Abstract:
While conformity and compromise are necessary tools
in the hands of the politicians, they should never be allowed
to disturb the balance of power of the leader, or lead to
discontent of the nation. In either case, consequences will
be grave. It is also true that certain politicians are looked
upon as magicians who have mastered many tricks to implement
their act and some even with more tricks up their sleeves.
But Karzai's hands are empty and so are his sleeves and especially
his pockets. And he has to walk a sharp and narrow line. His
cabinet has not been able to provide him the balance he needs.
Hamid Karzai, the elected president of
Afghanistan has vowed to wipe out warlordism or else quit
the challenge of government. But his government is made up
mostly of warlords and their supporters. The irony cannot
be more evident than the fact that he has two ministers in
charge of the affairs of one interior ministry. The irony
shows when he had to appease certain warlords by offering
cabinet portfolios to their family members and supporters,
and that he had to give the title of Marshal to Mohammad Qaseem
Fahim, a former Mujahid of the group of the late Ahmad Shah
Masoud, who had never allowed people call him a general. To
appease the Pashtuns, Karzai had to let Haji Qadeer governor
of Nangrahar, a warlord, also be given the title of vice president.
And furthermore, he settled on giving positions in his cabinet
to people with no or little expertise in the affairs of their
ministries and departments. While some of his cabinet ministers
are highly educated persons they have been assigned tasks
far away from their fields of expertise. For example an irrigations
expert has been given the portfolio for mining, an engineer
of solar energy with wide range expertise in solar energy
projects and exploitation has been made an ambassador to a
western country thousands of miles away from where he could
put his much needed knowledge of energy production to use.
While
conformity and compromise are necessary tools in the hands
of the politicians, they should never be allowed to disturb
the balance of power of the leader, or lead to discontent
of the nation. In either case, consequences will be grave.
It is also true that certain politicians are looked upon as
magicians who have mastered many tricks to implement their
act and some even with more tricks up their sleeves. But Karzai's
hands are empty and so are his sleeves.
And expectations
from him are very high. While he does not want to be alienated
from his own ethnic Pashtun root, he has had to go along with
keeping the powerful Panjshairee trio in his government who
in their turn have kept their agents and activists in different
levels of government and everywhere. Rumors have it that in
certain ministries, it is these elements that run the daily
affairs shortcutting contact between the people and the ministers.
And then
there are reports of insecurity. When these reports come from
the United Nations sources and when the UN special envoy Mr.
Brahimi takes his complaint to Hamid Karzai, then there is
little doubt that the situation is grave. Reports have it
that there are excesses committed against Pashtun minorities
in non-Pashtun areas in the north. Reports continue to arrive
of armed conflict between warlord's forces for territory and
looting and stealing and other crimes against even the United
Nations and NGO programs and personnel. And Karzai seems to
be powerless in dealing with the situation as his continued
call for the expansion in size and geographical coverage of
the United Nations Security and Assistance Forces in Afghanistan
has fallen on deaf ears of the United Nations, the United
States and other countries that provide troops for the purpose.
Even the United States lawmakers' strong recommendation for
such an expansion has not found a listening ear in the executive
branch.
Under
these conditions, when a criminal act against national interests
of the residents of any part of the country is reported to
Karzai, he impotently resorts to act as a preacher. And if
his orders are not obeyed by members of his government, again
as a benevolent compromiser he looks beyond the incident day
dreaming of a time when his country would have a national
army and national security forces to back up government policies
and decisions.
But even
more important is the fact that a politicians like Karzai
has to walk a narrow and sharp line always keeping his balance
for fear of falling to any of the two sides. In order to do
that, he needs to have a well-defined strong line to walk
on and a well-chosen balance rod to keep make his walk easy.
His present government structure and capabilities do not provide
him with any of the aforementioned and thus he is left on
the line that is sharper than a raiser and thinner than a
strand of hair and without any balancing tools.
His national
well wishers and foreign supporters are among the spectators
who offer him only hand claps which give him some encouragement,
but the roar of the spectators in general, vibrates the atmosphere
further endangering his balance at any given moment in time.
6/30/02