Battling Endemic Corruption
There's that old adage that you stick with the one who brung you to the dance. A civil courtesy. And, one supposes, the reverse must also be true; stick with the one you brought along to the event.
In the case of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, it's hard to tell which should apply. He is ensconced where he is right now, at the head of government in Afghanistan because NATO, and specifically the United States thought he was the best bet to serve his country and the West's purpose. In his turn, he has visited most NATO countries to thank them for their sacrifices, and to implore them to continue their useful work in his beleaguered country.
That was before his Western allies and supporters began to tire and become exceedingly unhappy about the extent of revealed corruption within his government, and which President Karzai is perfectly in tune with, from nepotism and drug-dealing, to warlordism holding sway in parliament, and women continuing to be viewed as vassals, and the ravaging of young boys and pay-offs to the national police along with just plain everyday favour-purchasing bribes.
But graft on the scale of absconding with a major portion of the billions in foreign aid that has flooded the country has tipped the scale substantially, aided and abetted by the too-visible election fraud re-electing Hamid Karzai back to his primary position in governance. The shrill cries of vote-rigging, the denunciations and clamouring for clean-ups were simply too presumptuous and irritating beyond acceptance.
Who are they to tell him how he and his cronies must comport themselves? Foreign interests do not always mesh with those of Afghanistan with its intrigues and sinister alliances, prepared to re-integrate the Taliban back into mainstream society, and to continue currying favour with Iran, a country intent on consolidating its strategy for threatening the stability of the entire region to spite all its critics. They make a fundamentally solid duo of common purpose.
Except that cute-as-a-fox Karzai has many cards yet to play, and fully understanding how vital the security of his country is to the West, calibrates his rants and his position quite carefully. For the funding and the human capital he is offered is still valuable. Depending on his perception that he still appears to the West as the only viable candidate for the office he holds, while others sit forlornly on the sidelines, their attempts to persuade the West that they represent more wholesome alternatives, ignored.
Former cabinet minister Ramazan Bashardost has embarked on his own anti-corruption campaign, ignored by both the Government of Afghanistan as totally irrelevant to the country's aspirations, and by NATO as totally inconveniently, headache-inducing. Starting all over again, from the word go? How to proceed? Best stick with the one brought to the dance. The vast international funds that were funnelled into the country have, he claims, gone to "warlords, corrupt government officials, Karzai cronies."
"With this money, we can build three or four new Afghanistans", Mr. Bashardost explained. "Yet that hasn't happened." Because all the Western diplomats have given their backing to Hamid Karzai solidly over the years, they simply receive his overtures with a lack of enthusiasm because what he proposes would result in radical change. He wants the position of a special prosecutor to be established, police and courts capable of bringing corrupt officials and war criminals holding positions in the Karzai government to justice.
As far as the Western-educated Mr. Bashardost is concerned, the war against the Taliban comes second to a far-more-needed war against endemic corruption in his country. "It is Canadian taxpayer money, it's American taxpayer's money that arrives in Afghanistan" he explained* with a good degree of frustration, "And it's an Afghanistan mafia group that shares it. It is not for Afghan people."So why aren't foreign countries concerned about how their treasuries are being looted instead of used to benefit the country and its people?
The Afghan government is decidedly unamused by this thorn in their plans for business as usual. Afghan parliamentarian Ramazon Bashardost was elected in 2006, but was refused an office. He set up his office in a tent in a parking lot just outside Afghanistan's legislative buildings. Since receiving 17% of the vote in last year's presidential election he has transferred his tent outside a two-room office near government buildings, where he serves Afghans on a daily basis, seeking help.
His chances of ascending to power are shrugged off by most western diplomats, even while they recognize the respect he has gained for resisting the country's endemic corruption and insisting that it be dealt with for the good of the people and their future in a stable, advanced country. It represents a conundrum that this determined and resolutely honest man who rages against corruption, struggles for human rights and fights for equality for women, finds no support from the west.
"He is a great man, he is for the poor people. He is brave", commented one of his supporters. For whatever that will avail him.
