Afghan cabinet delays stoke worry, frustration

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, center, sits next to Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah,
left, at an event for the Afghan Womens Empowerment Grants Program in Kabul on
Nov. 8. (Rahmat Gul/AP)

By Pamela ConstableDecember 23
KABUL Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is famously impatient with delays and
dallying. He runs meetings with clockwork precision, rebukes latecomers and once
reportedly even locked the door on a deputy minister who showed up 10 minutes after
the appointed hour.
So why, frustrated and worried Afghans are asking, has Ghani yet to form a
cabinet after nearly three months in office, breaking his own deadlines three times and
failing to make a single permanent appointment except that of his national security
adviser?
This question matters for reasons far greater than the frenzy of speculation over who

will get which post that is consuming Kabuls political, intellectual and media circles.
One reason is the staggering array of problems confronting Afghanistan, including
terrorism, corruption, poverty and joblessness. As Western forces finalize their
withdrawal and international donors consider future aid commitments, the creeping
sense of paralysis and stalemate in the new government is worrying many observers.
We have people living in frozen tents and bomb blasts going off, while everyone
argues over what is mine and what is yours, analyst Farooq Bashar said. People want
to see a strong and unified government, but everything is on hold. There is no
investment, and all the key positions are being held by caretakers. This cannot go on
much longer. The Taliban is waiting on the corner.
Mahmad Omar, 27, a butcher, expressed
disillusionment with the government and
said his business in central Kabul has
plummeted because customers are too afraid
to shop.
We thought everything would change for
the better when the new president came, but
the opposite happened, he said. Now they
tell us everything will change when the
cabinet comes, but it has taken much too
long. It is a terrible failure when the leaders
are in conflict with themselves.
President Ashraf Ghani, speaking during a joint
news conference in Kabul on Dec. 6, has
promised a complete overhaul of Afghanistans
government to root out corruption and
incompetence. (Rahmat Gul/AP)

Another reason for public concern is that the

lack of visible progress on high-level
appointments suggests that the national
unity government, a power-sharing
arrangement between Ghani and top rival Abdullah Abdullah brokered by the United
States after a disputed election, is not working.
The forced marriage was uneasy from the start, with Abdullah demanding prime
ministerial powers as chief executive and Ghani insisting on presidential primacy. It is
also a foreign-engineered setup outside the Afghan constitution that is scheduled to
last only two years, making it internally fragile and vulnerable to outside attack.
Things are stuck, and this raises the whole issue of whether the government is
constitutional or not, said Moeen Marastial, a politician and former campaign aide to
Ghani. There are still fundamental differences between them, but they know they
have to work things out, and I am positive they will, because if they fail we will end up
back in a civil war.

Ghani has said little in public about the delays, but his aides insist that things are
progressing relatively rapidly, given the disarray and corruption in public agencies that
his administration inherited and the complexity of forming a cabinet that balances job
demands from supporters of both men with Ghanis pledges of reform and
competence.
Nazifullah Salarzai, Ghanis chief spokesman, said in an interview this week that the
president is determined to build a cabinet that can function and deliver, instead of
doling out posts as peacekeeping political spoils. He said that Ghani and Abdullah are
working well together on the process and that the first group of nominees will be
announced within a week or two; Abdullah made a similar statement last week.
Ghani dismissed all cabinet members from his predecessors administration after
taking office and temporarily replaced them with their deputies. Critics said this has
left huge areas of government, including critical ones such as security, in a state of drift
and confusion. The caretakers have the privileges but dont feel the responsibility,
Bashar said.
Several analysts and Ghani supporters said the major stumbling block is that Abdullah
has promised too many posts to powerful allies he cannot afford to ignore, especially
ethnic Tajiks, who have controlled the key defense and interior ministries for years.
They said Abdullah has demanded the right to choose half of all ministers, governors,
ambassadors and district leaders.
Confidants of Abdullah acknowledged the 50-50 demand but said Ghani is insisting on
too many prerequisites for each candidate. They also noted that the president, an
ethnic Pashtun, faces pressure from leaders of other ethnic groups who supported his
bid, including former militia boss Abdurrashid Dostum, whom Ghani once denounced
as a thug but later made his running mate to secure votes from Dostums ethnic Uzbek
base.
Dr. Abdullah is the one being patient. He was ready with all his proposed names one
month ago, but Dr. Ghani was not, said Maulana Farid, an informal adviser to
Abdullah. We are not in the opposition anymore, and we dont want the unity
government to break, he added, but the president created this problem for himself,
by focusing on small things instead of the broad picture. He should know this is
Afghanistan, where you can never predict how slow the traffic will be.
While the high-level sniping and speculation continue, many Afghans in the capital
said they are far less concerned about who wins which positions than about getting
officials in place and in action.
Both Abdullah and Ghani are the same for me. We just want a government that will
work for the people, said Noor Mahmad, 62, who owns an antique jewelry shop in the

city. The poor are sad and desperate, and those with money are waiting to see what
happens with the cabinet. If the government doesnt start to work, nothing will move.

Pamela Constable covers issues related

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