In Afghanistan, joy in democracy
By Jim Du Bruille (for the Wenatchee World)
Here I sit on the dusty plains of Nangarhar Province in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. There are helicopters flying overhead, lizards scurrying along the walls, a mouse running across my desk. An occasional rocket blast shakes the windows, and we just had an earthquake.
Outside cars, trucks, camels, donkeys, goats and people vie for space on the narrow road headed over the Khyber Pass, about 50 miles away. Tora Bora and the Safed Koh mountains, rising to 15,000 feet are just to the south. To the north are Nuristan and the Hindu Kush mountains, joining with the Pamirs and Himalayas at the roof of the world. As I take in my surroundings, my predominant feeling is, "I am glad to be back."
In the these surroundings, at the crossroads of Asia, a nation is beginning to rise up. There is progress. Roads, schools, hospitals and businesses are being built. There was a noticeable difference in the few months I was away. There were new buildings, the roads were cleaner, there is a lot of construction and I sense more economic energy.
I have been back in Afghanistan for six weeks after spending several months at home in Wenatchee recovering from back surgery. The Board of Trustees at Wenatchee Valley College was kind enough to grant me a leave of absence from my teaching position so I could continue agricultural development work with the International Foundation of Hope here in Jalalabad. I am chief of operations for IFHope, a U.S.-based non-governmental organization that has been working in Afghanistan since 1998. IFHope has been involved in relief efforts, food aid, women's enterprise projects and health clinics and has established several schools. The primary effort the past two years has been agricultural development in Jalalabad and running a primary school in Kabul, about 90 miles to the west.
For the past 18 months IFHope has been working on a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The focus is to improve irrigation and to provide crops, technology and training to help local farmers increase their income and provide for their families. A side benefit is less incentive to grow opium poppies. IFHope has a 2 million-fruit-tree nursery on the 45 acres where our office is situated, just outside Jalalabad. We are targeting horticultural crops as the best long-term solution for increasing income
Afghanistan is in a time of great change. The first national election in history was three weeks ago. Results show Hamid Karzai winning with 55 percent of the vote. There were 18 candidates for the presidency, although Karzai (a Pashtun and current president, from Kandahar), Yunus Qanooni (a Tajik, former interior and education minister) and Gen. Rashid Dostum (an Uzbek warlord, from the north) were the major candidates. Political parties were quite active, pasting photographs of their candidate on the sides of buildings, vehicles, trees and posts. Opposing parties were just as active tearing them down. The United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) organized voter registration and the hiring and training of workers at polling sites. A very high percentage of potential voters actually registered to vote -- over 10.5 million. Over 8 million actually voted.
Prior to the election there were many security concerns. There were more checkpoints going into major cities and at polling places. I wanted to go to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to meet with some USAID officials, but the security was so extensive I decided to postpone my visit. For the week before the elections I was advised not to wander about outside. Most foreigners in Jalalabad stayed close to home, but in Kabul things were a little more relaxed.
The election went very well. Despite all the worry, there was very little violence or disruption anywhere. Only a few isolated instances were reported. There was initial concern that the wrong kind of ink was used to mark the thumbs of voters, that it could wash off, enabling people to vote again. Although the potential existed for voter fraud, mix-ups were limited.
I met with some elders from a nearby village the night of the elections. I asked one what the people thought about the event. He said they were very happy and wanted to celebrate. When I asked him why, he said the people got together and discussed the pros and cons of each candidate. It was an important discussion, affecting the future of the country and they were very happy to be able to express their opinions.
What he said next surprised me: They all decided together who their village would vote for. They came to a consensus after everybody had a chance to speak and discuss the issues. In the Afghan form of democracy, it made them very happy to agree, together, as a village.
It's not exactly one-person-one-vote but in Afghanistan their own form of democracy is taking root and the people seem very happy about it. After 25 years of invasion, civil war and fundamentalist rule, it is a most welcome development.
Although Afghans have a long history of tribal democracy, this type of national democracy is new. If the elections are seen as legitimate, and it looks like they will be, there will be an increased sense of empowerment as people exercise their right to choose their leaders. People hope that by establishing democracy the regional warlords in command of so much of the country will be replaced by leaders chosen by the people. I just had a conversation with our irrigation engineer, who explained to me how the people are sick of the warlords and want them out. They are looking to a future where rulers depend on votes instead of guns.
Unfortunately, much of the country is still ruled by these local warlords and their militias. Through force, intimidation and corruption they rose up in the wake of the Taliban. Some warlords were, and still are, funded by the United States. Many were loosely aligned against the Taliban government and were backed by the United States to drive the Taliban out of power. In fact our local warlord was given U.S. support to hunt Osama bin Laden in the mountains above Tora Bora.
These rogue rulers run semi-independent fiefdoms and have very little allegiance to the central government in Kabul. The warlords are the biggest hindrance to the development of the country, the establishment of democratic institutions and the running of society with some degree of law and order. Fortunately our local warlord is content to make his money on drugs and guns and does not hinder our activities.
After 25 years of war, most of the people are opposed to such rule and disappointed there has not been more progress in changing it. Many vote in the election as a way to influence their future. It will not be easy. Prior to the election there was intimidation, bribery and corruption. In our city of Jalalabad, several months before the election a bomb was set off near a van full of women election officials, killing and wounding several. There was concern that there would not be an adequate number of trained staff at polling places and the election would not be adequately monitored.
Despite the imperfect start, on Oct. 9 the people of Afghanistan, men and women, cast their ballots. It was a big step forward for this country. I hope it was a significant step in transforming this country from a collection of mini-kingdoms to a credible nation and will lead to a measure of self-determination and true freedom for this once-proud and noble people.
I look forward to providing another update on the progress of development in Afghanistan.
You can e-mail Jim Du Bruille at jim@ifhope.org
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