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New parliament brings disillusionment in afghanistan { December 17 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20051217-0140-afghan-dreamsofdemocracy.htmlhttp://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20051217-0140-afghan-dreamsofdemocracy.html
As Afghanistan prepares to open parliament, a mix of hope and disillusionment
By Eric Talmadge
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:40 a.m. December 17, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan – Not so long ago, Mohammad Tahir was a government official with a comfortable salary and a position in the Defense Ministry. Saturday, he sells bread from a wood shack on the side of a road.
To Tahir, democracy is a distant dream.
"It appears our country is moving in that direction," he said as just a few miles away the final preparations were being made to open Afghanistan's first parliament in more than 30 years.
"But my life is getting worse."
Though proud to be once again participating in the administration of their own government, the anticipation many Afghans feel ahead of the opening of parliament Monday is marred by deep-rooted pessimism and doubt.
Like Tahir, many cite a litany of pressing day-to-day concerns – rising unemployment and prices, long stretches without electricity, the dangers of crime and the random violence of an ongoing insurgency.
"I'm not optimistic at all," Tahir said as a group of fellow shopkeepers nearby nodded in agreement. "We've done our part. Now it is up to the politicians to do theirs."
In a historic vote, Afghans filled the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga in elections three months ago. They also elected provincial councils that then chose two-thirds of the 102-seat upper chamber, the Meshrano Jirga.
President Hamid Karzai, a popular figure here, appointed the remaining 34 members.
The elections were generally seen as a success and marked a major step forward after the ouster of the hardline Taliban regime four years ago. It will be the first time parliament has convened in this war-ravaged country since 1973.
The elections were even more impressive considering the hurdles Afghanistan continues to face. After three decades of occupation and civil war, its economy is in shambles and its security is in large part in the hands of the 20,000 U.S. troops and thousands of international peacekeepers deployed here. Bombings and suicide attacks are a fact of daily life.
So everyone agrees the road ahead will be bumpy.
Many critics – and average Afghans such as Tahir – say the legitimacy of the parliamentary elections was undermined by the government's failure to keep warlords from strong-arming their way into office.
"The opening of parliament will not be viewed by many Afghans as a positive step," said Saman Zia-Zarifi, the research director for the Asia division of New York-based Human Rights Watch. "They will see it as a potential disaster."
Human Rights Watch has accused many of the lawmakers of rights abuses or of involvement in the drug trade, which Zia-Zarifi said gives them money, power and independence from the dictates of the central government.
NATO's top operational commander, U.S. Gen. James L. Jones, said this week that drugs are a greater security threat in Afghanistan than a Taliban resurgence. Opium production has boomed since the fall of the Taliban, stoking fears that Afghanistan – source of 80 percent of the world's heroin – is becoming a state financed by the illegal drug trade.
Human Rights Watch has singled out a number of politicians for abuses including one-time Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, a former Northern Alliance leader and warlord; Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, another powerful militia leader; and Abdul Salaam Rocketi, a former Taliban commander.
"People look at the parliament and they think, 'All these guys are back,'" Zia-Zarifi said. "The day parliament opens, people are going to look at whether the warlords are going to behave themselves, and what is the government going to do about it."
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