Karzai's Obsession With Power
Khadija Ibrahimi
June 15, 2009
On August 20th, for only the second time in history, the Afghan people will
head to the polls and elect a president. The current president, Hamid Karzai is
standing for re-election, even though there is widespread corruption in his
government, and he has failed to eliminate the Taliban. Many experts agree that
Karzai has run out of ideas, and if he is re-elected, nothing more will change
for the better. Corruption will continue and the Taliban attacks will continue
to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a peaceful nation. Even Karzai himself has
admitted to the corruption that plagues his government, and provides little hope
of ever completely getting rid of the Taliban. This leaves one to ask, why does he want to
be president again? The answer is simple: he has become obsessed with power, and
this situation is not unique. Afghan history is filled with men who have done
unbelievable things to obtain power and even more unbelievable things to keep
it. No matter what the consequences were for himself, his family or the Afghan
nation as a whole, and no matter how unqualified they were to lead, these men
did horrible things for the sake of power. When it comes to obsession with
power, some Afghan leaders have taken it to extremes on many occasions.
A good example of a man who has done horrible things for power in Afghan
history is Amir Abdur Rahman Khan. Towards the end of the second Anglo-Afghan
war, a motivated Afghan army led by Ayub Khan defeated and put to shame a much
more modern and organized British army in the battle of Maiwand. Interestingly
enough, an Afghan woman by the name of Malalai played a major role in ensuring
victory for the Afghans. After that battle, the British were in a bad situation,
and during the same time, Abdur Rahman decided to come down from Central Asia
for a chance to become the Afghan ruler. When Abdur Rahman entered the fight,
instead of declaring war against the British, he focused his energies against
his own Afghans. Even the British were surprised. They
were relieved by Abdur Rahman’s actions because the British themselves felt that
they had pretty much lost the second Anglo-Afghan war after their defeat in the
battle of Maiwand. Abdur Rahman, in exchange for
British help against Ayub Khan and a salary, accepted British control over Afghanistan's
foreign affairs. It was a shameful move for power, and it
dishonored every man and woman who died fighting against the invading British
army.
To keep his power, Abdur Rahman continued with further shameful acts. He
attacked other tribes, oppressed them, and forced them to accept him as their
Amir and absolute ruler. Many of the tribes resisted, and they were punished
severely. Their people were killed and their lands were taken away and given to
others. The hatred that exists amongst various Afghan ethnic groups, for example
the Hazaras and Pashtuns can be traced back to Abdur Rahman's brutal and
oppressive actions. Instead of acting like a real leader by working and
compromising with the tribes, he forced his will on them, and for the ones he
did not want to deal with as he felt they were of no value to him, he signed away to the British. Abdur Rahman was
responsible for implementing a border (Durand line) with the British and
dividing the Afghan tribes in half. Still till this day, the Durand line is a
cause of misery for the Afghan nation. After Pakistan was created by the British
and inherited the British controlled lands, one of the major causes of hostility
between Afghanistan and Pakistan became this dreadful Durand line. Even though
this line separates current day Afghanistan and Pakistan on a map, Afghans don't
recognize it and the Pakistanis have done some evil things such as nurturing and
supporting the Taliban movement in order to keep Afghans from bringing up the
validity of the current borders. Abdur Rahman's obsession with power destroyed
his legacy, and devastated a nation.
Another example of a power obsessed man whose actions hurt the entire Afghan
nation was Daoud Khan. Daoud Khan, a cousin of Mohammad Zahir Shah served as
Afghanistan's Prime Minister for many years. His blunt and provocative actions,
especially the way he dealt with Pakistan on the Pashtunistan issue caused Zahir
Shah to replace him as Prime Minister. This was something that Daoud Khan could
not stand for and felt his cousin was not doing a good job pushing the country
towards modernity. Daoud Khan felt he could do a better job and decided to
overthrow his cousin. It is safe to say that his intentions were good,
especially, since during his rule, many modernization programs occurred in
Afghanistan and life for women became a lot better. However, the way he went
about to get the power, by aligning himself with shady pro-Soviet leaders,
destroyed not only him, but his entire family. It eventually paved the way for
major Soviet intervention, a full-scale invasion and a war that killed over a
million Afghans.
Now what has president Karzai done? In order to ensure he stays in power,
Karzai has aligned himself with some figures who many believe are corrupt
criminals and responsible for human rights violations. Furthermore, in order to
win support from the Shia conservatives, Karzai signed a repressive, anti-women
bill into law. However, thanks to widespread international condemnation, the law
was not implemented, and has been put on hold for review. Many human rights
activists correctly argued that it would have made it legal for Shia men to
force themselves on their wives. When questioned as to why he would approve of
such a law, Karzai's spokesman claimed the president signed it without actually
reading the details of the proposed law. Even if this is true, imagine a Shia
woman's reaction after being raped by her husband and then learning that the
president helped made it possible because he didn't read what he was signing
into law. In Islam, one of the major duties of a Muslim leader is to protect
those that cannot protect themselves. Karzai miserably failed in that regard.
There are also serious accusations that he has abused his presidential powers
by putting his friends in strategic positions and those friends are busy making
sure other presidential candidates do not get the same attention. One of his
major rivals, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai has publicly now on many occasions accused
Karzai of abusing his powers to get an unfair advantage in the race. No matter
what his intentions are, good or bad, Karzai's obsession with holding on to his
presidential powers will destroy the young and fragile Afghan democracy. It will silence others
with new and better ideas, and the same corrupt administration will remain in
Afghanistan. Soon, other challengers will be discouraged from participating in
the democratic elections because they may feel that unless they are in an
alliance with Karzai, they will not have a real opportunity to bring about
change.
While Karzai actually took his presidential oath on December 7, 2004, he has
been in power since December 2001 when he was chosen to lead a provisional
administration. A Loya Jirga chose him as the transitional president in June
2002 until elections were finally held on October 9, 2004 and certified on
November 3, 2004. If he gets re-elected, which many observers believe is highly
likely, he will be in power for an additional 5 years. This means Afghans will
have over 12 years of Karzai being the leader of the nation. Even in the United
States, a president can only serve a total of 8 years. At least in the United
States, there are checks to the presidential powers; in Afghanistan, the
president is very powerful, he even decides upon the governors for the
provinces. That’s like US president Obama choosing the governors of the states.
More power equals more corruption, especially in the case of Afghanistan where
there is very little check on the president from the other branches of
government.
Being such a powerful president and already having had his friends in
strategic positions, one has to wonder how easily it would be for Karzai to
change the constitution and keep himself and his friends in power for a very
long time. He could easily turn into a dictator, even though he will still be
called a "president". Judging from Afghan history, at that point, only violence
will end his rule.
If president Karzai really cares for this new democracy, he should step down
and give another Afghan a chance. It's not like there are no other alternatives.
Many of the other candidates have some great ideas on improving the lives of
Afghans and fighting corruption which grows day by day under Karzai. He needs to
learn from former US president and hero George Washington. George Washington was
America's first president, and after his term ended, Washington would have
easily won a re-election. Instead, he stepped back and allowed another American
to take over and in the end, America benefited, and George Washington today is
known not for his obsession with power, but for his love and the sacrifices he
made for his country. Now it's up to Karzai. Does he want to be remembered as
Abdur Rahman is remembered in Afghanistan or does he want to be remembered as
Washington is remembered in America? Hopefully, he does what's right, and steps
down and fights against his obsession with power for the benefit of his nation.
Khadija Ibrahimi is a graduate student studying political science. She
can be reached at
khadija_ibrahimi@yahoo.com
Back to Top
