The Taliban's plan for an inclusive government is similar to the "Mokhkash plan" of the Karzai and Ghani era, which is not only ineffective but also a big deception.
Author: Rustam Rushangar, analyst, especially for "Sangar"
Mawlawi Kabir, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Taliban administration, said the group's government ensures the participation of ethnic groups. He compared the self-declared Taliban government to the previous elected government, and citing the example of some Tajik, Hazara, and Uzbek Taliban holding unconditionally exemplary positions in the government of this group, raised the question: why was the previous government called inclusive, while their government is not?
Before talking about Mawlawi Kabir's statements, it must be remembered that he was recently, suddenly and unexpectedly appointed to the position of head of the cabinet of the self-proclaimed Taliban administration, which gave rise to many unanswered questions. Two serious suggestions have been made about his election: first, he, as an obedient and flattering man, was appointed by Mullah Haibatullah to govern Kabul in order to oppose the Haqqani and Mullah Yaqub clans in his absence; Secondly, he was appointed as a result of external pressure (USA, Pakistan, and Qatar) in a parallel role with Mullah Haibat, who is likely to become more powerful in the future and challenge Mullah Khaibat's monopoly rule. Even this not-so-unbelievable possibility can be safely assumed that the election of Mawlawi Kabir as prime minister is an unofficial announcement of the end of the political life of an unknown person named Mullah Haibatullah, the leader of the Taliban!
But where did Mawlawi Kabir get the idea that a self-proclaimed Taliban administration is an inclusive government?
It is unlikely that Mawlawi Kabir does not know that the self-proclaimed administration of this group is not only not non-inclusive, but is strictly mono-ethnic, mono-group, monopoly, and personal. So, when he knows, but makes these statements and the so-called mystical ignorance, in this case, it should be said that the new prime minister is against the participation of ethnic groups in the government. Therefore, his recent statements should be seen as the end of hope for those who thought that the Taliban would eventually come to terms with Afghanistan's concrete social realities over time.
Let's not forget that Mawlawi Kabir is the first Taliban official to be promoted to a senior level. His appointment as head of the cabinet could be seen as the end of the Taliban's period of rule, which the group has so far referred to as an interim government or administration. Mawlawi Kabir is expected to make a number of changes to the government and in the process of these changes, the issue of ethnic participation will be raised.
With this definition, it can be concluded, given the recent statements of Mawlawi Kabir, that there will be no participation of ethnic groups in the permanent and basic rule of the Taliban, which will be gradually carried out thereafter. In other words, the veil of deception by the Taliban to instill hope in a group of non-Pashtun politicians who are inclined to participate in the Taliban government should be considered torn down. In all media discussions, the Taliban spoke about the indefinite period of abandonment of the interim administration and its effectiveness. They told their critics that after the departure of the interim administration, changes and reforms in the field of ethnic participation and the solution of other political and administrative problems are expected, and everything will flourish, so to speak.
Assuming that Mawlawi Kabir and other Taliban leaders do not really know what an inclusive government is and what it means, the concept of ethnic participation can be explained as follows:
We have two types of participation: 1) formal or symbolic and 2) real or legal.
Formal or symbolic participation:
It is a partnership in which, based on its one-dimensional and one-ethnic structure and order, the core group and holder of power elect certain people from among different ethnic groups at their own discretion and appoints them to some government seats. This type of participation is actually a quality color that is painted on a defective object. It's like painting iron with gold and selling it as gold. As the name implies, in such a system there is participation only in appearance and name, but there is no participation in meaning, essence, and internally. In such a system, one ethnic group is the owner and holder of power, while the rest are guests, tenants, and servants. In the governments of Karzai and Ghani, de-participation was the desire of the government leadership, and those two perfidious figures in the political history of Afghanistan have galloped in this direction as much as they could, but now there is no time to return to their shameful history.
