Individual Interests Threat to Development in Afghanistan

In late 2004 Ramazan Bashardost resigned from office as Afghanistan's planning minister after his controversial critique of the NGO's work in the country. In this interview with Qantara.de, he talks about the newly elected parliament and its agenda

During his time as Afghanistan's planning minister, Ramazan Bashardost, openly and severely critisized the international NGO's (Non-Governmental Organisations) of misspending funds. Ensuing a row with President Hamid Karzai over the planned closing of 2,000 NGO offices Bashardost resigned from office. Mr Bashardost, however, struck a chord among Afghans frustrated at the slow pace of change and gained a seat in Afghanistan's parliament. In this interview with Abdul-Ahmad Rashid, the former minister talks about the powers of parliament, the influence of the war lords and the priorities of Afghanistan's economic policy.

Which are the most important issues for Afghanistan to be worked on during this term of parliament, the first parliament after 30 years?

Ramazan Bashardost: Our parliament is composed by different political parties and we have some members of parliament from the Taliban, from the Mudschahedin, from the Communists. So we need a good manager who can manage the situation, a man that every member of parliament can trust in and who will do something for every member of parliament and not only for one party or ethnic or religious group and who is able to communicate with the international community.

What will be the biggest problem that has to be solved in the next years?

Bashardost: The most important thing in my opinion is that we must check and control the Afghan cabinet's work and the results of that work. The second element in my opinion is that we must do something for the salary of Afghan clerks and officials. The Afghan clerks' salary is very small, about 50 Dollars per month. It is not enough for a good life in Afghanistan. I think also it is very important to change the Afghan economical policy. The Afghan economic policy since Tokyo in my opinion is a wrong policy because there is not enough emphasis on the development of Afghanistan's agriculture. I would also like to clarify our relationship with the international community as well as our military relationship with the international community.

The international community provides a lot of help for Afghanistan. Do you think this is wrong?

Bashardost: It is the first time that Afghanistan received major amounts of money. It is the first time the American people, the Japanese people, the French or German, about fifty countries altogether, help the Afghan people. And they really help, they do give a lot of money from their taxes. The problem is, however, that this money is not used to solve the problems in Afghanistan.

There is a lot of corruption in Afghanistan inside certain political institutions but also the within the NGOs. A lot of money arrived in Afghanistan but it is not used to do something for ordinary Afghan people, e.g. to find jobs for them, to build universities, to build an industry, to build schools. I would like to see the Afghan parliament control who uses this money for which projects.

The NGO's philosophy is to help the poor and that the staff of NGOs are recruited from the poor people. But in fact in Afghanistan the NGO's offices are closed to the poor people who come there to complain.

Nevertheless many Afghans profit from the work of the NGOs because they provide well-paying jobs, jobs that are more lucrative than the ones with, for instance, the Afghan administration.

Bashardost: In the NGOs you don't find many poor Afghans to have a job. It is not easy for those people to find a job in these organisations. If we used the NGO money for the private sector or for private companies it would be possible to create more jobs than we have currently created by the NGOs.

What exactly would you be doing with the aid funds?

Bashardost: If we could build a dam in Afghanistan we can make much more use of our water. Our land is very rich and so we could develop the agricultural sector. A lot of young people now go to the big cities because they have do not have the opportunity of finding a job in the villages. If we had a dam and if we could use our water to cultivate the fields and acres in the countryside, we could provide work to young people in the villages so that they can stay there.

And if we gave the priority to private companies so that they could build roads or schools, for example, the private companies would be able to employ a lot of people, too.

Another major issue is that we must really fight corruption in Afghanistan. There are a lot of qualified Afghans who live abroad, who live in foreign countries, especially in the West, and there are a lot of people that would be interested to invest in Afghanistan but they don't want to do something at the moment – because of the corruption.

Do you think the elected parliament has the power to change these things or do you suspect that MPs will be working for their own profit?

Bashardost: Regarding Afghan constitutional law the Afghan parliament and especially the Chamber of Commons (i.e. the Lower House) does have a lot of power. We can control and check the cabinet's work and we can refuse a minister, for example. We can also adopt or refuse the Afghan budget. So we don't have a legal problem. It is, however, possible that we will have a political problem. The question is if the Afghan parliament will be able to use this power for the Afghan people or if it will not be able to use this power because of political reasons.

Will the parliament in Kabul be strong enough to deal with the warlords outside of Kabul in the provinces?

Bashardost: Actually there are some very influential warlords in the Afghan parliament. So, again, the question is if these warlords will work for themselves, for their own good, or for the Afghan people. If the warlords change their policy and work for the Afghan people and for the national interest it is possible that the Afghan parliament can do something good for the Afghan people; but if the warlords and the other members of the Afghan parliament work for particular ethnical or religious or political interest it will be a disaster for the Afghan people.

Interview conducted by Abdul-Ahmad Rashid

Qantara.de

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