Backing Up
Much as Hamid Karzai railed and fumed and fulminated against the unjust and unwarranted interference by Western powers in the affairs of Afghanistan, he was left, finally, with little option but to agree, however reluctantly with the final assessment of the fraudulent outcome of the August election that, he felt, should have handily brought him victory at the polls.If he is frustrated, just imagine how hopelessly frustrated those courageous Afghans are, who voted despite the very real dangers they placed themselves in, to exercise their vote.
Aside from Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, and his disappointed supporters, it is highly unlikely that most Afghan citizens have any wish to repeat the procedure of setting up polls once again. Several hundred district election monitors were dismissed as a result of their being implicated in the fraudulent proceedings. Afghans who had placed themselves in danger in the first round of voting aren't likely to repeat that drama, with the Taliban breathing hard down their backs.
And the UN and the Independent Election Commission will be in no position the second time around to ensure proper handling of the election results, as they were on the first round. Is it likely that a change might bring about less corruption and that it might result in a more capable hand at the helm of government? Not too likely. But then, a coalition government, with the two front-runners sharing governance, and in this way placating tribal antagonisms?
There is always the example of Kenya and Zimbabwe to look at, in how and whether coalition governments may work out. Dismally, in societies which are not socially advanced and emancipated from their heritage of tribal competition, resulting in social dysfunction. On the other hand, why should foreign troops do double duty in Afghanistan, on the one hand, struggling to contain the fanatical Taliban and their terrorist networks, while on the other hand, working with their diplomats and NGOs to establish a working civil infrastructure to benefit the country?
With the Taliban resurgent and claiming great swathes of Afghan territory, leaving NATO forces desperate for a turn-around it is not even likely that enough voters will brave the process to arrive at an emphatic representative majority acceptable to announce that 50%+ margin of victory for Hamid Karzai. "Why should I go and vote again? There will be explosions, suicide attacks. I don't want to die", one Kabul resident grieved.
All of this appears like nothing less than an absurd charade of democracy. Politics as played by established and confident societies bearing no resemblance whatever to the nasty realities of a country needing international assistance to heave itself out of medievalism. Bordering another country that had cultivated the very Taliban they battle, still unwilling to help stifle their advance, and themselves embroiled in a civil war with their own Pakistani Taliban.
It is as though this area of the world were sacrificed by fate, or an all-seeing, all-powerful, yet in the end helpless-to-intercede Allah, who threw his metaphorical hands up in a gesture of defeat, leaving the people to extract themselves from the stifling mire of their aspirant hopes for normalcy. When, in fact, the turmoil through which they are living is, for them, normalcy.
Labels: Terrorism, Traditions, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Friday, October 23, 2009
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