New parliament faces many challenges

Covered with dust before a handcart full of wet cement, 30-year-old Mohammad Ibrahim waits to deliver his load to bricklayers busy constructing the new parliament building in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "It is a historic moment for me that I am cementing the bricks of the new parliament, which will host the representatives of my country,” Ibrahim said. Ibrahim is one of the scores of dust-covered labourers working on the brand new parliamentary building in western Kabul. Final certified results of the landmark parliamentary polls came out on Saturday. As expected, they indicate those who will legislate from the new building will be a mixture of anti-Soviet resistance leaders, warlords, the remnants of previous pro-Moscow regimes, businessmen connected with the lucrative opium trade, religious conservatives and even members of the Taliban. Not exactly the fresh start many Afghans had hoped for after decades of conflict. "More than 60 percent of the winning candidates are former warlords responsible for decades of bloodshed in the country," Abdul Hamid Mubarez, former deputy minister of information and culture, said. Observers have attributed the low voter turnout in September's parliamentary election partly to the fact that such individuals were standing. Human rights activists had earlier warned that more than half of the winning candidates in the parliamentary polls would be former warlords linked to illegal armed groups. Indeed, the United Nations, a key financial supporter and organiser of the poll, has admitted the presence of the old guard in the new legislature is a worry. "It is difficult, after a long period of war, to have elections and totally exclude people who may have backgrounds that are undesirable," Adrian Edwards, a spokesman of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told reporters last week. Nonetheless, there is optimism that Afghanistan's new democratic order will help change figures from the past more used to the gun than peaceful negotiation. "I think the important point here is that you're bringing people with such pasts into a forum where they will have to follow certain democratic and peaceful norms," the UN official said. On concerns that new parliamentarians could use their position to grant an amnesty for those guilty of past crimes, Edwards maintained that the UN was working with the government on setting up a system of "transitional justice" to deal with past abuses. It's an issue Ahmad Nader Nadery, commissioner of Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), is very concerned about. “Membership of parliament should not provide immunity from war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mechanisms must be established for dealing with the past if we are going to promote and protect human rights in Afghanistan,” he noted. Malalai Joya, an Afghan women's rights activist and a winning candidate for the Wolesi Jirga (lower house of parliament) from the western province of Farah, gained 7,813 votes. She was also the elected representative for Farah province in the previous constitutional Loya Jirga, set up to plan a political way forward after the Taliban. She caused an uproar with her criticisms of warlord leaders, calling them criminals. “Definitely some of the winning candidates are dangerous gunmen, threatening the country’s fragile democracy and the implementation of the constitution. Many still oppose equality between men and women," Joya said. Interesting enough, one positive sign some analysts have identified is the lack of unity and a common political platform among many of those elected, particularly among former warlords and military leaders. "These members are not representing one common political platform but rather their own interests, as they have always done. This may give a chance to those moderate and progressive elements in the parliament to work for change, if they can unite," local analyst Qasim Akhgar, said. Others think the new parliament will eventually shake down into two main groups: one supporting President Hamid Karzai and the other comprised of members of the former Northern Alliance (NA) who eventually overthrew the Taliban with foreign assistance in late 2001, such as Mohammad Yunus Qanooni, Hajji Mohammad Mohaqiq and Abdul Rasoul Sayyaf. “The group supporting Karzai will be playing the leading role in parliament, given his power, authority and popularity,” Akhgar predicted, adding that technocrats, moderate parliamentarians and some former jihadi leaders would probably fall in line behind Karzai as the best vehicle for developing Afghanistan. "Without a moderate leader like Karzai, the West will pack up and go home, that is clear to all right now," he said. Devastating by decades of violence, outside observers see a return to democracy as key to Afghanistan's long-term reconstruction and stability.