Afghan President to Replace Almost Entire Cabinet

I consider myself an optimist on Afghanistan (in relative terms), but the news that Afghan president Hamid Karzai will replace almost his entire cabinet nearly knocked me off my computer chair. I had heard rumors this was in the works, but didn't believe they were true, at least not entirely. It appears they were.

According to the Globe and Mail, Karzai is expected to keep only five of his 26 current cabinet members. Replacements will be chosen "based on merit, rather than clout." In other words, more technocrats and fewer former militia commanders and corruption kingpins.

Some Afghans worry that expelled cabinet members could retaliate violently, worsening instability in the country. “That is the great fear among the people,” said Khalid Pashtun, an MP with ties to Karzai. “But that fear is outweighed by the hope that he doesn't pick the warlords and drug lords again.”

In its latest brief on the fallout from Afghanistan's fraud-ridden August 2009 presidential election, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit argued, "Since perceptions of the electoral process are so closely tied to the government formed from it, it is important to note that for many Afghans this election cycle will not be over until a new cabinet and governors are announced by Karzai and confirmed by parliament," and concluded that "if some of the most notorious figures that continue to influence Afghan politics are again given important positions it will only further demonstrate to Afghans the weakness of rule of law in the country and the ways in which the democratic process has been corrupted."

The cabinet purge is being seen as a late-hour attempt by the Karzai government to fulfill its promises under the Afghanistan Compact, the 51-nation framework that established goals for human rights, rule of law and anti-corruption measures for Afghanistan.

It is also tied to the recently-launched anti-corruption push being led by the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption in Afghanistan, a new anti-corruption body backed by the FBI and the United Kingdom's Serious Organized Crime Agency. A whopping fifteen current and former cabinet ministers are being investigated for alleged corruption, Afghanistan's attorney general recently announced.

New cabinet members must be approved by the increasingly assertive Afghan parliament, and some parliamentarians have indicated they won't go easy on the nominees this time.

Shukria Barakzai, a reformist member of the lower house and likely nominee to head the ministry of women's affairs, blames Karzai for allowing corruption to run wild in his government. "The president is responsible for the problem, and he has to be responsible for the solution," Barakzai said. "At the end of the day, we accept or reject his candidates."

An Afghan friend of mine close to the parliament remarked on my facebook posting of the Globe and Mail article, "President Karzai is really influenced by these warlords and I don't know why he fears of them, since they cant do anything against him and his government. He should really get rid of them now!"

[Photo: UNODC.]