Old Factions and New Will Vie in Crafting an Afghan Constitution

The debate over Afghanistan’s new constitution is shaping up to be an epic battle between its dark past and some bright, but still elusive, possibilities.

The most important argument will decide who holds power: a parliament dominated by hard-line Islamic factions blamed for tearing the country apart, or U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai, who would answer to all Afghans, said analyst Mohammed Kazem Ahang.

“The old factions are trying their best to win,” Ahang, dean of journalism at Kabul University, said in an interview Friday. “Everyone in this country knows they are playing all sorts of politics, so that they can have the delegates on their side.”

A loya jirga, or traditional grand council, was scheduled to start debating a draft constitution today, but the opening was postponed until Sunday, the third delay of the debate that was supposed to begin in October. The latest holdup is to give delegates more time to reach Kabul, the capital, organizers said.

Agreeing on a new constitution is a key step toward Afghanistan’s first democratic elections, scheduled for June. Continued fighting and lack of security in much of Afghanistan threaten to delay that vote too.

When the rhetorical battle over the draft constitution finally begins, the delegates will be divided into two main camps, Ahang said.

On one side will be factions of moujahedeen, or holy warriors, that have dominated Afghanistan since the guerrillas defeated Soviet troops in 1989 after a decade-long war.

The moujahedeen faction leaders, whom many Afghans blame for a civil war that ravaged the country and led to extremist Taliban rule in the late 1990s, want a strong parliament and are confident they will dominate it, Ahang said.

Their opponents are backing the draft constitution that Karzai wants passed. It would put most power in the hands of a president modeled in part on the U.S. presidency: a commander in chief, directly elected by the people.

Under the current draft, an Afghan president would also have the authority to declare states of emergency, appoint government ministers and an attorney general, and name judges to a Supreme Court, in consultation with the National Assembly’s lower house. The president would also appoint a third of the members in an upper house.

Karzai says he won’t run for election if the new constitution determines Afghanistan will have a prime minister chosen by parliament, forcing any president to share most of his power.

The moujahedeen factions argue that vesting too much power in a single leader will only lead to more conflict. Karzai and his supporters insist that strong central authority is the only way to salvage Afghanistan after 24 years of war fed by factional fighting.

Former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who oversaw much of the devastating civil war in the 1990s, is cooperating closely with radical Islamist Ustad Abdul Rasul Sayyaf in a bid to sway the loya jirga vote, Ahang said.

“The real risk is the Islamization of Afghan politics,” he added.

One of the Islamists’ strongest debaters in the loya jirga is likely to be Abdul Hafiz Mansoor, a powerful Kabul delegate loyal to Rabbani and his Jamiat-i-Islami faction.

“The main thing I want is that parliament must have the most power in its hands, and this is something that not only I say, but the people, too,” Mansoor said in an interview Friday.

“And this is the real meaning for democracy,” added Mansoor, chief editor of Payam-e-Mujahid, or Voice of the Holy Warriors, newspaper. “Most of the delegates have the same idea as I do. It’s very interesting that the international community is making a show of democracy, but acting in favor of despotism.”

A strong presidency would only create fierce competition among leaders who crave the power that such an office promises, maintained Mansoor. And in a society as fractured as Afghanistan, that would invite disaster, he said.

“It is something very natural that if one post is very strong, then definitely that post will be very attractive, and each and every political leader will try to get that post,” he said. “This will create conflicts and chaos.

“We’ll have security if we decrease these scuffles and we can decrease it in only one way,” Mansoor added. “And that is to make the powers much less attractive.”

Many here expect a passionate debate that could take weeks to be resolved. Before the assembly had even convened, delegates were already arguing Friday when loya jirga officials tried to set down a few ground rules.

The first would break the assembly’s 500 delegates into 10 discussion groups that would try to resolve differences over the main issues and then reconvene for a final debate and vote.

“I think they are afraid of them gathering in one group,” Mansoor said.

Karzai’s opponents also insisted that 50 delegates chosen by Karzai should only be allowed to offer advice in the debates, and not vote on the constitution’s final draft, Mansoor said.

“Kabul has 3 million people and 32 delegates,” he said. “Karzai is only one person and he selected 50 delegates.”

Under the third contentious rule, the loya jirga’s president would be appointed. That would allow a Karzai loyalist to shape the debate by cutting off speakers or ruling on matters of procedure, Mansoor said. He wants delegates to decide who leads their assembly.

“I don’t know whether they will accept that or not, and I also don’t know what will happen if they don’t accept our suggestions, but we don’t want the loya jirga to fail and we don’t want the people of Afghanistan to come out with nothing,” he said.

Other issues in the constitutional debate include demands that Afghanistan be ruled by Islamic law, or Sharia, and that the guarantees of women’s rights be watered down to appease strong opposition in conservative areas.

There is still hope that more moderate leaders in the loya jirga can hold sway, but by sheer numbers, they will be in the minority, Ahang said.

“The United States of America is trying her best to do something good for this country,” the professor said. “Otherwise, she may probably lose a lot. I’m worried, actually. I’m thinking every single night and day about the badness of this politics. It’s really a tricky business.”