By Gabriel Marco
In a time when political decency has vanished, Yonadam Kanna reappears to remind the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people that some politicians are not content with the failures, shortcomings, and disappointments of the past, but insist on perpetuating an approach that prioritizes personal gain and fleeting deals over the people's right to fair and impartial representation. While our people yearn for a clean voice that demands the recognition of their legitimate national and ethnic rights, including self-governance, and enshrines them in the federal constitution, and that expresses the suffering of our people in the homeland, this voice is gradually being transformed into a bargaining chip, manipulated more in closed rooms than in service of the voters. Today, with the controversy surrounding the "Deal of the Century," the picture appears even clearer and more dismal: there are those who treat the voice of our people as a commodity to be traded on the scales of self-interest, not principles.
Yonadam Kanna… Another Fall into the Labyrinth of Deals and Loss of Credibility
Whenever our people think that the path of political representation is nearing clarity, Yonadam Kanna's ever-suspicious actions prove otherwise. The man who used to present himself as a defender of our people's rights now appears to view politics as an arena for exchanging favors, not a space to serve his people. The recent elections were less surprising than they were a confirmation of our fears. The apparent agreement between Kanna and the KDP, aimed at directing the votes of the Peshmerga, police, and Asayish towards specific candidates within the Christian quota, created a widespread impression that what transpired was not merely electoral coordination, but a dubious understanding paving the way for a predetermined victory and undermining the independence of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian decision-making process. No matter how much some try to sugarcoat the situation, the truth remains that this approach—at least on the surface—serves the ruling party more than it serves our people, whom the discredited Kanna is supposed to represent. It is a clear political game: consolidating power centers, excluding independent voices, and transforming representation into nothing more than a gateway to influence.
Outside the Framework of Legitimate Leadership
The most dangerous aspect is that this coordination—according to many observers—took place separately from the legitimate, elected leadership of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa). This move is interpreted as an attempt to weaken the current leadership and reassert personal influence, even from outside the decision-making process. If true, this indicates an approach that prioritizes personal interests over those of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, making the voice of the people hostage to calculations that do not serve them.
The Unavoidable Contradiction
Political memory is not easily erased. Do you remember the fierce attacks launched by Yanadam Kanna before 2020 when the KDP was supporting Chaldean parties? He described those steps as attempts to weaken historical parties and distort the true representation of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people in the homeland. Today, however, the same step seems acceptable to him… because circumstances have changed, or more accurately: because interests have changed. This is a glaring contradiction that raises unavoidable questions: Have the principles changed, or have the calculations changed? Followers Without Vision
Those who follow and defend this approach at any cost are part of the problem, not its victims. They are complicit in the collapse of what little credibility remains in our people's representation within the legislative branch, contributing to the transformation of the quota system from a space for defending rights into a platform for exchanging influence. This is the same quota system they once urged us to liberate from its plunderers. How things have changed!
What is happening today is not a political blunder or a miscalculation, but a dangerous trajectory that threatens the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people's trust in their parties, leaders, and national and spiritual institutions. When the voice of an entire people becomes a commodity for backroom deals, when elections are conducted behind closed doors, and when the future of the people is reduced to the whims of a few, then the alarm bells must ring. Our people are tired of empty promises. What we need is not old faces adept at political maneuvering, but honest and courageous stances that possess independent decision-making power and restore the people's trust and respect for their political representation. The question that must be asked aloud remains:
How long will our fate remain hostage to deals and understandings about which we only learn by chance? Free peoples do not forget… and whoever thinks that alliances grant them political immortality will soon discover that the will of the people is stronger than all these deals.