Nyt 05-12-12
I ragazzi del College gesuita di Baghdad in gara per il posto di Primo ministro
Dexter Filkins
I
tre maggiori leader politici sciiti iracheni candidati alla carica di
Primo ministro, Ayad Allawi, Ahmad Chalabi e Adel Abdul Mahdi, hanno
tutti frequentato l’esclusivo College gesuita di Baghdad, riservato
alla grande borghesia.
I tre, tutti sciiti, hanno posizioni politiche differenziate:
- Ayad Allawi
(60 anni, laureato in medicina) favorevole a uno Stato secolare; come
Madhi si avvicina alla politica nazionalistica araba negli anni del
College, diventa fervente sostenitore del partito Baathista, con cui
romperà. - Ahmad Chalabi (61, laurea in matematica, Chicago) per purghe contro i baathisti;
- Adel Abdul Mahdi
(63, due lauree in università francesi) per una democrazia islamica;
passato dal baathismo al maoismo e poi alla politica dell’Islam
moderato.
Con il colpo di Stato baathista del 1958,
Chalabi, il cui padre era ministro, abbandona il paese, come pure
Allawi e Madhi dopo una fase di adesione al movimento baathista.
Nel 1969 l Baghdad College viene nazionalizzato da governo baathista.
Mahdi e Chalabi favorevoli ad un governo di unità nazionale con i principlai leader iracheni, compreso Allawi.
Allawi e Mr. Chalabi si sono combattuti negli anni 1990 per la direzione del movimento iracheno in esilio.
Molti
dei maggiori leader politici iracheni sono tra loro legati da vincoli
famigliari e dall’appartenenza alla stessa classe sociale.
Prima della creazione del Baghdad College, noto per la sua rigorosità accademica, le famiglie della borghesia irachena mandavano i figli nel Victoria College di Alessandria d’Egitto.
I gesuiti del Baghdad College non costringevano gli studenti a pregare o a seguire lezioni di cattolicesimo.
Boys of Baghdad College Vie for Prime Minister
By DEXTER FILKINS
The
three Iraqi political leaders considered most likely to end up as prime
minister after nationwide elections this week – Ayad Allawi, Ahmad
Chalabi and Adel Abdul Mahdi – were schoolmates at the all-boys
English-language school in the late 1950’s, fortunate members of the
Baghdad elite that governed Iraq until successive waves of revolution
and terror swept it away.
boys of Baghdad College, now men in their 60’s back from exile, are
ready to assume their place on top of the social hierarchy that they
and their families once assumed would be theirs forever.
three men are now flag bearers for three very different visions of
Iraq’s future: Mr. Allawi for a secular state, Mr. Mahdi for an
Islamic-style democracy, and Mr. Chalabi for a program that would purge
Iraqi society of those associated with Mr. Hussein’s rule. Hard feelings have erupted at times, in particular between Mr. Allawi and Mr. Chalabi, who struggled bitterly in the 1990’s over the leadership of the Iraqi exile movement.
banners and personal ambitions aside, Mr. Allawi, Mr. Chalabi and Mr.
Mahdi say they are ready to strike political deals that might involve
tossing aside some ideological differences. Mr. Mahdi and Mr.
Chalabi say they aim to form a "national unity" government with Iraq’s
main political leaders, presumably including Mr. Allawi.
Even so, the ties that go back to childhood and to the musty corridors
of Baghdad College suggest that the hard clashes that lie ahead in this
polarized land may yet be softened by three men who grew up together.
was a year ahead of me, and we used to go swimming together," Mr.
Allawi said. "Adel and I were friends, our families knew each other. He
was a good basketball player."
of Iraq’s most prominent political leaders are linked by a network of
social and familial connections that dates back generations and was
largely displaced after the revolution of 1958 and the rise of Mr.
Hussein’s tribal-based rule.
A cousin of
Mr. Allawi’s father, for instance, is married to Mr. Chalabi’s sister.
