel yesterday as Iraqi lawmakers debated the role oil will play in their country's future. The 20 legislators came to Lebanon to build their capacity for oil and gas oversight in a workshop hosted by Revenue Watch and Arab Region Parliamentarians Against Corruption (ARPAC).
Though lawmakers' commitment to reviving Iraq's economy brought them together in Beirut, their ethnic, political and sectarian differences have hindered their country's progress toward growth and stability over the last five years. Iraq faced continual delays in the passage of a new oil and gas law, and the establishment of a revenue sharing law and national oil and gas council. These policies, if clear, sound and objective, will help the country strengthen its oil sector and bring prosperity to the six million Iraqis currently living in poverty. But tense debates over these policies are still blocking the latest draft legislation and Iraq's overall recovery. Parliament holds Iraq's future in its hands. Whether policymakers can bridge their long-standing differences to collaborate for better oil governance remains to be seen.
Iraq's MPs do agree on a few matters. They realize the country's excessive dependence on oil needs to end. They want to stop the corruption engendered by Saddam Hussein's centralized control of resource revenues. They hope to resolve the division of power between the federal and regional governments, in particular the disputes with the semi-autonomous state of Kurdistan. Perhaps most importantly, they agree that the 143.1 billion barrels of oil lying beneath their native land belongs to the Iraqi people.
"Let's be frank, we know our problems lie in our tensions," said one member of parliament. "We are a tense people, but there are also great minds in Iraq. We need to draw on our differences and figure out how to unify all of these points of view, so we can improve our country's reputation."
The legislators will spend today and tomorrow working to hash out their differences, poring over three drafts of the Iraq oil and gas law—one from 2007 and two from 2011—and discussing the importance of good governance, state participation, revenue sharing, management and transparency. The goal of the RWI workshop is for the MPs to leave with an accurate picture of the country's oil landscape and the tools to establish a clear vision for the future.
"Iraq has been deprived of playing its role in the global economy," said another parliamentarian. "We hope to be able to invest in building and rebuilding our country."