Actual Participation:
It is a partnership in which all ethnic groups have a share in the government according to their population. Real participation is not individual, quantitative, predetermined, tasteful, and political, but rather collective, qualitative, selective, systematic, and legal. That is, participation is not so simple that certain people who somehow seized power come to appoint certain people from other ethnic groups to the positions they want in a political and tasteful approach. Rather, one should be aware that participation is a complex process. The process in which participation is governed by accepted principles, rules, and criteria. In other words, real participation has five negative and five positive conditions. To make the definition more functional and measurable, actual participation may also be referred to as legal participation. This means that participation is based on the law.
The executive mechanism of legal participation or actual participation is as follows:
1 - Before the action and implementation of participation, a law of participation should be created;
2 - The participation law should be one of the chapters of the constitution;
3 - The mechanism of participation should be clearly defined in the constitution;
4 - The constitution should provide for a structure that implements participation and facilitates it;
5 - The constitution must be approved by real representatives of ethnic groups in an open mode;
7 - The constitution must clearly define the competence of the persons involved;
8 - It should be stated in the constitution that the people involved are real representatives of ethnic groups and are elected in intra-ethnic democratic elections and nominated to participate in the government.
Simply put, there are four main principles in real/legal participation: the first is the legal mechanism of partnership; second, the representativeness of the participants; third, the legal qualifications of representatives; A structure that implies participation and facilitates it.
It should be said here that the principle of the representativeness of the participants is very important and requires one more detailed discussion. In the governments of Karzai and Ghani, which were ostensibly inclusive, we had no real representatives of ethnic groups, but ethnic factionalism. Those who, under certain circumstances, in the absence of the people, took the places of political representation of the people and made the people's values a trade for personal gain. Anti-participation governments also played a key role in the growth and expansion of ethnic functionaries under the name of ethnic representatives.
So in a Taliban structure that lacks a constitution, has an absolute leader, has a centralized structure focused on individuals, and power is forcibly usurped by a certain group, participation does not make sense, and in the most optimistic case, it is inclusive, then no better than " Mokhkash plan. A plan that the Karzai and Ghani governments also acted on, and that led to the government falling into the hands of the Taliban.
EXPLANATION: Sabahuddin Mohkash, an official in President Ghani's administration, proposed a plan whereby non-Pashtuns - Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, and others - should be excluded from the presidential administration, and decorative and incompetent representatives of these ethnic groups should be hired in their place so that they do not create problems in advancing the plans of the Pashtuns. Under public pressure, the Ghani-era court sentenced Mokhkash to prison.
So far, our audience has been Taliban leaders who ignore participation and, in general, do not understand themselves what an inclusive government is.
In addition, I also want to remind the political and military opponents of the Taliban a few points and strong and clear arguments in the discussions about participation and inclusive government. About what they should pay attention to in their approach and change their early vision. The disadvantage of their approach is that once again the opportunity to fundamentally solve the ethnic problem is lost, and it is quite clear that until this problem is solved, the war and conflict in Afghanistan will not stop.
The last twenty years have been a long journey of testing the participation of ethnic groups. The constitution to some extent recognized the participation of ethnic groups, and foreign forces also guaranteed participation, but we saw that the structure, government, and law were destroyed in a quasi-coup from within and without.
Therefore, performance assurance is very important. That is, even if a constitution is adopted that defines and fixes the participation of ethnic groups, if there are no strong executive guarantees, we cannot hope for sustainable participation of ethnic groups. The performance guarantee cannot be external. This means that the guarantees of the UN or any external force cannot be trusted. The guarantee must be internal. This guarantee is nothing but the creation of a balance of ethnic forces.
The Taliban are the irresponsible Pashtun armed forces that have now taken power because there was no one on the battlefield. Other ethnic groups should also create their own armed forces. These forces guarantee participation. In the absence of such a balancing force, any participation is a deception. The three major non-Pashtun tribes must create their own military forces and challenge the Taliban on the battlefield. Then, if the Taliban and their internal and external supporters care about the peace, stability, and unity of Afghanistan, they will be ready to sit down with you at the negotiating table regarding the partnership system that you agree on. Otherwise, under the name of participation, they will disperse your ranks and create a formally symbolic inclusive government that will use you until a certain time to destroy you, and after that participation is permissible even at a symbolic level. This is a clear and simple lesson in the political history of Afghanistan over the past hundred years.