Mr. Chalabi’s father, a president of the Iraqi Senate during the
Hashemite monarchy, was a colleague of Mr. Mahdi’s father, who was
minister of education. The father of Adnan Pachachi, himself a former
foreign minister and now a parliamentary candidate in Mr. Allawi’s
party, was a signatory of the first Iraqi constitution with Mr.
Chalabi’s grandfather.
College, established in 1931, became the secondary school where the
Iraqi capital’s most prominent families sent their sons. Earlier, many
such families sent to their children to Victoria College in Alexandria,
Egypt; Mr. Pachachi, at 82 much older than the three possible candidates, graduated from there.
where old black and white photographs show smartly dressed boys, their
faces aglow with the anticipation of success. There, for example, is Laith
Kubba, now a top aide to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari. And there
is Kanan Makiya, the author of a landmark book about the terror of Mr.
Hussein’s rule and the founder of the Iraq Memory Foundation, which is
dedicated to memorializing its victims.
the Hashemite monarchy, when Iraq was still largely governed by an
oligarchy, many students arrived at Baghdad College already knowing
many of those around them.
other, even though they had not met," said Harith al-Ajil, a student at
Baghdad College in the 1950’s and now a candidate for Parliament. "It
was easy to communicate."
– memories of that time are sometimes hazy. And although the three men
attended Baghdad College at the same time, because of their differing
ages they did not attend the same classes.
the memories are fondly held. During separate interviews last year, Mr.
Chalabi and Mr. Mahdi volunteered that they had gone to high school
together, and each man walked over to his bookcase to pull down his
yearbook.
Chalabi joked about the soft-spoken Mr. Mahdi, with whom he remains
close. "Ayad was taciturn."
he and Mr. Chalabi used to swim after school at the Alwiya Club, an
exclusive social club. And he described how he and Mr. Mahdi had become
politicized at Baghdad College, first with the fevers of Arab
nationalism and then with the early stirrings of the Baath Party.
Mr. Allawi went on to become a hard-line Baathist enforcer, later breaking with Mr. Hussein and surviving an assassination attempt in London. Mr.
Mahdi embarked on an intellectual journey that took him from the Baath
Party to Maoism and finally to the moderate political Islam he embraces
today.
Mr.
Allawi, Mr. Chalabi and Mr. Mahdi all spoke of the discipline of their
Jesuit priests, who ran strict classrooms and assigned hours of
homework each evening. The politicians, all three of whom are Shiite, said they were never forced to pray or attend classes on Catholicism. The
student body was then about half Christian, but the Jesuits’ reputation
for academic rigor attracted many of Baghdad’s prominent families.
Chalabi, his father then a government minister, left the school and
Iraq that year. Mr. Allawi and Mr. Mahdi joined the Baathist movement
as young men but were eventually driven out of Iraq as well. Mr.
Allawi was severely wounded in an assassination attempt by an
ax-wielding agent of Mr. Hussein, while Mr. Mahdi was arrested,
tortured and jailed.
None of the three men graduated from Baghdad College, though each later excelled in academia. Mr.
Allawi went to medical school in Baghdad. Mr. Chalabi earned a
doctorate in mathematics from the University of Chicago. Mr. Mahdi
earned two master’s degrees from universities in France.
and Qusay, the dictator’s sons, attended the school in the 1980’s, each
of them terrorizing the students and staff. While most other students
came to class smartly dressed, the young Qusay typically strode into
class encased by a retinue of bodyguards with his shirt unbuttoned to
the waist.
the 1980’s, Omar al-Tikriti, the son of Barzan al-Tikriti, one of Mr.
Hussein’s top henchmen and now on trial in Baghdad accused of mass
killings, ran in an election for the students’ representative to the
faculty. When Omar received only two votes, his bodyguards attacked the
winning student, leaving him paralyzed, Mr. Yusef said. Today, Baghdad
College is becoming more its old self. The mandatory classes on Mr.
Hussein are gone. The boys who enter are still among the best in the
city. There is even talk of the Jesuits returning. As for politics, Mr.
Allawi, Mr. Chalabi and Mr. Mahdi say that while the furies engulfing
their country are serious, the best hope for containing them may lie in
three old schoolmates sitting down together.
Copyright 2005The New York Times