JOIN USJust a few weeks into his tenure, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai has already delivered on some big issues.
Afghanistan’s new president, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, is a man in a hurry to break from his predecessor’s governing style. Best not make him late. He drove the point home this month when he started a meeting without the prominent and widely respected interior minister, Umar Daudzai. Daudzai showed up a few minutes later, and was promptly barred from entry.
Ghani Ahmadzai will also be running a leaner palace. The lavish dinners that were a hallmark of President Hamid Karzai’s meetings - and are a cherished tradition among many Afghan officials, for that matter - have been slashed. Ghani Ahmadzai wants to impart the message that palace meetings are for business, not pleasure.
Just a few weeks into his tenure, Ghani Ahmadzai has already delivered on some big issues, including signing a long-term troop deal with the United States. But he is also signalling the direction of his presidency with a host of smaller stylistic changes, most of them unpublicised but detailed in interviews with Afghan and American officials. Although most of Ghani Ahmadzai’s changes so far have been relatively small, the implications may not be.
In a country known for perilous divisions, building broad coalitions is often a precondition for progress. His predecessor, Karzai, was a master at using a courtly style to keep rivals working together, keenly aware that in Afghanistan, guests expect to be fed and tradition trumps expedience. He made time for the politics. Ghani Ahmadzai, on the other hand, is all about efficiency and building institutions. And his desire to move fast is coupled with a famously quick temper. There is a concern among some here that his temperament, Western style and didactic approach, sharpened in a career at the World Bank and in academia, could rub the Afghan official class the wrong way.
“This guy is speeding ahead on a very bumpy road,” said a senior Afghan ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of angering the president. “Only the car is not ready for that speed, especially when you don’t have anyone sitting next to you to tell you to be careful.”
“Right now, he is focusing 95 per cent of his time on institutions and 5 per cent of his time on politics,” said one former Afghan official, speaking privately to avoid appearing to criticise the president. “There needs to be more of a balance.” Ghani Ahmadzai’s supporters say that such fears are misguided and that his efforts to signal a change in approach on women’s rights, for instance, exemplified by his wife’s higher-profile role in public life, are meant to be an example of forward-thinking leadership.
“He is very cognizant of past failures in Afghanistan - of presidents, kings and other leaders,” said Daoud Sultanzoy, an adviser to Ghani Ahmadzai. “He will not do anything that the public is not ready for, but he will also lead and will not allow dark forces to derail progress in this country.”
There have been signs that Ghani Ahmadzai will sometimes bend to popular will, even when it runs counter to Western mores. For instance, he refused to intervene to stay the recent executions of five convicted rapists, despite the pleading of human rights organisations. Some have speculated that Ghani Ahmadzai’s rough-edged style could be tempered by the presence of Abdullah Abdullah, his bitter election rival who is now the chief executive of a unity government with Ghani Ahmadzai.
Abdullah led the political opposition through most of the Karzai years, and is a far more natural politician. Ghani Ahmadzai’s ideas coupled with Abdullah’s political skills could be a formidable combination, experts and supporters of both men say.
Reaching out
But no one is holding their breath for that. It took heavy pressure from the US to bring the two men together in the same government. And though they meet three times a week to discuss plans, the rough road to agreement on everything from ministerial appointments to Abdullah’s exact role still lies ahead. Despite the concerns about Ghani Ahmadzai’s sometimes brusque style, he has been diligent about reaching out to officials.
During the recent Eid al-Adha holiday, Ghani Ahmadzai called every Afghan Army Corps commander, as well as each of the country’s 34 provincial governors.
More recently, he has been convening large gatherings of provincial officials and elders for video conferences with the Kabul administration. Last week, for instance, a throng of nearly 1,000 dignitaries gathered in the governor’s compound in Kunduz, a province hit by a surprising surge of Taliban violence in recent weeks.
Leaders from across Kunduz, some living under Taliban rule, gathered to see the new president. At exactly 11.20 am, as scheduled, Ghani Ahmadzai appeared on the screen with a row of cabinet ministers arrayed behind him. On cue, he allowed the provincial governor and other leaders exactly 10 minutes each to speak.
Ghani Ahmadzai then directed his ministers to brief the crowd, while he diligently scribbled in his notebook. The men spoke for five minutes each, detailing their plans for the province. Having listened patiently, Ghani Ahmadzai then claimed the final five minutes. At exactly 12.20 pm, the conference concluded.