Afghanistan Marches On
Ambassador Said T. Jawad
Kabul Scene Magazine
04/01/2004
In January, President Hamid Karzai signed Afghanistan's
new constitution into law. This marked another milestone on
the path towards peace and stability in Afghanistan, as envisaged
by the Bonn Agreement.
The first cornerstone was laid by the president
two years ago, when he addressed participants at the Bonn conference
by satellite phone from a cold hut in the mountains of the southern
province of Uruzgan while fighting the Taliban. He asked the
participants not to refer to him as a Pashtun leader, but as
an Afghan; a citizen of Afghanistan. This statement deeply moved
Afghans. Even as many worried that Afghanistan's recent history
of war and violence would hobble the country's march towards
the future, President Karzai placed his faith in national unity.
A few weeks later, Kabul fell and he entered the city. He then
built further on the foundation he had laid, and made his second-most
important statement. President Karzai could have entered the
capital as a warrior victor, escorted by tribal leaders or a
few thousand armed men. But he chose to enter Kabul alone, as
a civilian, as an unarmed man of peace. He knew that factionalism
and a show of force would only beget violence and nurture tyranny.
The people of Afghanistan embraced both statements as a clear
break with the past, and this is how Afghanistan has chosen
to chart its future.
President Karzai, with help from the international
community, has turned this war-torn country into a centre for
international cooperation. Afghanistan is emerging as a model
for state-building, with its new constitution providing the
best possible blend of respect for Islamic and traditional values
of Afghan society and adherence to international norms of human
rights. The constitution provides for equal rights and full
participation of women in rebuilding a modern nation-state.
The constitution achieves the objective of building
a strong central executive branch to keep the country together
and rebuild national institutions destroyed by three decades
of war and violence, with full consideration of the wishes of
the provinces to exercise more authority in managing local affairs.
For instance, while the constitution is based
on a unitary system with a strong presidency, it also provides
for provincial and district-level councils to empower the people
to participate in the local administration. For the first time,
the constitution pays due respect to the cultural and linguistic
diversity of a fragile society and makes official all major
languages in areas where these are spoken by a majority. The
new constitution further reveals that the values and tradition
of Islam and democracy are compatible and mutually reinforcing.
Afghanistan's successful advance on the path to democracy and
state-building will inevitably impact the expectations and the
aspirations of people in other arenas of the global war against
terrorism and tyranny. A democratic Afghanistan is providing
the future blueprint for democracy in similar societies.
The constitution proved that the relatively little
investment that the U.S. and the international community have
made to rebuild national institutions already has yielded impressive
results.
But there is more to do. The next challenge for
President Karzai is to implement the new constitution.
This is crucial to successfully holding elections.
Afghanistan has many challenges. We must achieve complete victory
over terrorism by building our security institutions and preventing
cross-border terrorist infiltration. We must demobilize, disarm
and reintegrate fighters. We must prevent extremists and warlords
from hijacking the democratic process. Corruption must be eliminated,
as well as narcotics production and trade. All these challenges
can only be properly addressed with a mandate from the people,
and to seek this mandate requires the implementation of the
constitution.
Once a newly elected government is in place, it
can work on the broader goals of the constitution: to build
national institutions, strengthen the rule of law, reduce investment
risks, encourage the growth of the private sector and enhance
the people's participation in government. But for this next
step, we will need fresh support from the U.S. and the international
community. Afghanistan will meet donors in March, in Germany,
to present its case and to ask for new pledges in the amount
of $28 billion over a seven-year period. We have accomplished
much in the two years since the fall of the Taliban. We just
need a little more understanding from the world community to
accomplish all our goals.
President Karzai's leadership in leading
our people towards tolerance and peace shows this is within
the reach of the Afghan nation.
