Puppet to continue the dance
M Ashraf Mirza
The incumbent Afghan President, Hamid Karzai’s election has been
‘legitimized’ by the so-called Independent Election Commission for
another five-year term following cancellation of the Nov 7 runoff poll
after his lone election foe Abdullah Abdullah pulled out as a protest
against non-acceptance of his demand for removal of his loyalists on the
commission for allegedly having been deeply involved in massive election
irregularities during the first vote on August 20. The rigging in the
polls was recognized internationally with an estimated one million votes
supposedly cast in Karzai’s favour being fraudulent. The number
constituted about one third of the total votes polled by Karzai. A
sizeable chunk of votes cast in favour of Abdullah were also alleged to
be illegitimate. The end result of the recount, therefore, was that
Karzai’s lead was reduced to just under an absolute majority, forcing
the runoff election under the Afghan constitution.
The US and its allies had mounted a frantic campaign to compel Karzai to
accept the recount and acquiesce to a runoff with Abdullah. Senator John
Kerry, head of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spent three
days in Kabul convincing Karzai to accept the second round vote. He was
joined in Kabul by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US
special representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke,
and UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon also spoke to Karzai on telephone, telling
him that the runoff was essential for ‘legitimacy’ of the election as
well as for his regime itself. And now interestingly, Washington and its
allies are all insisting that the cancellation of the runoff is of no
consequence and the ‘selection’ of Karzai as the winner by his own
handpicked election panel is perfectly legitimate. The Obama
administration was apparently scared of Abdullah’s possible victory lest
he might oppose the escalation of deployment of tens of thousands of
more US troops in Afghanistan. Abdullah is definitely better nationalist
than Karzai. President Barack Obama telephoned Karzai to congratulate
him though amidst the admission that the election had been ‘messy’.
Obama is, however, understood to have told Karzai ‘to begin to write a
new chapter’ with provision of a clean, honest and efficient
administration to the Afghan people. This ‘new chapter’ is also
seemingly being marked by major military escalation in Afghanistan,
under which about 30,000 additional American troops will be deployed in
an attempt to quell the mounting armed resistance to the US occupation.
The illegitimate character of the election was quite evident, since it
constituted ‘selection’ of the head of the government under the
conditions of military occupation by 100,000 US and other foreign
troops. Besides, any candidate opposed to the US occupation of the
country was barred from contesting the presidential polls. The date of
the election was also deliberately so fixed by the Karzai regime in
violation of the Afghan constitution as to allow time for the 21,000
more US troops that Obama ordered into the country last March to begin
arriving into Afghanistan. The presidential poll was also held three
months after the expiry of Karzai’s term of office. As for the vote
itself, the significance of the fraudulent ballots was evident from the
fact that 70 percent of the voters had stayed away from the polls.
Washington has readily accepted the cancellation of the runoff poll
because it knew that it would attract even fewer voters that in turn
would constitute a challenge to the legitimacy of the entire process. In
fact, there was every reason to believe that the US and its allies never
intended the runoff vote to take place. The US attempt to force Karzai
into power-sharing negotiations with Abdullah Abdullah was also
motivated by Washington’s plans to assume even more direct control of
the Afghan regime in preparation for its redoubled counterinsurgency
campaign. The demand of Abullah’s representatives for share in the state
spoils in the form of ministries and posts, however, led Karzai to
insist that he would face the runoff. The US officials had seemingly
pushed for Abdullah’s withdrawal from the runoff to pave way for its
cancellation as the power sharing gambit stalled.
The Obama administration now wants Karzai to gain public approval by
reforming his regime and curbing the rampant corruption. Obama has
reportedly told Karzai that proof of his commitment to such efforts ‘is
not going to be in words, but is going to be in deeds’. The
personification of corruption that pervades the regime is the
president’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai who has been charged with playing
a central role in the country’s booming drug trade. He is, however, a
key asset of the US Central Intelligence Agency, which has allegedly
placed him on its payroll. His services to the agency include organizing
a local ‘strike force’ for use to assassinate suspected insurgents and
providing CIA operatives with facilities in Kandhar, whose
administration he heads. It’s proven that the US occupation has been the
most corrupting factor in Afghanistan.
It has depended on such figures as Karzai from the outset, strengthening
the power of corrupt warlords, who were responsible for civil strife in
the country that had led to the emergence of Taliban as the alternate
force. Interestingly, narcotics trafficking has increased dramatically
since the US invaded the country in 2001. Afghanistan’s minister for
combating narcotics, General Khodaidad Khodaidad, pointed out recently
that the bulk of the drugs are passing through two provinces that are
under the control of US and other NATO troops. Additional troops are
being sent to Afghanistan not to prop up the puppet government in Kabul,
nor to hunt down Al Qaeda, but to pursue the imperialist interests of US
in the region especially the energy-rich Central Asia as well as to
counter the influence of Iran, Russia and China. And one year after
Obama’s election as the candidate of ‘change,’ swept into office thanks
in large part to the anti-war sentiments of the American population,
what is emerging in the war torn country is a dramatic escalation in the
killing and dying in Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of an un-ending
and ever-widening war.
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