Karzai's New Team
Dr. G. Rauf Roashan
Finally after ten weeks of consideration, the hard task of assembling
a cabinet is over for Mr. Karzai. He has been able to deliver on his
expressed promise of constituting of a balanced team of educated Afghans,
men and women, to fill his cabinet positions. And now in the words
of Professor Barnett Rubin of New York University he has come up with
a "clean" cabinet.
Most of the names and faces of the new cabinet are new to many Afghans
who are given the notion that to Karzai, as for the country's constitution,
education is a litmus test for delivering of the best service! Nine
of the 27-member cabinet possesses Ph.D. degrees. The new ministers
come from different provinces and different ethnic groups. It would
seem that they are looked upon as the country's hope for a jumpstart
of the process of true revival and reconstruction and meeting the
dire needs of its people.
They will also serve as a test in social development and group dynamics
in a country that has attracted the attention of world intelligentsia
as to the shaping up of a new western style democracy on the ashes
of an all engulfing fire that burned its infrastructure, a country-
five thousand years old and presently an important member of the Islamic
world.
It also seems that Mr. Karzai and his advisors had done their homework
thoroughly regarding the choices for ministers to keep and ministers
to let go. Dr.Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai one of the most powerful ministers
in Karzai's transitional administration was let go from the cabinet
to become Chancellor of Kabul University. He was most effective in
getting financial input into Afghanistan's reconstruction phase and
very popular with aid giving countries and the international community.
Perhaps the many powers he had accumulated in his post made him not
so popular within the cabinet or local centers of power. Furthermore,
his health was also a huge consideration, more so for his own sake
than for the sake of his ministry.
Marshal Fahim's departure from government has not caused any huge
regrets to or among any groups. The constitutional condition that
ministers must have higher education helped Karzai render the hard
decision easily. Marshal Fahim perhaps acted too macho among a people
who are never less macho than anyone else. His personal love for material
possession as depicted in his many properties and construction projects
in Kabul alone, told on his personal interests.
As to Mr. Yonus Qanuny, who had already resigned his post as minister
of education to run for president, the situation provides a big opportunity
to establish a strong opposition, run in elections for parliament
and maintain influence over Afghan politics. Karzai has hinted to
this and has promised to help him go for the project. However, Qanuny
has expressed some concern over his role as a leader of the opposition
suggesting political atmosphere in the country was not ripe enough
to provide for a benevolent opposition to work. Yet he has not rejected
the proposition either.
But the new comers to the cabinet are the people to watch. Many seem
to have the education, but lack the experience especially for a huge
task that awaits them in their ministries. Many would need to learn
how to team play and advise the team leader on the best way to deliver
on his promises to the nation. They would need to look at one of their
former colleagues, Dr. Ramazan Bashardost, the former minister of
planning, who, notwithstanding his purest and selfless intentions,
was not able to play his cards well and thus not only lost his position
as the minister of planning, but it would seem he contributed to the
elimination of his ministry altogether. Does the new Afghan government
not need a planning organization for the tremendous challenges ahead?
And whether Dr. Bashardost's case is not an example of the fact that
education alone may not be enough for a minister to succeed?
But the formation of the cabinet is only a first step in the country's
political future. Parliamentary elections and parliament's consideration
of Mr. Karzai's choices for ministers seem to be another battle for
the Afghan leader. The Afghan nation would have to patiently wait,
and wait some more, before it sees the political wheel rolling and
before it could expect practical results in the form of real benefits
to the man on the street, to the homeless who has dug in the cave-like
dwellings on the foothills of Asa Maii and Shairdarwaza in Kabul winter,
or elsewhere in thousands of Afghan towns and villages yearning for
food, clothing and housing plus health, education and economic independence.12/25/04
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