*Report from David Pugliese writing out of Kabul, Afghanistan
In the case of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, it's hard to tell which should apply. He is ensconced where he is right now, at the head of government in Afghanistan because NATO, and specifically the United States thought he was the best bet to serve his country and the West's purpose. In his turn, he has visited most NATO countries to thank them for their sacrifices, and to implore them to continue their useful work in his beleaguered country.
That was before his Western allies and supporters began to tire and become exceedingly unhappy about the extent of revealed corruption within his government, and which President Karzai is perfectly in tune with, from nepotism and drug-dealing, to warlordism holding sway in parliament, and women continuing to be viewed as vassals, and the ravaging of young boys and pay-offs to the national police along with just plain everyday favour-purchasing bribes.
But graft on the scale of absconding with a major portion of the billions in foreign aid that has flooded the country has tipped the scale substantially, aided and abetted by the too-visible election fraud re-electing Hamid Karzai back to his primary position in governance. The shrill cries of vote-rigging, the denunciations and clamouring for clean-ups were simply too presumptuous and irritating beyond acceptance.
Who are they to tell him how he and his cronies must comport themselves? Foreign interests do not always mesh with those of Afghanistan with its intrigues and sinister alliances, prepared to re-integrate the Taliban back into mainstream society, and to continue currying favour with Iran, a country intent on consolidating its strategy for threatening the stability of the entire region to spite all its critics. They make a fundamentally solid duo of common purpose.
Except that cute-as-a-fox Karzai has many cards yet to play, and fully understanding how vital the security of his country is to the West, calibrates his rants and his position quite carefully. For the funding and the human capital he is offered is still valuable. Depending on his perception that he still appears to the West as the only viable candidate for the office he holds, while others sit forlornly on the sidelines, their attempts to persuade the West that they represent more wholesome alternatives, ignored.
Former cabinet minister Ramazan Bashardost has embarked on his own anti-corruption campaign, ignored by both the Government of Afghanistan as totally irrelevant to the country's aspirations, and by NATO as totally inconveniently, headache-inducing. Starting all over again, from the word go? How to proceed? Best stick with the one brought to the dance. The vast international funds that were funnelled into the country have, he claims, gone to "warlords, corrupt government officials, Karzai cronies."
"With this money, we can build three or four new Afghanistans", Mr. Bashardost explained. "Yet that hasn't happened." Because all the Western diplomats have given their backing to Hamid Karzai solidly over the years, they simply receive his overtures with a lack of enthusiasm because what he proposes would result in radical change. He wants the position of a special prosecutor to be established, police and courts capable of bringing corrupt officials and war criminals holding positions in the Karzai government to justice.
As far as the Western-educated Mr. Bashardost is concerned, the war against the Taliban comes second to a far-more-needed war against endemic corruption in his country. "It is Canadian taxpayer money, it's American taxpayer's money that arrives in Afghanistan" he explained* with a good degree of frustration, "And it's an Afghanistan mafia group that shares it. It is not for Afghan people."So why aren't foreign countries concerned about how their treasuries are being looted instead of used to benefit the country and its people?
The Afghan government is decidedly unamused by this thorn in their plans for business as usual. Afghan parliamentarian Ramazon Bashardost was elected in 2006, but was refused an office. He set up his office in a tent in a parking lot just outside Afghanistan's legislative buildings. Since receiving 17% of the vote in last year's presidential election he has transferred his tent outside a two-room office near government buildings, where he serves Afghans on a daily basis, seeking help.
His chances of ascending to power are shrugged off by most western diplomats, even while they recognize the respect he has gained for resisting the country's endemic corruption and insisting that it be dealt with for the good of the people and their future in a stable, advanced country. It represents a conundrum that this determined and resolutely honest man who rages against corruption, struggles for human rights and fights for equality for women, finds no support from the west.
"He is a great man, he is for the poor people. He is brave", commented one of his supporters. For whatever that will avail him.
*Report from David Pugliese writing out of Kabul, Afghanistan
Labels: Afghanistan, Human Relations, Justice, NATO
posted by Pieface | 12:24 PM
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