Daily Times

The final round of the presidential elections in Afghanistan, and the ‘deal’ between the two ‘front runners’ on September 21, was so feeble, and the outcome so putrid, that even bourgeois analysts and reporters had to designate them as repulsive. Even the most vociferous and arrogant stalwarts of the ruling classes and imperialism at The Economist were sceptical, if not outright cynical, about this agreement and the elections. It describes the scene at the accord ceremony in its latest issue: “Neither man spoke, and neither looked quite at ease…The four-page document, signed in the presence of outgoing President Hamid Karzai, and later by witnesses James Cunningham, the US ambassador, and Jan Kubis, the UN’s senior Afghanistan representative (both of whom were banned from the palace ceremony by Mr Karzai), divests the president of his vast powers. The secret back-room deal, which many think usurps the democratic process, was announced hours before the election commission declared Mr Ghani the winner, and Dr Abdullah the Chief Executive (CE). In a strange kowtowing to Dr Abdullah, who had argued that the poll was poisoned by undetectable fraud, neither the vote tallies nor the turnout were announced. The ‘everyone is a winner’ arrangement, similar to a politically correct primary school sports day, came about after a bitterly disputed election season prompted threats of a parallel government and fears of a return to civil war.”
However, no mainstream politicians, the press or the electronic media mentioned the most daunting and stark reality of present day Afghanistan — it is a country under occupation by imperialism. The country has been aggressively attacked by foreign invaders and has been in the throes of imperialist occupation since 2001.This has been taken for granted by all and sundry. Sovereignty, national independence and its integrity as a nation state are simply not there. Just as the despotic clergy in Iran only allows sanctioned candidates to contest, the Afghan contestants have to accept the colonisation of their country as a fait accompli. In the last thirteen years of the imperialist occupation, not only have the aggressors failed to accomplish any of their stated goals, they are on the verge of a humiliating defeat. They are in fact desperately trying for a face saving escape. Ironically, the warlords, the terrorist mujahideen groups, the warring gangs of the so-called Taliban and the present democratic stooges now wielding power officially are all products of imperialism, when the CIA began its covert operation with the ‘dollar jihad’ to overthrow the left wing government that was carrying out radical reforms for the deprived masses in Afghanistan. The imperialists introduced heroin production and the drug trade to finance the Afghan counterrevolution. The collapse of the Soviet Union reduced the geostrategic interests of the imperialists and they abandoned the region.
However, the drug trade and other criminal businesses continued to flourish, with Afghanistan becoming a narco-state. The political facets of this criminal economy arose in the form of the virulent and bestial fundamentalism that is ravaging the region today. Under the imperialist stranglehold, nothing has changed on the ground, from the lack of women’s rights to the hegemony of the vicious religious clergy, which continues to coerce and torment the ordinary people of the region. The economy is in a shambles and people are as impoverished as ever. Sensing the vulnerability of the imperialists and their present stooges, the Taliban have stepped up attacks. There have been more frequent and fatal attacks in the first half of 2014 than in any year since 2001. Desertions in the so-called Afghan National Army are rising rapidly. Often these military personnel end up with the Taliban, who make higher bids for the mercenaries fighting these imperialist proxy wars and the internecine bloody conflicts between different factions of the Taliban and the other Islamist groups fighting for plunder. Where the sophisticated weaponry from the US has fallen into the hands of the Islamic State in Iraq, in Afghanistan, US-trained soldiers and their weapons are now being used against the imperialist forces by their self-created Frankenstein’s monster.
Every imperialist venture has ended in disaster. The imperialist ploy of creating a ‘democratic façade’ has likewise proved to be a catastrophe. Every election has been blatantly rigged under the occupation, yet has been accepted due to the fragility and inability of the imperialists to rein in their own stooges. The present one was no different. The accord signed on Sunday was the finalisation of a broader power-sharing structure brokered by US Secretary of State, John Kerry, who swiftly welcomed its signing. A recent article in The Guardian commented: “The most surprising and unnerving part of the agreement, however, is covered in Article ‘D’. It stipulates that the position of the ‘leader of the runner-up team’, i.e., the opposition leader, will be created and its ‘responsibilities, authorities and honours’ will be officially recognised by a presidential decree. The article further clarifies that the opposition leader ‘will act as an ally of the national unity government’. Oddly this concept comes from the ‘Joint Declaration of August 8’. But is it not the function of the political opposition in a democracy to keep the government’s policies and behaviour in check? Is not the duty of the opposition to oppose? Or is it only in Afghanistan that the world does not deem it necessary to place elements essential to the development of a healthy democracy? Under present political realities, it is difficult to imagine smooth subordination from a CE who firmly believes he was the winner of the elections.”
If Islamic fundamentalists are raising the spectre of barbarism, imperialists have ended up deteriorating a society already in the throes of wars, terrorism and turmoil. This gives room to the so-called Taliban to brutally impose their fiefdoms. However, with the departure of the imperialists the chances of Islamist resurgence are remote. With the revolutionary traditions of the 1978 Saur revolution in Afghanistan, a new generation can rise with the memories of the radical changes carried out by its founders, mainly the Khalq faction of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). But this is intimately linked with the situation in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where there are also stirrings of youth moving towards socialist and revolutionary ideas. After all, there cannot be two revolutions in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as historical, economic and cultural links are so deeply entrenched that they cannot be severed by drawing artificial lines such as the Durand Line, drawn by the British imperialists in 1893 to cleave a living nation and culture. This revolution will also be retribution.

The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and international secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at ptudc@hotmail.com