Afghan Parliamentary Elections

For democracy to flourish, people must develop a democratic frame of mind. And, you, Aarya, have it. Best wishes to all Afghani people.

A nice article summarizing the ground realities of the political climate as exists in the present Afghanistan.

If given a real choice, most people are smart enough to exercise it. Nothing can take the place of good administration, of course. Issues such as women’s right often take a back seat – usually until the population is ready for it. The part of the population that REALLY needs to be ready is the women – and being ready does not mean they have to be accepting of such changes as needed – they really need to become NOT accepting of the status quo! Habits drilled over the generations will not disappear overnight – but eventually happen – as long as the movement continues – warlords or not! The latter will eventually simply fade away – not so much like “old soldiers” – more in the mode of the ruling elites of the India of yester-decades! The good news of sorts is that 80% exceeds 20% by a factor of four to one!

Staying engaged with the rest of the world is a big part of the solution.

I wish my Afghani friends all the luck and Godspeed! Life ain’t easy and when push comes to shove – it’s a good idea to listen to the little red hen and follow her example:

“I’ll do it myself!”

Rediscovering a common enemy

By GRAEME SMITH

Friday, September 23, 2005 Posted at 1:46 AM EDT

Globe and Mail Update


Wesh, Afghanistan — Iltaf Shah doesn`t feel welcomed when he crosses the border into Afghanistan.

The Pakistani engineer works at a construction site in the Afghan border town of Wesh, building a new border post and passport office. It`s not a popular project among Afghans, who say the office is located in the wrong place. Most people around here, and in a surprising number of places elsewhere in Afghanistan, believe the real border lies hundreds of kilometres southeast, deep inside Pakistan.

“You get uneducated people here saying, ‘You`re from Pakistan, what are you doing here?`” said the 34-year-old engineer, sitting on the floor of the half-built structure, eating a simple lunch of yogurt, lamb and flatbread.

More violent disagreements are increasingly common on these barren plains. When night falls, the French soldiers stationed near Wesh sometimes hear the crackle of gunfire as border guards take shots at each other. None of the skirmishes has erupted into full-blown warfare, but there`s palpable tension along the 2,450-kilometre line, which snakes through this dry region of flatlands and mountains.

It`s known as the Durand Line, named after Sir Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary for India`s British colonial government who negotiated with Afghanistan and established the border in 1893. Pakistan says it inherited the border after partition from India, but Afghanistan never formally recognized the demarcation. Most Afghans believe that the Durand agreement was only valid for 100 years, with an understanding that they would take back some territory after 1993.

Any mention of the word Durand — among the young professionals of Kabul, on the dusty streets of Kandahar or inside the claptrap town of Wesh — inspires strong emotions. The name evokes everything Afghans hate about Pakistan — the Islamic insurgents who hide in Pakistan`s tribal areas and launch attacks across the border, Pakistan`s dominance of the Afghan economy and the alleged role of Pakistan`s intelligence services in fuelling two decades of civil war in Afghanistan.

Now that Afghans have found peace with each other, it seems they`re also rediscovering their nationalism and old hatreds. While it may seem remarkable that a weak and broken country would pick a fight with a nuclear power and major trading partner, some observers expect the border question to become an explosive issue in the new Afghan parliament.

“It could translate into some big problems. This is the giant pink elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about,” said a Western expert, who asked for anonymity because his organization operates on both sides of the border and hasn`t declared a position on what he described as an “extremely sensitive” topic.

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan`s President, has also avoided the question. Observers say he`s treading carefully because ordinary Afghans are clamouring for action but the government remains incapable, and unwilling, to do anything as long as Afghanistan remains dependent on foreign assistance.

But that caution extends only so far. Last week, Afghanistan firmly rejected Pakistan`s proposal to fence the border, declaring that the demarcation question must be settled first.

Pakistan, meanwhile, has taken other steps to reinforce its claims. Four years ago in Wesh, Pakistanis built a hulking, three-storey brick gateway to mark the border several kilometres inside what Afghans thought was their territory.

In the shadow of that gate, the United States has funded construction of a new, $3.5-million Afghan border post. The Pakistani and Afghan workers on the project have very different views, however, about whether it`s a good idea to fix the border`s position so concretely.

“As our government becomes stable, Pakistan is worried we will start demanding the Durand agreement,” said Marajudin, 34, the site`s doctor, who like many Afghans uses only one name. “Everybody know this land belongs to Afghanistan.”

The Pakistani engineer, Mr. Shah, shook his head. As an ethnic Pashtun he feels kinship with the people on the Afghan side of the border, he said, but that doesn`t mean he wants to join Afghanistan.

“The doctor is saying, ‘Join us. We speak the same language we have the same traditions,` ” he said. “We say ‘No. Simply no.` Afghanistan has nothing except weapons. We want peace and freedom.”

Some Afghans say they`re willing to fight for the territory. Lagwar, 55, a grizzled former military commander in the southern city of Kandahar, clapped his hands with joy when informed that a journalist would write about the Durand Line.

“If there is one drop of blood in my veins, this is my wish: to capture the Durand Line again,” he said.

