0
KABUL: A poor Afghan warrior who has spent all his life fighting was deeply insulted when a fashionably dressed upper-class Afghan woman just back from long exile in Paris told him to get her a cab.
“She thinks I am her servant. They were living a good life in Europe and America while we were suffering here. Now they act like they own the country,” Fazlullah Shafi said.
Welcome to the new, politically diverse Afghanistan, born after the ouster from power of the Taliban and an end to 23 years of bloodshed.
Long divided along ethnic lines and suffering from widespread poverty, the country has now to cope with massive cultural and class differences, a potential source of resentment among a people with strong traditional ties.
This is an unenviable job for interim leader Hamid Karzai, elected president by the Loya Jirga grand assembly on Thursday to run the country for 18 months until general elections are held.
Karzai’s landslide win and the unanimous support of rival warlords have given him a clear mandate to enforce peace and stability and pave the way for reconstruction of a country wrecked by war, famine and neglect.
In his six months as interim leader, Karzai has managed to restore a measure of tranquillity, but has done little to lift the country from poverty.
With no industry and agriculture left, the country is totally dependent on outside help and the government is waiting for some $4 billion in foreign donations before launching projects.
The key to Karzai’s success is the speed with which the money arrives and how efficiently it is used.
CONSTRUCTION AHEAD: “The level of aid received is minimal in comparison to the level of aid promised and I want to go back to the international community...to ask for stronger, more effective and speedy delivery of aid to Afghanistan,” Karzai told reporters on Friday.
Officials say the country needs up to $15 billion to get back on its feet, to build roads, schools, hospitals and finance industrial and agricultural projects.
No statistics have been published since the isolationist Taliban seized Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, but a small fraction of people are productively employed. Those fortunate to have a job make an average of $40 a month, just enough for typically large Afghan families to feed themselves on bread and potatoes.
He has made national reconciliation and unity the main theme of his speeches, calling it a prerequisite to economic and national revival.
Congenial and diplomatic, Karzai has made friends of former foes, many of whom stepped forward to support his candidacy against two other contenders.
In the face of general aversion to war and under international pressure, both former king Zahir Shah and Tajik leader Burhanuddin Rabbani agreed to step aside in the interest of Karzai and a broad-based government.
But war-weary Afghans fear the fragile unity might not outlive international interest and commitment to Afghanistan if Karzai fails to improve the economic situation.
“The new president has won the hearts of almost everybody in Afghanistan, but this love will not last for long if he cannot deliver on his promises. And he is promising more than he can fulfil,” said Faizullah Salehi, a political scientist. “Not even the president of America can overcome such magnitude of problems.”
Western-educated Karzai has invited Afghan technocrats, who fled the country during the war for Europe and America, to return home and contribute to Afghanistan’s reconstruction process.
Many have come back and taken over top posts, and some are expected to be given key posts in the new cabinet, at the expense of the mujahideen who stayed and fought against the Soviet occupiers in the 1980s and later against the Taliban.
After their long years in the West and disgusted with Taliban’s excesses, many returnees have secular views and insist on a non-Islamic government, a source of tension in a deeply religious country.—Reuters
