President Hamid Karzai has stated that "The international coalition and the Afghan government have been able to provide, in the past 10 years, political stability to Afghanistan. But we have not been able — the United States, NATO and Afghan government together — to provide the Afghan people with their individual personal security. That is yet to come."Karzai has said this on CNN's "FareedZakaria GPS", which was aired on Sunday December 18, 2011.
It is good to see president Karzai sees things realistically. But it should be mentioned that the president never admits the root causes of the problems and his confused policies over the last ten years. It should be acknowledged that there is still sort of violent culture that exists in the country and contributes to absence of personal security for Afghans in the capital and provinces alike.
There is a persuasive fear of violence by Taliban militants, other insurgent groups, local police (as given rise to concern recently), criminals etc. Unfortunately, over the last ten years, president Karzai has focused on how to strengthen his own network that is now plagued by corruption and itself begets problems in the country.
His corrupt government has led to frustration and disaffection of ordinary people who had a feeling of new life when the Taliban was driven out from power. But today this feeling of new life has disappeared and frustration has taken its stead due to the fact that this country is the second most corrupt one in the world; that there are corrupt officials that do not think how to comfort themselves and never care about what people want; that there is no guarantee for maintenance of political, social and economic gains if international community leaves the country alone once again.
President Karzai has said that his government together with international community has managed to provide political stability. But the claim seems to be substantiated given the fact that political stability concerns rule of law and legitimacy.
Political stability could be strengthened when democratic rules of the game is institutionalized and law rules but Afghan people have from time to time seen president Karzai acting extra-constitutionally and extra-legally.
Political stability also relates to legitimacy (legitimacy of elected leaders/officials and legitimacy of institutions). President should not forget that legitimacy depends on popular will and consent (reflected in elections) plus efficiency of the system and the government to meet the demands placed on them. President Karzai and his government suffer from the absence of both popular consent and efficiency to deliver services to the citizens.