Democracy and the Failure
of Leadership in Afghanistan
Shaukat Zamani
July 2, 2010
This may not sound as an ideal time to write about the notion of democracy in
Afghanistan.
Firstly, the controversies surrounding the August 2009 Presidential elections
in Afghanistan marked the first real exposure of our democratic experiment as an
aberration; rather as a farce.
Secondly, the intensification of the proxy war efforts by our neighbours to
claim a larger share of the Afghan pie constitutes a threat to whatever that
remains of the Afghan democracy today.
Yet, thirdly, it is the American and Western rush to look for a quick exit
strategy that casts the deepest shadow of doubt over the horizons of the very
experiment of democracy in Afghanistan.
There now is a dramatic and tragic shift in Western thinking. As the idea of
quitting Afghanistan gains momentum, the new buzzword dominating Western policy
thinking vis-ŕ-vis Afghanistan seems to be Afghan “stability”, as opposed to
Afghan democracy. The only real Western concern now is to ensure Afghanistan no
longer remains a terrorist launching pad.
As Eugene Robinson, a Washington Post columnist, recently puts it,
“Nation-building would be the Afghans' problem, not ours.”
Robinson is dead right. Afghanistan is our country, and only Afghans
themselves are truly responsible for building our country and establishing a
truly lasting democratic culture in our society.
I am not at all surprised by the lack of continuation of Western commitment
to the Afghan democratic experiment. The clock was always ticking. The writing
has been on the wall since, at least, late 2009. We Afghans have consistently
failed to live up to our end of the bargain. We failed to build in any
meaningful sense the very institutions that will safeguard our delicate
democratic experiment.
We assumed that we had for ever to build what, for me, is the biggest and
most important asset in our long, glorious history, our current institution of
democracy.
Our lack of effort and our very concept of time have let us down. Some of us
stopped trying for selfish reasons, because of an obsession to conserve power by
any means possible. Some simply found the temptation to jump on the
politics-as-the-easiest-way-to-make-money bandwagon too much to resist. Others
who cared, the civil society, didn’t try hard enough. Some didn’t try at all
(myself included).
The whole nation had fallen into a dogmatic slumber.
So the irony of writing about our democracy when the very idea of it is under
threat in Afghanistan is certainly not lost on me.
I also recognise protestations by many of my fellow Afghans who believe
Western style, or Western-imposed, democracy will not work in Afghanistan. I
agree too that George W. Bush’s “vision” that Muslim societies would jump on the
so-called democracy bandwagon and embrace Western democratic ideals overnight
was imbecilic idealism.
Yet, more than ever, I remain convinced that democracy can and will work in
Afghanistan. The failure of the current institution of democracy in Afghanistan
does not mean the failure of democary itself. Nor should it represent the end of
our democratic experiment.
Rather a true, an indigenously-initiated grassroots democracy is our only way
out of the vicious post-1979 Afghan cycle that has brought us nothing but
tragedy, death and darkness.
A true democracy is what I call grassroots democracy, one based on the power
of the people themselves: The you and I of Afghanistan.
Democary itself is a beautiful thing. A true democracy in Afghanistan is the
ultimate embodiment of what I call the Afghan Renaissance.
To appreciate democracy, it is paramount that we understand its very
principles which reflect that all citizens be equal before the law, must have
equal access to power and enjoy freedoms such as the freedom of political
expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.
These principles of democracy can not be taken lightly. Implemented properly,
these principles will result in a society that every Afghan would be proud to
live in and serve.
The reasons for the failure of the democratic experiment in Afghanistan today
is the failure of the current crop of Afghan leaders to uphold true democratic
ideals.
A true democracy, based on the principles of justice and equality, requires a
certain set of beliefs, a certain level of responsibility and commitment that
are hitherto missing in our efforts in Afghanistan.
Unless we deliver on these important preconditions, our democratic experiment
will continue to be farcical. As amply evident from the experiences of the last
Presidential Elections, the democratic principals, for instance, can not be
upheld without, foremost, a responsible government. It is an essential part of
representative democracy that elections be fair both substantively and
procedurally.
What are the democratic preconditions we need to bring about?
To bring about a true democracy in Afghanistan, we must strive as a nation to
create the preconditions upon which to build a true democracy.
A change of national attitude must be the starting point. As the saying goes,
attitude is a small thing that makes a big difference. We need to start
believing in ourselves and in our own powers. We need to acquire the “can do
attitude”, or the belief that we can bring true peace, true stability, true
prosperity, and, therefore, true democracy to our country.
To acquire this “can do attitude”, we need a new crop of leaders that can
instill this very concept in our nation. For true peace, true stability, true
prosperity and, therefore, true democracy to take hold, a nation must believe in
its leadership.
And when a nation lacks a leadership capable of healing its wounds, like we
do today, a caring leadership that is, it must struggle to find it. And when it
can not find, it must strive to create it.
We need a responsible and caring leadership. The starting point of a true
relationship between a nation and its leaders is the trust factor. A nation must
trust its leaders.
Today, for a responsible and committed leadership, for a leadership that can
prove it truly cares and shows a capacity to heal our spiritual wounds, Afghans
will even go to the wolves!
It is, for me, in this special interplay between the nation and its
leadership that lies the very notion of grassroots democracy. It is precisely in
the resulting atmosphere of mutual trust that a nation acquires a capacity to
believe in, and bring to power, a responsible and committed leadership, breaking
the boundaries of tribal and ethnic politics in the process.
It is precisely in this special nation-leader relationship that the national
will comes to the fore and public opinion becomes the dominant governing factor.
That, my fellow countrymen and women, is the very dawn of the sort of a
mature political culture that is the embodiment of a true and mature democracy,
as opposed to the artificial democracy that is in existence in Afghanistan
today.
But remember, my countrymen and women, our institution of democracy in
Afghanistan today, as imperfect as it maybe, is our last bastion of hope to
create a stable, a peaceful, and a more equitable society.
Defending and keeping alive our current imperfect institution of democracy,
while our Western friends are slowly abandoning support for our democratic
ideals, keeps alive our most important vision of the future.
Defending our imperfect democracy today must become the very first step of
our struggle to establish a truly indigenous and lasting Afghan democracy.
For there will be no prospects of a Renaissance in Afghanistan if we fail to
keep alive our very institution of democracy.
Shaukat Zamani is the founder of Help Afghan Education (
www.helpafghaneducation.org ).
He can be reached on:
shaukat.zamani@helpafghaneducation.org
Please participate in a debate about how we can help Afghanistan on
www.afghandebate.org.
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