The State Building Process in Afghanistan: Challenges and Achievements
Remarks by Ambassador Said T. Jawad
Asia Society in Washington, DC - Asia Circle Series
01/12/2005
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thank Asia Society Washington,
DC for organizing this event. It is a pleasure to be among young
professionals and one of the first speakers of Asia Circle Series.
I will briefly speak about the objective of the
state-building in Afghanistan and then discuss our achievements
and challenges. Afghanistan has historically been a strong nation,
but the state institutions were systematically destroyed in
the past 30 years by invasion, war, terror and violence.
Three years ago we inherited a large and dysfunctional
bureaucracy, and infrastructure largely destroyed by the Al
Qaeda and the Taliban. With the partnership of the international
community we embarked upon the task of building an efficient
and small government. Our aim is to build a state that is effective,
representative and capable of implementing policies and enforcing
laws. We do not want to enlarge the state apparatus; we want
to increase its enforcement capability, which is the essence
of stateness.
If we look at the experience of the United States,
we will see that this country was born in a revolution against
state authority. The US political structure, constitutional
government, protection for individual rights, and the separation
of powers, are designed to limit state power. We are following
the same pattern of building a state with limited scope and
strong enforcement capability. Our new constitution and recent
national elections are the cornerstones of our state-building
plan.
On January 4, 2004, President Karzai signed our
new Constitution into law. The new Constitution is a visionary
and balanced charter that guarantees equal rights and full participation
of women. It is the most liberal charter in the region, and
provides for a presidential system with a powerful parliament.
In October, we successfully held our first national
election. The success of the elections is not only a significant
step forward for democracy in Afghanistan, but also a major
achievement for global security. Every vote cast in Afghanistan
is a vote against terror and in favor of democracy and global
security. Afghanistan’s transition and successful advance
on the path to democracy and state-building will impact the
expectations and the aspirations of the people all over the
world. When 8.4 million Muslims, Afghan men and women, proudly
and patiently lined up to vote, they not only demonstrated their
courage, competence, and commitment to democracy, but also sent
a strong message to terrorists and extremists.
Generally, people fear elections in post conflict societies
for the danger of what they may reveal. Elections may show that
there is no nation there at all. Undemocratic forces may win
the elections. Free elections in some countries resulted in
one man, one vote, one time. The success of Afghan presidential
elections proved that these fears are misplaced. The Afghan
people once again proved that “they are a strong nation
with weak state institutions.” The threat of a large scale
terrorist attack, the fear of intimidation by warlords, and
the speculation of “deal-making” by the President
never materialized.
In fact, Afghanistan’s first presidential
election was an historic achievement with phenomenal scenes
that Afghans will cherish for years to come. Let me share some
snapshots of these great moments of our modern history.
An 80-year old woman, blind and frail, arriving
at a polling station in Kabul with her grandson said, “I
did not sleep a wink last night. Several times I woke up my
grandson, worrying about the break of daylight and missing the
chance to vote.”
In Kunar, a rocket landed two hundred yards away
from a long line of women waiting to vote. No one ran way. They
insisted they would remain in line. One woman said, “If
we run away from the terrorists, the rockets will continue to
come. We want to stay here and vote because this is the only
way to stop these terrorists’ attacks forever.”
Afghans proved that 30 years of misery have strengthened
their determination to rebuild their national institutions and
a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Afghanistan. The success
of the election was a shared achievement by Afghans, the United
States and over 45 countries contributing troops, funds and
resources to help stabilize and rebuild our country. We are
grateful to each and every one of them. Together we have taken
Afghanistan a long way forward in three short years. Let me
share some of the other achievements in state-building in Afghanistan.
In December, after weeks of careful deliberation,
President Hamid Karzai announced his new ethnically balanced
cabinet which pushes out warlords and installs technocrats capable
of driving reform and enhancing the enforcement capacity of
the state.
There are three women in the cabinet. All Ministers
have a university degree, as required by the new Constitution,
and nine have doctorate degrees (PhDs). On the security front,
the demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) of former
combatants continue. Thirty-three thousand combatants including
4,000 child soldiers have been demobilized under the UN-backed
DDR program.
We have gathered and moved to cantonment sites more than 8,000
tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery pieces. The
heavy weapon cantonment is 95% complete. Over 63,000 names of
militias (mostly ghost soldiers) have been removed from the
payroll of the Government. The DDR program will be successfully
completed in June 2005 according to the schedule established
by the Bonn Agreement.
Plans to build the new national army are progressing on schedule.
Our target of a 70,000-strong national army will be achieved
by December 2006. Twenty-five thousand soldiers have already
been recruited and trained so far. Thirty-two thousand police
officers are trained as part of rebuilding the Afghan National
Police force.
In the economic arena, we have made considerable progress. The
government introduced a new currency and drafted new investment
and banking laws to revive the private sector, and connected
the country by building roads and telecommunication systems.
Today 11 foreign banks are operating in the country and major
international companies like Alcatel, Siemens, DHL, Standard
Chartered, and Hyatt have invested in Afghanistan.
