By When I saw President Karzai last week talking about peace in the coming two years, I was shocked for a while; in a country where events change rapidly and reports change in seconds,
By When I saw President Karzai last week talking about peace in the coming two years, I was shocked for a while; in a country where events change rapidly and reports change in seconds, the president’s speech delivered with such confidence was surprising.
The president was consulting with representatives of Afghan civil society on the selection of new commissioners of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, and the talks that were taking place encouraged him to share some of his anxiety. Who was to know he was to answer questions which have risen in his mind regarding the future of the country, same as rise in the mind of everybody?
The question he asked of the gathering has given me hope that here is a president who at least thinks about the upcoming 30 months of the country, when I had thought, wrongly, that he didn’t think even about the coming one year! People can be so right or wrong.
Oh! His question? He asked the audience: if Fawzia Kofi, Shokoria Barakzai, Hekmatyar and Mullah Mohammad Omar would nominate themselves candidates in the 2014 presidential election, who will be voted most?
After a few seconds of silence the answer was: would there be security, people will vote the one who they want; but if the security situation is bad, people will vote the one who they are afraid of. Someone said and all laughed: people have voted you in the last two terms because they have found you the best among others, otherwise people would have not made the mistake that democracy allows.
The president went into deep reflection – maybe he was asking himself: “Did people make a mistake in selecting me?”
Except God, who knows what he answered to himself?
Anyhow Mr. Karzai, I hope you have a strong will and determination to bring peace to my dear country.
I wish that by drinking Indian tea, eating Iranian cake and Pakistani jam your views won’t change when you wake up tomorrow morning.
