The new-style Iraqi politics
Can a rich businessman, back from exile in California, make a difference?
BAGHDAD--Saad al-Janabi has come home. Ensconced in his family's large Baghdad compound, the wealthy businessman is holding meetings round the clock, angling for a role in the country's political future. His most ambitious project: the Iraqi Republican Group, a collection of academics, businessmen, and tribal leaders working to create a new political party. "We made a lot of money from this country," he says. "We have to pay it back."
Janabi returned a month ago from eight years of exile in California and has quickly emerged as a quiet but harsh critic of the well-funded exile opposition groups like Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, which enjoys the support of key Bush administration officials. Though Janabi insists that he does not want to run for office himself, he often speaks like a budding politician (even mentioning his connections to California Republicans and Arnold Schwarzenegger). He says the INC and the two largest Kurdish parties have limited constituencies. "The Iraqi people need their own choices," says Janabi. "They are educated, but they have no education in democracy."
Rush hour. Iraqi politics is barely in its infancy. After more than three suffocating decades of one-party rule, dozens of parties have emerged amid a cacophony of political talk. Apart from the exile and two large Kurdish groups, the most organized so far appear to be the more radical religious parties. Others are little more than a few people sitting in an office with a sign out front. One party is even offering satellite dishes to anybody who joins. "It's rush hour in Iraqi politics," says Asad Naji, a professor at Baghdad University and one of the Shiite members of the Iraqi Republican Group. "That's why we want to build our party step by step."
"Our group is open to everyone," asserts Janabi, who calls it a "mosaic of Iraq." While he is a Sunni, other leaders in the group are Shiite, Christian, Kurdish, and even Turkmen. But Janabi is also tapping into Iraq's rich and varied tribal network. The Janabi family heads a large tribe in Iraq, about 1 million strong, with Sunni and Shiite members. Janabi's other main resource is his family's business empire, which includes construction, textile, and food production companies in Iraq and investments overseas.
For now, Janabi is trying to work closely with the Americans, too. "He has open access to our compound," says one official with the U.S. Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. Janabi criticizes ORHA for being too slow in addressing Iraq's problems, but he is coordinating his efforts with officials there. "He has brought people together on our behalf," says the ORHA official. "He doesn't need to be doing this, but I believe he is doing it for patriotic and business reasons."
His task won't be easy. Janabi's tribe is well respected in Iraq, but his nascent party is unknown. Janabi says his group has been operating secretly since 1994, trying to plan for a post-Saddam Iraq. "Before, many people in the group didn't know each other," he says. "It was safer for them." Now, without any national Iraqi television and only a smattering of newspapers of varying reliability, his challenge will be to establish the Republican Group's legitimacy with the Iraqi people.
This explains in part why Janabi is helping to bankroll a new newspaper, the Echo. He insists the paper, which will be staffed by Iraqis who stayed inside the country, will be completely independent and free to criticize even him.
For now, Janabi's activities are a mix of grass-roots political organizing and quiet philanthropy. He has funded a group of Iraqi artists who are putting the finishing touches on a new statue to replace the one of Saddam Hussein that was toppled on live television when Baghdad fell. Janabi is also helping to create a new society for Iraqi women. Working with doctors in his group, Janabi has helped families of children injured in accidents with unexploded U.S. cluster bombs. Two of Janabi's people are busy tracking stolen cars in Baghdad, and he has even paid some street cleaners to supplement Baghdad's city services.
Janabi is busily polishing a pitch for his fledgling party that he plans to deliver this week before a Baghdad gathering of a new Iraqi tribal council. He hopes to gain support for his new party, which plans to hold a general conference in June to elect its leadership. Says Naji, "Everything must be by democracy."
This story appears in the June 2, 2003 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.