KABUL: They sat on a couch in the Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled, four civil servants from Afghanistan’s main ethnic groups: a Pakhtoon, a Tajik, a Hazara and an Uzbek. They laughed when they realized the humour in their seating arrangement: rival clans whose bloody warring has nearly destroyed this country, now couch buddies in the new government that is supposed to unite them and begin rebuilding Afghanistan.
Abdul Qadir, a deputy minister, finally stopped laughing and said seriously that he was almost sure that infighting would not destroy the new government. But he had a warning for the world that suggests how fragile things remain here. “If you give us four loaves of bread, we will all eat in peace. But if you give a loaf to just one of us, then the other three will fight to get it.”
As Afghanistan’s new government began work last week, it lacked desks, telephones, heat, electricity, computers, windows and doors in many of the looted and bombed-out ministry buildings. But while those shortages are dire, what might be far more important is what is not lacking: representatives of all the major ethnic groups.
Many here say that the goal of the new government, which will serve for just six months, is not to solve Afghanistan’s mammoth problems. Although all ministers are beginning to draw up plans, many have no traditional credentials, such as experience or university degrees, for their jobs. They have no budget, and they have laid out virtually no specific long-range policy objectives.
Ministers and observers here say the most important thing this government could do in the next six months is simply to survive. They said that success would be proving to the world, to countries that are preparing to donate billions of dollars in emergency aid, to itself and to the Afghan people that old enemies can share power without bloodshed. “It is not so important what we do during the six months,” said Abdullah Wardak, a Pakhtoon who is minister for martyrs and disabled. “The big thing is that there is no more fighting.”
Mir Wais Sadeq, a Tajik who is minister of labour and social affairs, said: “Satellite phones are not important. The important thing is that we have a peaceful environment in which to work.” The first stage is the current six-month government. The second is a new interim government that is to rule for up to two years. It will be chosen by a loya jirga, or national council of tribal leaders, and it will draft a new constitution. The third stage is national elections designed to set Afghanistan on a new democratic course.
The swearing-in of the 30-member government on Dec 22 launched the first stage. Hamid Karzai, the erudite and multilingual Pakhtoon tribal leader who heads the interim government, set out immediately to stabilize Afghanistan, appointing Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum as deputy defence minister.
“I think we all have to live with the realities on the ground in Afghanistan,” said Foreign Minister Abdullah, who, like many Afghans, uses only one name. “We have to work together to put the national interest above every other thing.”
Not everyone thinks that making ethnic balance the government’s primary concern is good long-term policy. Faizullah Jalal, who teaches politics and international relations at Kabul University, said Karzai “shouldn’t sacrifice professionalism and knowledge for ethnicity.”
While that might hold the government together initially, he said, too much focus on ethnic factors “s the reason we are stuck in place and can’t move ahead. This won’t solve our problems.” Still, the power of ethnic loyalty, and how fiercely it is protected by militiamen who have been raised to swear allegiance not to a national flag but to a regional ethnic commander, can be seen in any ministry in Kabul.
The Taliban looted the Afghan treasury, and there is virtually no money available to run the government. International donors are eventually expected to provide billions of dollars to help. The UN provided about $600,000 worth of office furniture and other supplies to help the ministries get started. —Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) The Washington Post.