By M Reyaz,
Kabul: “I have already started missing President Karzai. When I look back, his success had been more than his mistakes,” wrote 21 year old Freshta Karim, who works with an International Organization on her Facebook after voting on April 5.
As the counting of the votes for the President of Afghanistan continues, a sort of nostalgia has gripped the people of Afghanistan for what they see as achievements of 13 years. They point to immense growth under Karzai.
President Karzai
Afghanistan opened to the outside world with lots of attraction so immediately people’s demands and expectations grew that is why many of the progresses made during his period is undermined. He may not have been responsible for everything directly, as aid and assistance of International Community largely contributed to this. Nevertheless he had his due credit too. As Ms Karim puts it, with all its shortcomings, last decade was a “golden period” for us.
From a country with hardly a radio channel during the Taliban regime, Afghanistan today has over 75 TV channels, 175 radio and about 800 publications. Afghan media has today become the most independent media in the region and in the history of Afghanistan although it was not only because of Karzai but many donors also helped. But Karzai always stood for media freedom.
While accepting that there has been overt pressure at times, Massood Sanjer, General Manager Broadcast of the largest media house Moby Group, told this reporter, “Karzai has been very supportive of free media, I think we are going to miss him.”
It was to his credit again who tried to take along everyone, including the warlords and different ethnic groups in the since he assumed power as the head of the transition government in order to integrate them and not alienate.
Editor of Kabul Post and rights activist Bashir Ahmad Fatehi said, “He brought different warlords on one platform and then contained them through democratic means, that was a big change,” for a country where for decades different warlords were dagger drawn at each other.
Karzai also blocked the anti-women bill that called for the Elimination of Violence against women by a Presidential decree and encouraged women to play larger role in society. About 11 million children are today going to schools with overall literacy rate at over 28% (43% male and 12.6% among female). On the streets of Kabul you see girls and boys going to schools without fear and there are no doubt positive changes. Several private universities are mushrooming and that is refection of increasing aspirations of Afghan students.
Millions of students are going to schools, colleges and hundreds of new schools were started. Thousands of students are going abroad for higher studies and have come back to contribute to development of the country.
Habibullah Muqbel, a post-graduate from India who is now working with the NGO Integrity Watch Afghanistan in Kabul, does not entirely agree though. He appreciates “some of the positive changes,” but is critical of his regime on accounts of his failures to deliver on critical issues of helping build economic sustainability, brining permanent peace, and particularly for his failure in negotiating with Taliban.
In fact Karzai’s son Mirwais might be the first child in the world who had been cursed as much by people, because with every terrorist attack, family of the deceased curse Karzai’s son to die in bomb blast so that he never call Taliban a brother.
With 68% of the people below the age of 30, Afghanistan is a young country with high aspirations and clearly in last 13 years stride they have come a long way and Karzai too had his role. Now that his term is ending, people share a nostalgia for him.
Afghanistan is a country that has not seen peaceful transition in over a century or so and till very last there was apprehension if at all President Karzai would side step or “do a Putin,” by assigning some important role for himself after amending the Constitution. By not fiddling with the Constitution and so far willing to stay aside and not directly interfering with the process of transition, clearly Karzai has won the hearts and minds of his countrymen.
(Author was in Afghanistan recently to cover the Presidential Election.)