Two hundred years ago Mountstuart Elphinstone led the first British mission to the Afghan court. Drawing parallels with Scottish clans, Elphinstone was convinced that the Pashtun social system was inherently democratic. His description of the endemic corruption of Shah Shujah’s police and the scheming in his court were eerily similar to some contemporary experiences. But he was optimistic that the tribes could keep a check on the abuses of their rulers.
These tribes are not some relic of the past. They are part of the foundation of modern Afghanistan, and there is a strong case to be made that the country needs democracy, however contextualised, to bind these tribes and its myriad peoples, classes and factions, into a stable political system that can keep a check on the abuses of its modern rulers.
Unfortunately, those charged with nurturing Afghan democracy since the 2001 invasion have failed disastrously. The first round of the presidential election has offered as many examples of that stunning failure as one has stomach to observe.
The iconic election images are of officials methodically marking hundreds of ballot papers for President Hamid Karzai, before stuffing them in ballot boxes. Traditional Afghanistan, the tribal elders forever in search of state patronage, are this week telling of wads of cash received from government officials to cast votes for the incumbent. Plenty of the participants in the ballot-box stuffing exercise had video-enabled mobile phones, and you can see the result online.
Election officials are keeping a brave face. Diplomats buy time by reminding us that the electoral machinery is still in action. But claims that the vote was a success – “brave Afghans voted against the Taliban” – hark back to a fantasy that is not tenable in the YouTube age.
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