The Government of Afghanistan has met the structural benchmarks
established by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in fact,
national revenue collection exceeded the IMF target. We reached
an economic growth rate of 29% and 20% in the past two years,
which continues at around 20% this year, according to the IMF.
Afghanistan has now been approved to initiate the membership
negotiations with the WTO, which will lead to further trade,
investment, technology transfer and income growth. Afghanistan's
booming economy is attracting workers from neighboring Pakistan
and Iran. Over 50,000 Pakistanis and Iranians are presently
working in Afghanistan.
In addition, our Government secured more than $11 billion in
funding for reconstruction, and we expect another $20 billion
over the next seven years. International assistance has enabled
3.6 million Afghan refugees to return home and 5.6 million boys
and girls are going back to schools across Afghanistan.
Eighty-six percent of Afghans think that they are better off
today, according to an Asia Foundation survey. Stability and
reconstruction have bred many opportunities for investment.
Afghanistan is uniquely located at the heart of Central Asia
connecting the region’s resourceful countries with profitable
emerging markets.
Our country is a land-bridge between Central Asian and the Indian
subcontinents. New roads and a modernized customs and trade
policy are facilitating faster and broader regional trade. With
the construction of the ring road in Afghanistan being completed,
no Central Asian capital will be more than 32 hours from the
Persian Gulf. Afghanistan is a large market. With 25 million
people, it is the second most populated country in Central Asia,
and Kabul is the largest city of the region.
The success of mobile telephone, with 700,000
customers to date and more than 1.5 million expected by the
end of 2005, is a sign of economic growth and illustrates marketing
opportunities for consumer goods. Despite our achievements and
opportunities, the new government faces numerous challenges.
We are realistic about our challenges.
All Afghans have not yet benefited from the peace
dividends. We must eliminate narcotics, corruption, nepotism,
rule of gun and abuse of power that undermine our recovery process.
We face the enormous task of building a state
and providing for good governance, after complete destruction
of all national institutions and a severe shortage of resources
and human capital.
Corruption and bottlenecks in the legal system
is a major problem. We have just adopted a new law that requires
all ministers and high ranking officials to disclose their financial
holdings, properties and business dealings, along with those
of their spouse and children.
While the fight against terrorism is succeeding
across the country, narcotics and the accompanying corruption
are now the biggest threats to the state-building process in
Afghanistan.
Taliban are defeated, but they are not eliminated.
The government policy of encouraging low ranking Taliban to
lay down their arm and return to their home and villages had
left the leadership of the Taliban fragmented and isolated.
Narcotics pose a serious challenge for all of
us. Together with our allies, we will be spending one billion
dollars to fight the menace of narcotics this year. Cultivation
and trafficking of narcotics go hand in hand with terrorism
and warlordism. It is to our best national interest to fight
them all.
We are committed to mobilizing all our resources
in fighting processors and narco-traffickers. As President Karzai
has told an anti-drug conference in Kabul, “the nation
of Afghanistan, for its survival from this disgrace, has to
fight against poppy ... like it fought against the Soviets.”
We have also established a new Ministry of Counter-Narcotics
to improve coordination among various state agencies in the
country. Unorthodox approaches of providing amnesty and absorbing
the money of some of the traffickers into the reconstruction
projects are being evaluated.
We know heroin is one of the sources of the illegal
money that funds international terrorism and crime across the
region. It also finances the destabilizing activities of warlords
and criminals in Afghanistan.
We are asking the coalition forces to play a greater
role in assisting the Government to fight against drug traffickers
and clandestine laboratories. The Afghan people demand that
we tackle the problem of irregular militias. The DDR program
has solely focused on militias of warlords affiliated with the
Ministry of Defense.
To this end, the government, the International
Security Assistance Force and the Coalition Forces have almost
completed a nationwide mapping of irregular militias. The irregular
militia is a source of insecurity and consists of autonomous
militias and rogue groups, groups linked to individuals employed
in the Government Security Sector, groups involved in counter
terrorist activities alongside international forces, and private
security forces.
To overcome these challenges, we need resources
to reform, strengthen and enhance the enforcement capacity of
our national institutions, especially the Afghan National Amy
and the national police force to make them accountable, capable,
and more professional. We need funds to improve local and district
level governance, and enhance government capacity to deliver
services to every corner of the country, especially areas prone
to terrorist infiltration.
Afghans are optimistic and have high expectations
for the future. They voted to elect a president who is committed
to improve security, enhance the rule of law, fight narcotics
and corruption, and dissolve private militias. They want schools
and education.
On the Election Day, a widow said, “Our
children are deaf from the sound of rocket explosions, I am
voting for a President who will build schools for us and give
us peace. I cannot read, but I do not want my children to be
illiterate.”
In six months, Afghans are going to the polls
to choose their parliament. By then, Afghans must feel the tangible
results of their first investment in democracy. We are working
with the UN to set up an independent parliamentary election
commission. We need financial resource for the election, which
will cost $130 million dollars.
The Afghan people are grateful to United States
for all the assistance provided to them and thank all US soldiers
who are fighting alongside Afghans to make Afghanistan and the
world a safer place.
Afghans have put their trust in the benefits of
democracy and partnership with the United States and the international
community.
Thank you.
