Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, April 19th, 2024

Need to Address Political Disunity and Widening Gap

Afghanistan has become politically fragmented. This further undermines the country against the interferences of regional elements and the strengthening of Taliban militants and insurgent forces. There are three major reasons for this political disunity and fragmentation. In the first place, it is not the concept of citizenry that drives the government's performances, service delivery and behaviors; it is the other vested interests that determine how the government should perform, deliver services and behave.

Secondly, there appears to be sort of sympathy with Taliban and other insurgent groups among some circles inside the government. This creates divisions among the political elites and the government instead of paying attention to the peaceful people who continue to support the current democratic and pluralistic system focuses on those who hit it back and believe that the government is a puppet and must be overthrown.

The third dividing factor is the bitter fact of affiliation of some actors with one or another neighbor and regional country. This puts the conflicting interests of those countries ahead of the interests of Afghanistan.

In fact, the neighbors and some other countries try to use the ethnic diversity in the country to harm the national unity and prevent the country from achieving permanent peace. In the meanwhile, the divisions at the grassroots level come from the corruption and inefficiency in the government agencies.

What is important for the people is the efficiency of the government- to be able to ensure security and deliver services effectively. The tendency of people to support and cooperate with the government and resist against the destructive forces of Taliban and other insurgents will come from the government's efficiency and accountability.

Without this, the government must not accept any support from the people who face corruption, bribery and injustice when they go to the government bodies to get their problems solved.

Lack of strong central authority to be able to establish its writ across the country has provided the context for the people to tend to go to alternatives for solving their problems. Taliban militants and other insurgent groups remain one of the alternatives.

All these issues have caused the current situation to be highly chaotic. In order to ensure the indivisible integrity and internal peace in the country, these political fragmentations among the elites and the gap between the government and people must be addressed immediately and effectively.