Afghanistan's Falling Political Culture
Afghanistan’s failing Political Culture
December 3rd, 2014
This article has been produced by the efforts of the following members:
Nathaniel Sukhdeo - Team Member Examining the Afghanistan-Pakistan Region
Jeremiah Pariag - Team Member Examining the Afghanistan-Pakistan Region
Since 2001, Afghanistan has had a test of “walking the tight rope” when it comes to democracy. It keeps trying to cross it but simply falls off the rope every time. Last week, Chief Executive Officer of Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah, denied claims that there would be the introduction of seven new ministers to the House of Representatives as part of the newly formed unity government. This is Afghanistan’s first experiment with a reformed democracy, introducing a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to, in short, balance the powers of the head office, known as the President.[i]
The concept of an institutionalized CEO is very new to Afghanistan. This position was created in only September 2014 after a dispute of who actually won the election – Ashraf Ghani or Abdullah Abdullah. This dispute was stemmed in many accusations of cheating and fraud, effectively putting the legitimacy of the entire election into question[ii]. Due to the want to revamp Afghanistan into a democratic state, President Obama and the United States government supported the decision that the losing candidate be the title of CEO in order to ensure that all parties were pleased.[iii] The result of this was Ghani assuming the role of President, and Abdullah being given the position of CEO[iv]. Though this idea initially seemed like the best solution, due to the fact that both Ghani and Abdullah share very different opinions on the future of Afghanistan, there have been many disagreements between the two that have hindered democracy.
The main issue comes as the President and CEO try to balance a new ministry in the war torn country, but they come from two different ideologies as to how the country should be run. The positions that were up for dispute were those of: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defense, Minister of Interior, and National Director of Security. Neither official can agree on the candidate selection, which will only regress Afghanistan's progress towards that of being a stable democratic state. Due to this, there is a clear conflict within the local government. Though the CEO, on paper, does have significantly less power than the President, both are very influential men in the region with a great amount of political sway[v]. Going forward, if Ghani and Abdullah are not able to be cohesive and collaboratively work together towards a unified nation, more internal political tension will be created, resulting in another step backwards.
