With the launch of the Iraqi National Conference on Sunday, Iraq made a step in the political game designed to democratize a country that has suffered from totalitarianism and dictatorship regime for decades.

Though touted as an experiment of democracy, the National Conference, which opened amidst tense atmosphere and intensified security procedures, with the presence of 1,200 representatives of different Iraqi trends and factions to choose an interim parliament, is viewed by many Iraqis as a political game.

Many Iraqis were not interested in the conference especially as it comes at a time when the American occupying forces and the Iraqi forces prepare to storm the holy city of Najaf, 160 km south of Baghdad.

"When powers representing heavy political, religious, and social weight in the Iraqi society boycott what is called 'national conference' and refrain from taking part in it, would simply mean that this conference is illegal," said Haroon Mohamed, a journalist who strongly attacked the conference.

The national trend, the most politically spread in Iraq, the trend of Al Sadr, which proved effective in the Iraqi street, Islamic Clerics Body, Imam Khalisi Institution, and Kurdish Islamic Movement, which has a moderate religious approach, all boycotted the conference.

Aqeel Khudhair, a taxi driver with a B.A. in politics, pointed out that the process of choosing the members of the conference in the governorates was only a game, for they were not elected by the people and the real patriotic figures were prevented some way or another from taking part.

Hussein Samiraie, 70, a retired civil servant, opposed the conference. "The event is boycotted by a broad-spectrum of Iraqi political trends as it is held amid deteriorating security conditions and a big social division," he noted, adding that "this makes it useless and does not represent the real need of the Iraqis."

Referring to the withdrawal of some delegates from the opening session of the conference, journalist Usama Salihi said, "Those who left regarded the conference as a dedication of the occupation in Iraq.

"They say democracy means freedom. But today they imposed a curfew and the police forces and the American forces spread in the city," said Mohamed Abdullah, a worker.

"I want a job that enables me to provide food and stability to my children, this would be democracy for me and nothing else," he added.

"They'd better increase the work and efforts to provide security and stability and to eliminate unemployment to raise the Iraqi economic standards, for those things are priorities in the lives of Iraqis, and then we could move to democracy and political issues," said Nasir Mahmood, a former officer in the dissolved Iraqi army.

Al Itihad newspaper, speaking for the Kurdistan Patriotic Union headed by Jalal Talabani, said, "in spite of the difficulties and hardships that faced the process of choosing and electing members of the conference, wider participation of the people's representatives in the national conference is a success that should be achieved today and tomorrow."

The conference, planned under the US-sponsored State Administration Act or Iraqi interim constitution issued last March, was aimed at electing a 100-member national assembly to assume the country's legitimate authority ahead of the general elections scheduled next January.

AbdelHalim Alruheimi, the conference's spokesman, however, said the role of the projected national assembly would be advisory rather than legislative, adding that it would also supervise the performance of the interim government and have the right to summon the cabinet chief and members to testify at the parliament.

Referring to the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, he said the elections might not be conducted in the pre-set date (January 2005).

But Mohammed Sabri, a writer, reserved that "the delay of the elections means the current transitional status of its interim government, presidential council, and national council will last longer."

"This will lead to a paralysis in the political reform and reconstruction processes in Iraq, and most important, elongate the stay of the occupation forces," he said.

Observers say that the conference, though started its sessions, has limited chances of success, for some of the trends that took part in the conference threatened to withdraw until the conflicts in Najaf end.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2004)