AM:11:06:01/09/2025
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The arrest of Shaswar Abdulwahid, leader of the New Generation
Movement, is not a purely legal matter, as the authorities claim. Rather, it is
the result of a political agreement between the Kurdistan Democratic Party
(KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), whose sole purpose is to
silence a bold opposition voice that has exposed the flaws of the regime and
spoken out openly against its corruption and failure to manage the affairs of
the people.
Shaswar
Abdulwahid, who leads a bloc of 24 parliamentary seats, has been detained for
20 days on charges related to an incident that occurred six years ago.The
accusation lacks concrete evidence and relies solely on the testimony of an
individual who should himself have been a defendant, but remains free and has
been treated as a witness. Meanwhile, the cases of those who shot
Abdulwahid in Sulaymaniyah and those who set fire to NRT channels were closed
after 14 years without accountability.
His arrest comes
just months after he refused to participate with the KDP and PUK in forming the
regional government, rejecting an offer of six ministries and fifty senior
positions. He based his refusal on the belief that the two ruling parties have
no genuine intention of reforming the system of governance. What terrifies the
authorities is not Shaswar as an individual, but Shaswar as the symbol of an
angry youth movement that refuses submission and demands real reform. His
growing popularity and straightforward rhetoric have made him an existential
threat to a system rooted in quotas, corruption, and the plundering of the
region’s wealth.
The arrest of
Shaswar Abdulwahid exposes the weakness of the authorities and highlights their
fear of the ballot box and of public opinion demanding reform, especially as
the region has been unable to pay employees’ salaries for the past three
months.
The Kurdistan
Region, which once prided itself on its democratic experience, is now proving
its inability to tolerate dissenting voices. However, Shaswar Abdulwahid’s
arrest does not mark an end, but rather the beginning of a new chapter in the
struggle between a people demanding reform and an authority that knows only
repression and suppression. If these policies continue, they will not weaken
Shaswar, but will further erode the legitimacy of a caretaker government still
in office ten months after the Kurdistan Region’s elections.
by Adnan Hussein KRG MP