Abdullah, Afghanistan's comeback kid

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-22 10:25

KABUL: Three years after being axed as Afghan foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah has capped a startling political comeback by depriving his former boss Hamid Karzai of an easy re-election victory.

The former eye surgeon is in a strong position to bargain, though yesterday he dismissed any rumors he would seek an alternative to holding a run-off and denied speculation of any power-sharing talks with his rival.

"I am not under any pressure from any side. I am not under any pressure from the international community with regard to any scenario," he said.

"As far as the second round ... is concerned, my whole desire is that the second round will take place on time, under good circumstances."

Regardless of how Afghanistan's election saga evolves, Abdullah is already arguably the big winner of the August 20 poll.

During an energetic election campaign, he swept across the impoverished rural country, drawing large crowds of enthusiastic supporters, some of them kitted out in blue baseball hats and T-shirts - a so-called "blue wave".

Born in 1960, Abdullah first gained fame during Afghanistan's decades of war as a spokesman and aide for famous anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, assassinated in 2001.

As foreign minister in the Afghan government that emerged after the downfall of the Taliban in late 2001, he was known as a snappy dresser and an eloquent diplomat. Fluent in Dari, Pashtu and English, he also speaks Arabic and French.

After being removed from government in 2006, he joined the Massoud Foundation set up to promote development according to the vision of the Soviet- and Taliban-resistance hero.

Today Abdullah speaks of a "disconnect" between Karzai's government and a public alienated by corruption and a Taliban-led insurgency. This has enabled anti-government forces, such as the Taliban, to gain some support, he believes.

Abdullah said the country has been allowed to fall into dire straits despite the many opportunities that arose after the fall of the Taliban when the country was flooded with international aid.

"You see the security is deteriorating, the political situation is chaotic, problems of the people, like economic problems and so on, are not being addressed as people expected," he said in a recent interview.

"The main project is to change the situation for the better, to create a hope among the people through bringing about political changes as well as presenting new ideas," he said.

Abdullah proposes amending the constitution to do away with Afghanistan's highly centralized system and introducing a prime minister and elected provincial officials that would make Afghans more involved in their government.

"Afghanistan certainly needs change," he said in the interview. "Change is not a change of name, (it is) change of ideas, change in the vision of the new leadership."

Abdullah's mother is an ethnic Tajik and he is associated with the Tajiks of Massoud's stronghold in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, where he has a river-front home. His father was a Pashtun, Afghanistan's main ethnic group.

AFP