Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

National Participation in PA is Vital for Social Justice

There is no doubt that racial issues continue to dominate a large part of the public discourse in Afghanistan. However, Afghan public administrators do not discuss race. They either ignore it, or oversimplify it. The reasons are varied: it is complex, it is anxiety-generating, it makes us uncomfortable, and it can be hidden behind traditional views of government neutrality and impersonal service delivery. According to the Afghan Vice President, Sarwar Danehs, lack of fair participation in Afghan public administration has existed during past governments and exists today. The National Unity Government is determined to take all the necessary measures to ensure national participation and justice at all levels, especially in the public administrations of Afghanistan.
The reasons Afghan leaders and citizens’ call for the implementation of the public participation process are that, it is important for the democratization of social values and better planning and fulfillment of public needs. It is also useful for educating the public especially regarding government development programmers. This will potentially influence social or personal changes amongst community members, which can then be used to incorporate diverse public interests and thus accord people with the right to participate in decisions that will affect their lives. The current gap between the people and government in Afghanistan is one the outstanding outcomes of lack of public participation and lack of equal distribution of resources and opportunities among different ethnic groups in the country.
Indeed, the diversity and national participation concepts provide an opportunity to examine the construction and interplay of classifications. In this sense it refers not only to a state of ethnic diversity, but points to the coexistence of individual-based differences and dimensions of difference as well as to the forms of their interactions within a social context. 
To address national participation as a mechanism that enables all the ethnic groups of the country to have an opportunity to take part in the public administration, PA scholars suggest several strategies including expanding the concept of administrative responsibility to include a look at one’s personal ethics; analyzing the racial dynamics of one’s institution, and conducting directed conversations about race and ethnic issues at different levels.
This is happening in one or another way in Afghanistan. Several Afghan leaders have raised lack of national participation during different events. According to Karim Khlalil, the leader of Hezb e Wahdat e Islami, ensuring unity among different Afghan groups requires ensuring justice and equality at all areas including remonstration, development, and fair participation of all Afghan ethnic groups in the public Administration. Unus Qanuni holds that ethnic diversity shall acknowledged in the country because it is the only way out of the current crisis in the country. And it is not enough just to accept the ethnic pluralism, but to ensure justice among these groups in all spheres. According to Omar Daudzay, ethnicization of security sector is the cause of the current situation.
National participation or participation of all ethnic groups in the public administrations can forester national cohesion and trust in the country. Lack of equal opportunity for all ethnic groups in the public administration and unfair provision of the resources has created a deep gap between the people and government. Indeed, it is a process that has started from the past, continued to present and may even continue in the future. It is the national duty of the NUG to take all the necessary measures to strategically tackle this national issue and address it in a proper manner in order to decrease the gap between the people and government and open a new chapter in social justice in the country.