Mohammad Iqbal Azizi, a soft-spoken, articulate man who earned a Master's in International Relations and has served as Director of Education for several provinces, seems to be a new kind of Karzai-appointed governor. The Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) sure hopes so.
I've seen the old breed. Last August I by chance met the governor of Nuristan who seemed so indifferent to the upcoming national election planning, he couldn't climb one set of stairs to the meeting between elders and U.S. officials. Instead, he sat eating grapes, chatting about the Cannes film festival and his career as a Kabuli diplomat.
Whereas today in Laghman, a small Eastern province of approx. 300,000, Gov. Azizi spoke earnestly, using phrases such as transparency, capacity development and line-ministry reform. If there were a mold for of a new kind of reform-minded governor, yet not a U.S. puppet, Gov. Azizi seemed to fit it. And as he told me, he'd gotten there by learning to work with the best donors. Azizi earned his stripes as a Director of Education in neighboring Nangahar, Paktiya and Wardak. He boasted of good relations with the PRT and USAID which enabled the construction of 300 schools in Nangahar. "We had a language of understanding," he said.
Azizi said his focus in Laghman is to, "activate the tribal management system." In other words, to bridge the local rule of village elders with the coalition-funded system of governance using a system called Go Green that involves checking off villages that have not logged any anti-government attack for 90 days as Green, and therefore open to coalition project monies.
(photo: Gov. Azizi talks with LTC. Possehl at the Governor's offices.)
"People are very cautious," the Governor said. "Why red, green, yellow, they ask. It's to make them consciously involved in security." The Governor said former Taliban leaders have become involved in community projects in some northern problem areas and can now ensure security there. At least he talked very positively.
"We're cautiously optimistic," PRT Laghman Comander LTC Christoper Possehl said of the new governor. "He somehow worked the dismissal of the (notoriously corrupt) Chief of Police Abdul Omaryar through his connections (at least the PRT gave him credit for it)...He's not from this province, so folks are still sensing him out. Without question people are plotting against him, but he's taking advantage of the honeymoon phase."
Actions that including meeting with the elders of the renegade Dawlat Shah district, which he promised to visit by road as long as the elders ensured security. A move the PRT staff quickly talked him down from. "He's (also) adept at the bluff," LTC. Possehl said. "The governor says if you are who you say you are, the village elders, you can guarantee my safety (calling them out on the tradition of Pashtunwali)... In my opinion, I told him don't go up there without us." There are at least three known IED hot spots headed towards that district.
Clearly a guy like Gov. Azizi is the Laghman PRT's man until he proves otherwise. And even if he did prove corrupt or lazy like he accused some of his directors, in so many words, of being, the PRT would still have to work directly with him on almost everything under the PRT's new practices of embedding advisers and donor safeguards within each provincial directorate in order for the directorates to get a coalition-funded budget.
But this Afghan has the chops to talk serious reform. He even said Gen. McChrystal's policies were "very communal", and noted big changes with how the Army works with the Afghan people. Perhaps even more incredulously, he said the new anti-corruption commission, initiated by Pres. Karzai under tremendous international pressure after the botched elections, has laid the provincial framework for transparency and rule of law.
"Corruption has been exaggerated in the media," Gov. Aziz repeated, claiming that now, each month anti-corruption officials will now monitor and assess all Laghman's directorates. Everyone here really wants to believe his integrity. Time will tell.
LTC. Possehl admitted that the wholesale practice of his predecessors measuring their success in total money spent on projects may have actually increased Afghan corruption. "Corruption was still corruption, if not worse. The answer today is ensuring governance, mentoring development."
Although the U.S. is still writing the check, he said, "We went from doing everything, to doing everything with an Afghan face, to now, were in by, with, and through them (phase). If I'm not doing everything with an Afghan official, I'm probably doing it wrong."
An official such as Gov. Azizi appears to be a boon, rather than a burden to the latest efforts. But in Afghanistan appearances can be like a fun house mirror. Educated Afghans also have a wait and see approach. "The new governor...we will see his performance in the future," a local reporter at a coalition-funded radio station said. "As we know he's better than the last one."
Clearly a guy like Gov. Azizi is the Laghman PRT's man until he proves otherwise. And even if he did prove corrupt or lazy like he accused some of his directors, in so many words, of being, the PRT would still have to work directly with him on almost everything under the PRT's new practices of embedding advisers and donor safeguards within each provincial directorate in order for the directorates to get a coalition-funded budget.
But this Afghan has the chops to talk serious reform. He even said Gen. McChrystal's policies were "very communal", and noted big changes with how the Army works with the Afghan people. Perhaps even more incredulously, he said the new anti-corruption commission, initiated by Pres. Karzai under tremendous international pressure after the botched elections, has laid the provincial framework for transparency and rule of law.
"Corruption has been exaggerated in the media," Gov. Aziz repeated, claiming that now, each month anti-corruption officials will now monitor and assess all Laghman's directorates. Everyone here really wants to believe his integrity. Time will tell.
LTC. Possehl admitted that the wholesale practice of his predecessors measuring their success in total money spent on projects may have actually increased Afghan corruption. "Corruption was still corruption, if not worse. The answer today is ensuring governance, mentoring development."
Although the U.S. is still writing the check, he said, "We went from doing everything, to doing everything with an Afghan face, to now, were in by, with, and through them (phase). If I'm not doing everything with an Afghan official, I'm probably doing it wrong."
An official such as Gov. Azizi appears to be a boon, rather than a burden to the latest efforts. But in Afghanistan appearances can be like a fun house mirror. Educated Afghans also have a wait and see approach. "The new governor...we will see his performance in the future," a local reporter at a coalition-funded radio station said. "As we know he's better than the last one."
1 comments:
Sounds like a reason for optimism. Hopefully this holds true and is not just a posture to ingratiate himself with the US. We'll see....
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