Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is struggling to hold on to his Shiite-dominated government.
Last week, the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pulled six Cabinet ministers out of Maliki's government, charging that Maliki had not distanced himself enough from the American war effort. The move didn't bring down the government, but it did raise questions about its strength and longevity.
Maliki has been Iraq's prime minister for a little more than a year; for much of that time, he has been faulted as weak and indecisive. He has tried to make the best of Sadr's decision. Sadiq al-Rikabi, the prime minister's political adviser, said that Maliki was "not happy with any group to leave the political process."
"We try to extend the political process for all the political groups in Iraq to participate [in] how to build a new Iraq," Rikabi said.
Sadr also controls 30 seats in Iraq's parliament. They continue to back Maliki and help to maintain his slim majority in parliament. Speaking by cell phone from Najaf, Salih al-Ogaili, a member of the Sadr bloc in parliament, said it was not the intention of the popular cleric to bring down Maliki's Shiite-dominated government.
"The Sadr bloc does not seek to change the prime minister," Ogaili said. "We don't believe in pulling out from the united Shiite alliance. We do not claim that this alliance is the best, but it is the best among what is available now."
Sadr and his followers faulted Maliki primarily for his refusal to distance himself from the current U.S.-led Baghdad security crackdown and the continued American military presence in Iraq.
"They carried out this invasion. Then they supported it with international resolutions. Now they talk about the political process and democracy," Ogaili said. "The invader has to leave and let Iraq live peacefully. The invader is the main problem afflicting Iraq and affecting peace."
Much of the reaction to Sadr's move was positive. Sadr controlled the ministries of health, tourism, agriculture and several more. His people were widely seen as corrupt and intensely sectarian. Now al-Maliki says he will appoint technocrats to head these ministries, so that they can be run professionally.
Felah al Mish'an, chief editor of Al-Sabah newspaper, says political reorganization does not signal a crisis.
"In a democratic process, it's normal that there are different opinions, or that one bloc separates from another," he said. "Some regard this as a split, but it's not. It is a normal democratic phenomenon. But because we are new to this, we start doubting any normal democratic act."
Still, it's a dangerous time for Maliki to be experiencing political challenges to his authority. The current Baghdad security crackdown, involving thousands of additional U.S. and Iraqi forces deployed throughout the capital, is designed to buy the political process some time.
Right now, the United States is being very public about pressing Maliki to address the desperate political and sectarian problems facing Iraq. That was the word from Defense Secretary Robert Gates — who visited Iraq over the weekend — and from the new American ambassador, Ryun Crocker, in his first news conference Monday.
"I certainly see a firm intent to move Iraq to a better place," Crocker said. But he also noted "the reality that, in a democratic society, the executive, the government, does not control all the decisions."
Crocker wants the Iraqi parliament to adopt several packages of legislation designed to bridge Iraq's sectarian divide, including a new law to share oil revenue and a repeal of the ban on Baath Party members in government jobs.
These have been longtime American demands, but they are not easy to accomplish.
Maliki insists he is working faithfully with Sunni politicians inside the parliament. But the Sunnis have their own issues with Maliki, according to Selim Abdullah, spokesman for the Sunni bloc.
"Our participation in the government depends on a program of political consensus that respects everyone," Abdullah said. "But we found that this concept is not shared by all the partners in the government. We started to ask ourselves, 'Are we true partners?'"
It has been impossible to overcome the natural distrust between the Shiite government and the Sunnis, says Maliki political adviser Sadiq al-Rikabi.
"The prime minister tries to extend his relations with the Sunni," he said. "Their relations — some of them, their relation with the insurgents — there are some questions."
Maliki's government continues to struggle. It seems fair to say that so far, it has been unable to accomplish any significant progress toward political reconciliation and an end to the war.
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