The Cabinet; So Far… Not So Good!
In democratic governmental systems, when a government transfers power to a new government, the first 100 days of the new government is considered as the period that the government shows its commitment for main duties, and the governmental officials take the first steps towards achieving what they had promised during the election.
In such systems, there is trust between the head of the government and the people, but here compared to the time of election there are not negative changes visible, because still people think that the government still needs time for fulfilment of their promises during the election, and they are still hopeful for the future.
Reduction of Public Trust on the National Unity Government:
A survey, about first hundred days of the national unity government shows that the public trust on the two leaders of the unity government has dramatically decreased, and the main reason for the decrease of public trust on the government is delaying the announcement of the cabinet.
People believe that time consumption of election process, and then delaying the cabinet are the main reasons for worsening security, economy, and unemployment rate in the country. Even within the parliament voices raised against both national unity government teams, and the civil society also threatened the unity government for protesting against it.
At the beginning, it was said that the delay was for choosing proper personalities for the ministries, but when it took more than required time, there were some rumors that there is a conflict between the president and the CEO, which was true to some extent. There were also rumors that the unity government offered posts in the cabinet for the Taliban, and expect to hear back from them. This rumor was strongly rejected by a newsletter published by the Taliban.
Both the leaders promised that they would consider some principles for nomination of ministers:
- The principle of specialization and wise manager.
- Ethnic composition of the cabinet.
- Political affiliation.
- Not being accused of corruption.
- Not being minister in last thirteen years.
The day before the declaration of the cabinet, the advisor of the president on legal affairs explicitly said that the influence of powerful people was one of the reasons for delay in the announcing of the cabinet, but he did not mention the names of the powerful people.
After 104 days:
After 104 days, from the inaugural ceremony of the national unity government, finally the list of the cabinet unveiled and ended the pending. But ending the pending is not ending the concerns of the general public about the future of the country. But the main question was, was this delay justified to introduce such a cabinet?
The claims that delay in the announcement of cabinet was because of selecting knowledgeable and honest personalities became under question, while the nominee of the ministry of agriculture was claimed to be one of the wanted of Interpol, and he is claimed for not paying taxes in Estonia. Was not there any necessity felt to refer to the wanted list of Interpol for more understanding of the candidates for the cabinet?
The candidate for the ministry of finance Jailani Popal rejected his nomination and Aklil Hakimi, who was the ambassador of Afghanistan in the U.S., declared his candidacy instead of Popal. Mahmood Saikal, who was candidate for the ministry of energy and water, replaced by another person by the name of Abdul Rahman Salahi, who was not present in the Parliament during their introduction to the parliament for vote of confidence. This issue also shows that the delay of the cabinet was because of conflict among groups, not because of introduction of knowledgeable and honest personalities by two teams.
No doubt that when two opposing teams are obliged to make a unity government, conflict among them is natural. But now it is clear that the conflict over the cabinet was not only conflict between the two teams, but also force of power holders for nomination of their own personalities for the cabinet. The challenges of the unity government are not only the conflict between the heads of the two teams, but also conflict among groups, because during the election the heads of two teams promised their members that would be possible if one of them was the winner, but when both of the teams were declared as winners and the power was divided between them, implementation of the promises was so tough.
Problem of Proposed Cabinet with the Parliament:
ON January 20th, President Ashraf Ghani went to parliament to introduce the cabinet. The meeting that was held for the purpose of introduction of the cabinet, unlike usual President Ashraf Ghani has given hand to all the MPs, which took time, and later on he spent two hours for explanation of the plans of the government. He pointed out to the MPs that he respects their decisions regarding the trust vote for the suggested cabinet.
As promised, there is no one visible in the suggested cabinet, who has the experience of ministry; but there are old officials, and deputy ministers. As we know that ministry is a political position, and in previous regime most of the executive duties of the ministries were related to the deputy ministers.
But, earlier the MPs declared that they will not give vote of confidence to the dual citizenship holder personalities and they will not allow them even to enter the hall of the Parliament. If the MPs keep their words, so half of the cabinet will not receive trust vote.
Another objection of some of the MPs is that there is not ethnical equality considered in the cabinet, the issue which is also objected outside the parliament. The ex-minister of the ministry of energy and water and one of the famous Mujahidin commanders Mohammad Islamil, who was campaigning for Abdullah Abdullah, in an interview with a private television channel said that the positions of the previous Mujahidin in the security sector is replaced by leftists, and there is no minister elected from some of the important Western provinces. He said that it is an advisory government, and the unity government is illegitimate.
On the other hand, some MPs blame the team of the president that he has bribed to MPs to give vote of confidence to the ministers that he accept and reject the ones that he does not like, so based on this claim if the candidates elected by the team of Abdullah Abdullah do not get vote of confidence, so it will increase the conflict between the two teams, and it will play an important role in the destruction of the cooperation of both the teams in the future.
As it is said, although late but Good “der aayad durust aayad”, but the cabinet of Afghanistan is against it. It means although late but not so good.
The End