Minister of Electricity
In August 2003, Dr. Alsammarae was appointed to serve as Minister of Electricity under the Coalition Provisional Authority by Paul Bremer and was the first minister of electricity in post-Saddam Iraq. Dr. Alsammarae inherited an archaic system providing an output of around 3,000MW (whereas demand is at minimum, 9,000 MW). Additionally, the national grid suffered from daily attacks and theft, lack of manpower and fuel shortages (despite developing new power plants and refurbishing old ones, the Ministry of Oil refused to give the Ministry of Electricity the oil necessary to fuel the power plants). In 2003 and 2004, Dr. Alsammarae complained about the lack of fuel on numerous occasions and tried to involve external mediation to solve the loggerhead. Unfortunately, he was unable to encourage the Ministry of Oil to supply fuel to the Ministry of Electricity and this situation persists and remains a problem for the Ministry of Electricity today.
Despite the numerous problems Dr. Alsammarae faced in modernizing Iraq's electrical system, the electrical output observed during Dr. Alsammarae's leadership has not since, been matched. In fact, since his departure from the ministry, electricity generation steadily declined to hit all-time lows in October 2006, a full year and a half after he left office. Furthermore, according to current Minister of Electricity, Mr. Kareem Waheed, the ministry is still "...working on projects by Dr. Alsammarae".
In addition to his work in the ministry, Dr. Alsammarae spearheaded efforts towards reconciliation with Iraqi insurgent groups, in an attempt to get them to lay down their arms and join the political fold. Dr. Alsammarae reached out to "..11 separate Iraqi resistance groups, and at least four of the most important resistance groups --- including the Ba'athist Jaish Muhammad – gave him a formal letter declaring their willingness to pursue talks with Washington and the interim regime in Baghdad". Additionally, Dr. Alsammarae worked hard to lobby the Iraqi parliament and other Iraqi politicians to reject Chalabi's policy of de-ba'athification. The policy stated that anyone who was a previous Ba'ath Party Member would be ineligible to serve in the current Iraqi regime. This meant that all public servants, including the police and army, were fired over night. Chalabi was able to garner enough support to push the policy through, and enact it into law in 2003; however as of 2009, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki revoked the law and called for reconciliation efforts, instead.
Read more about this topic: Aiham Alsammarae
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