Loss of Confidence on Afghan Government: An Interview with Nooruddin Alawi
Nooruddin Allawi, a sociology professor at Kabul University, was born into a prominent religious family in Kabul. After
completing his education in Afghanistan, he did his postgraduate work in sociology in Iran. Allawi also heads the education department at Kherad Foundation, a Kabul-based charity organization. Kabul Direct interviewed him in April 2010 about the people’s lose of confidence in the post-Taliban administration in Afghanistan.
Kabul Direct: A driving factor of instability in Afghanistan is presumed to be the people’s lose of confidence in the government. How did this loss of confidence come about?
Alawi: First, it is important to grasp the direct connection between confidence and stability. It is the instability that ushers in the lack of confidence and not the distrust of government that brings about the instability.
That said, the source of today’s loss of faith is rooted in history. Unfortunately, Afghanistan has always been ruled by leaders who promote the interests of their clan or tribe before the interests of the Afghan nation as a whole. This is true whether our leaders emerge out of the tribal structure, the monarchy, or even democracy as we see today. In other words, we have a society that is perpetually divided by special interests as opposed to unified by a national interest.
Then the Afghan society is plagued by illiteracy. Under the monarchy, the vast majority of the people – ninety percent – could neither read nor write. How to build a shared identity lacking when the people do not even have a basic ability to communicate with each other? Thus illiteracy also helped keep Afghans segregated into tribes and clans.
Then there is the recent history – four decades of almost continuous conflict and instability. Internal divides have been exploited by competing powers. External players as well have worked to widen the domestic divisions between Afghans.
Iran backed its coreligionists while Pakistan bolstered the groups it perceived would be most loyal to
Islamabad.
Then, in addition to having to suffer under the ethnocentricity of the regime, Afghans have to worry about the incompetence factor of their government – and arrogance Is it really any wonder we have a crisis of confidence in our
leadership here in Afghanistan?
Kabul Direct: Can you explain how the lack of confidence manifests itself in the people?
Allawi: As I mentioned, politically speaking, we are an extremely tribal society. Tribalism affects every single institution in our country. Members of one tribe never fully trust the members of another tribe even if they are members of the same department or party. The tribal divides run deep. Authorities have to reward the members of their tribe and it is this code of honor that makes way for corruption and lack of professionalism that plague all of our institutions.
Kabul Direct: What stops the government from creating a sense of trust?
Allawi: Even the worst dictator cannot simply demand that people trust him. Trust is something that even the heaviest-handed regime has to earn. In Afghanistan, we have many problems. There is the lack of a sense of unity inside the government itself. We can talk of democracy all we want to here in Afghanistan but the fact remains, we have yet to become a genuine democracy. We simply do not have the ability to create a national consensus at this point in our nation’s history. Afghans are not fooled by the government’s lip service to unity when they see the benefits of government awarded along tribal or sectarian lines.
Kabul Direct: Do you think the government trusts the Afghan public?
Allawi: Our government always makes two claims: One that its actions are consistent with Islam; Two, that its actions are democratic. The truth, however, is that our government neither Islamic nor democratic. Almost all of our high-ranking officials put personal interests above the nation’s.
Then there is the issue of incompetence. Our government is inept because our leaders do not assign responsibility based on merit but based on tribal and other affiliations.
Kabul Direct: Is winning the peoples’ trust not a primary issue for the government?
Allawi: I’m sure it is but to build a state out of a nation, people have to want to come together for a reason. In Afghanistan’s case, what is the reason to come together as a nation when we have a government that is perceived as
putting the interests of one specific group above the interests of the other groups?
Then there is the failure of our government to conform to Islam as well. Our religious leaders complain that though the government hosts jirgas from time to time the real decision making happens without input from our clerics. So even our religious leaders do not have confidence in the government.
Kabul Direct: Have outside actors had anything to do with the sense of disunity?
Allawi: Indeed, the crisis of confidence here is rooted in the regional power struggles – and in the international power struggles as well. It doesn’t take long to find the foreign roots inside many of the divisions that plague us.
Kabul Direct: Are all ethnicities in Afghanistan equally suspicious of the government or are some ethnicities more unhappy than others?
Allawi: The issue is not one of equal or unequal levels of distrust among the various groups. The issue is that our government is Pashtuncentric as opposed to Afghancentric. While not all Pashtuns support President Karzai, there is still the perception that President Karzai distributes the benefits of government disproportionately to the Pashtuns.
Kabul Direct: Is the media helping to build a sense of nation or deepening the domestic divide?
Allawi: The media could be more helpful, certainly, than it has been. One problem is the widespread illiteracy. The high rates of illiteracy mean that radio and television are the most important venues. At the moment then, the media is not being particularly helpful as most stations are organized ethnocentric and sectarian lines as well.
Kabul Direct: What happens if we don’t build a united nation?
Allawi: The outcome will be another tragedy for the Afghan people – and the world, I fear. A sense of disunity will only create more discord and conflict, and the conflicts in Afghanistan could, as we have seen before, spread beyond Afghanistan.
Kabul Direct: What would you recommend the Karzai administration do in this case?
Allawi: There is no simple, fail-safe mechanism that I can suggest. But I can recommend that the administration try and raise awareness about the impact our tribal values have on our society and the harm they cause us. Afghans have to be encouraged to take an honest look at our traditions and clean house. We also need to rally our religious leaders to help people sort out what is truly Islamic and what is simply exploitative.
Kabul Direct: Finally, where do Afghans who lose trust in government end up? Do they join the insurgency?
Allawi: Of course people join the Taliban if they perceive that the government is not an effective alternative. So yes, the lack of confidence is directly correlated to our rising insecurity and destabilization.
COPYRIGHT KABUL DIRECT 2010
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