Abstract: Concluding a not
very successful trip to the US, the Afghan President
returned
home. He wanted the US to note that his country was in
dire need of money pledged
and not delivered. He delivered his message, but the
response was not very positive.
Was his delivery to blame? Were there listening ears?
Whatever the answer to these
questions may be, he returned home, poorer, but hopefully,
wiser!
On the third leg of his latest trip, Karzai arrived in the
United States highly optimistic
about motivating US politicians and especially President
George W. Bush to contribute
more money into his government. He was also hopeful he
would be able to convince
Washington politicians that Afghanistan should not be
overshadowed by Iraq.
In the words of Sonia Ross of the Associated Press: "By
the time Afghan President
Hamid Karzai finished his stroll down the corridors of
American power last week, he had
learned a few harsh lessons in the fickle ways of
Washington.
Karzai got the red-carpet treatment and had lunch with
President Bush. But he also got a
stern lecture from senators about the hazards of
sugarcoating the problems of his
devastated land - criticism that seemed to offend him."
Karzai came to power amidst great aspirations for a
post-Taleban era in the country of
the Afghans . Afghans had suffered long and deep for
almost a quarter of a century and
were looking for the slightest glimmer of hope that would
return their freedom, dignity
and human rights back to them. International community
declared time and again that it
shared the feeling of the Afghans.
Notwithstanding a multiplicity of issues intertwined with
Afghan local, regional and
international politics, the Afghans and the world looked
forward to an era of
reconstruction and restoration of civil and economic life
in Afghanistan. The world
community pledged financial assistance to do so. The
Tokyo Conference early in the life
of the transitional government in Afghanistan was one
example.
Now almost two years into the life of Karzai's
transitional government and contrary to the
claim of the Afghan president, not much has been
accomplished in the way either of
security or reconstruction. Kabul city's security, in
theory, is looked after by the
International Security and Assistance Forces. But there is
also the local police. The
presence of more than 8,000 US troops in Afghanistan is
proclaimed to be for the
purpose of uprooting of Al-Qaeda and Taleban. No major
achievements have been
made by any of the three forces.
But about the issue of reconstruction and economic
recovery the government has been
too slow-slower than a snail. The government and its
supporters would like to put the
blame on the international community for not extending the
financial assistance they had
pledged to Afghanistan. Yet there are reports of millions
of dollars in aid spent in
Afghanistan by many countries. The Karzai government says
it is unaware of the money
thus spent. This itself would show inefficiency of the
government. The end result of all of
this is that there is no evident change in the economic
status of the people. Some
NGO's who claim that they have played a greater role in
the social recovery in areas of
education and health have either overspent their resources
for unrelated or luxury items
or have delivered help only in areas under the rule of the
most powerful of the warlords
or hometown of those in power in Kabul. No effective
coordination is evident at any
level.
It was under these circumstances that President Karzai
visited the Capitol and
addressed the concerns of the US politicians. In his
expose, Karzai tried to show a
recovering Afghanistan well on the road to prosperity
under his administration. He
wanted to depict a vision of the country where his central
government was in full control
and his word, as the elected leader went far and wide and
his authority was recognized
everywhere in the land of the Afghans, as if there were no
warlords in the North, West,
East or South of the country ruling their territories as
independently as they wished. His
audience found this hard to believe and one of the
Senators even pointed to the issue
warning that Karzai's credibility would be on the line if
it were found that Afghanistan did
have problems requiring urgent attention.
Some even went so far as to say that may be he was coached
by the US government to
paint a bright picture of the improving situations in
Afghanistan. They implied that this
would serve the interests of the White House.
But Karzai, now a politician of world standing, has fallen
into the classic net of self
aggrandizement that surrounds leaders of import after a
period of time that they taste
unquestioned power. They think whatever they do is right
and if they belong to the third
world countries they get the additional feeling that they
are the sole authority and that
the nation owes them its existence. In these countries,
especially where there are no
effective legislature, like in Afghanistan today, the
mechanism of checks and balances of
the democracy is also missing.
Under these conditions, Karzai left for home without any
firm commitment of financial
assistance. And if he were an experienced politician, on
his way home he would have
pondered over the myth and the facts that surround his
government. He would and
should have awakened to the reality that no nation can
survive for long on handouts
from international community and that the nation itself
should activate, in a most positive
way, mechanisms for generation of its own personal and
national income for the
purposes of true, genuine and scientifically based process
of reconstruction and nation
building. For him it would be no shame to return home
poorer; it would be a shame not
to return home wiser. 3/2/03