Even among the moderate, educated elite in Kabul, the border grievance runs deep.

Baqir Hassan Zada, 25, an accountant who speaks five languages, looked up from a game of cards in the city`s central park and scowled when asked whether his country would ever find a lasting peace after so many years of war.

“Not until we deal with Pakistan,” Mr. Zada said. “For many years, Pakistan has been cheating us. Now they`re scared of what will happen when we have a strong country.”

The following is a report on Afghanistan elections from Guardian Unlimited. May be of some interest to the readers.

Mohammad Gill

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Democratic disillusionment

The low turnout for Afghanistan`s parliamentary elections has given Hamid Karzai plenty of reasons to worry, says Declan Walsh

Friday September 23, 2005


Something felt wrong. My car raced through Kabul, a strained city normally clogged with people, choked with dust and filled with a cacophony of honking car horns and calls to prayer.
But at lunchtime last Sunday - a working day in Afghanistan - we whizzed through deserted streets, past shuttered shops and ghostly bazaars.

Ostensibly, the reason was the elections. For the first time in more than three decades, the country was going to the polls to choose its parliament. To celebrate, the government had declared a national holiday.


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But if the streets were vacant, so were the voting booths. In one polling station after another, voters dribbled through the doors. At a primary school in western Kabul, I found just one voter - a 70-year-old woman hobbling into the polling station, supported at the elbow by her son.
And at the Habiba high school, there were none. My footsteps echoed loudly in the empty corridors as election officials fidgeted beside vacant booths.

It seemed bizarre - Afghanistan was hosting a great party for democracy, yet it looked as though nobody had bothered to turn up. Figures released yesterday confirmed those suspicions.

Turnout was just 36% in the capital and around 53% across the country, the chief electoral officer, Peter Erben, said - a sharp dip on the 70% seen in last year`s presidential poll.

Officials are pedalling hard to find comforting explanations. Mr Erben said the drop was normal in comparison with other post-conflict countries - even though, days earlier, he had handed me a factsheet predicting a sharp rise in turnout.

The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, also put on a happy face for a positive spin. He was ``more than happy``, he said during a roundtable press conference at his fortified Kabul palace a few days later.

Maybe they are right. There are sound reasons why so many Afghans stayed at home. Some were afraid of Taliban violence, while others were intimidated by the huge ballot papers.

Voters in Kabul had to select from 390 candidates for parliament - a degree of choice that would challenge an educated electorate, much less one with a 75% illiteracy rate.

Parliamentary democracy is an alien concept to Afghans. The only communal memory of a parliament stretches back to 1973, when a king was in charge. And with an average life expectancy of 43, it`s unlikely many can remember that far.

But there are also greatly worrying reasons why Mr Karzai should be concerned about the fall in turnout. After just one year of democratic rule, there are signs of rapidly swelling disenchantment.

In a country awash with weapons, corrupted by drug money and threatened by a resurgent Taliban, this is a dangerous development.

The inclusion of dozens of warlords and militia commanders on the ticket disgusted voters who thought Mr Karzai and his US allies had come to usher the gunmen out of the door, not hand them the keys to the house.

The crawling pace of reconstruction is also brewing trouble. After making a string of heroic promises in late 2001, the west is letting Afghanistan down. Only around $10bn (£5.5bn) has so far been spent on reconstruction, according to most estimates.

And while some projects have succeeded - well-oiled elections, some fast roads and the training of a new national army - others have been an abject failure.

For instance, this year`s drive to reduce opium production - Afghanistan is the source of 90% of the world`s heroin - cost much but resulted in little. Official corruption is soaring - something Mr Karzai admitted during his press conference.

Many Afghans, struggling to feed themselves, also perceive dishonesty among their foreign allies. Anger has focused particularly sharply on the sight of highly-paid foreign consultants ­ some of whom earn $1,000 a day ­speeding past in aggressive security convoys.

``If they gave us only their stationery budget, we could have a chance to develop,`` Dr Ghulam Farooq, a returned refugee from Iran, said. There is some exaggeration. Afghanistan has come a long way from the days when Taliban fanatics whipped women and ran al-Qaida guesthouses.

After a quarter century of war, four years is but a twinkle of time in which to put everything right. Yet Mr Karzai should be very worried. For all its successes, his democracy remains as fragile as glass and is anchored in a US military backbone.

One only needs to see the amiable Pashtun leader`s awesome security arrangements - comparable to those of the US president, George Bush - to realise that, as one observer remarked, Afghanistan is one bullet away from chaos.

The provisional election results are due on October 3. Analysts are predicting mayhem in the early months of parliament, particularly because of the lack of political parties. Nobody is quite sure how Mr Karzai will build alliances, pass new laws or run the country.

Yet for all these flaws, he must urgently use the new body to restore public confidence. As his western allies are learning painfully in Iraq, democracy is about more than just elections.

As it is now, a democracy means a representative government. It represents all sections of the society, good, bad, and ugly. Over time, as civil society evolves and Afghans become more politically aware, I`m sure they will weed out the undesirable elements.

In any case, Afghanistan today is better off compared to Pakistan where according to Mushy, women are even getting raped just to get out of the country.