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	“- People Are Starving! - Give Them a New Constitution.” Dr. Assem Akram - 06.05.2003 Probably because it was one of the elements agreed upon at the winter 2001 Bonn Conference, the Afghan Interim Authority with the help of the UN in Kabul has set up a process that is in theory bound to give Afghanistan a new constitution. Since Bonn, the 1964 Constitution has been adopted as Afghanistan’s interim fundamental law though deprived of its elements referring to the monarchic system. An a hoc commission was appointed by Mr. Hamed Karzai and everyone was expecting to see as early as March 2003 what kind of chef d’oeuvre the commission had come up with. But, alas, there is no chef d’oeuvre in sight, not even a hors d’oeuvre despite repeated announcements. It seems quite odd that while there is no draft in view, we learn that the commission has set up offices throughout Afghanistan, including one or two in neighboring Iran and Pakistan, purportedly in order to collect feedback on the new constitution. How can anyone give an opinion on a text never seen, never read? The truth of the matter is that all concur to discredit this process and render it futile. As is stands now, apart from the wishful declamatory policy of Mr. Hamed Karzai and the forced optimism of some US Administration officials - who are compelled to defend their course of action in Afghanistan, no matter what- there is no functioning government, no credible military, no reliable police force, no security, no adequate housing for millions of Afghans that have returned to their homeland, no central authority, no parliament, nothing that would allow us, even from afar and with a good dose of optimistic myopia, to say that Afghanistan is out of the tunnel and that it has now the level of stability required to focus the public’s attention on the elaboration of a new constitution. Drafting a constitution is no simple task delegated to some few persons for whom the primary selecting criteria might have been their political affiliation more than anything else. I do not question the benevolence of the commission members or their knowledge. But the mere fact that each of them has been appointed to accommodate the different power players present in today’s Afghan arena makes it difficult to believe that they will ever be able to reach a sound compromise. The opacity surrounding the entire drafting process is a clear indication of the behind-the-scene ongoing haggling game. In a society such as the Afghan one, which has been devastated by a quarter of century of war, where ideological, linguistic, regional, and even religious lines of fracture have been provoked, it is an utmost delicate affair to draft a text that would ultimately satisfy an overwhelming majority without spoiling the rights of any dissatisfied minority. We are witnessing a surrealistic situation in Afghanistan today. Whereas none of the essential needs of the population in terms of security, nutrition, housing, healthcare or schooling are met, Mr. Karzai and his associates want Afghans to find the mental and physical resources to go to one of those ten centers and comment on a subject most of them are not acquainted with. In a country where more than 80% of the population is illiterate, one wonders how many people will in fact be able to read the draft – if it is ever published before promulgation – and give their opinion? The inadequacy between the realities and the wishes of the Karzai government reminds me of the famous word put in the mouth of Marie-Antoinette in pre-revolutionary France. When the queen was alerted by someone that the population was starving and had no more bread to eat, she allegedly responded: “Let them eat brioche!” In Kabul today, Mr. Karzai and his associates are responding to a similar cry by the Afghan deprived population: “Let them have a new constitution!” It is understandable that Mr. Karzai’s backers, led by the US with a strong UN involevment on this issue, are firmly committed to see this process succeed in what they want to present to the international opinion and the donors’ community as the unstoppable “march towards democracy in Afghanistan.” They want to show that people are consulted and that their opinion is taken into consideration. But what appears as very honorable at first is in fact just as much of a masquerade of democracy as was the June 2002 Loya Jerga organized in Kabul with the sadly uncritical UN sponsoring. The Karzai government’s strategy seems to be to spin with demagogical declarations while making sure that the real debate never takes place. Intellectuals, political activists, religious scholars, members of the media, students, all apt and concerned citizens willing to debate the major, almost eschatological, issues at stake for their country, are ousted from the scene either by procedural tactics and maneuverings or by threat. There is no need to spend time, money and credibility in attempting to draft and promulgate a new constitution for a country that still lies in a state of chaos and anarchy. The US-backed government of Mr. Karzai has not been able to extend its authority beyond the walls of Kabul. Mr. Karzai’s appointment and demotion of high profile unruly figures belong to the domain of grandiloquent announcements seldom obeyed. It is therefore difficult to imagine how Mr. Karzai and his disparate cabinet will be able to first agree on the new constitution, without major dissentions further poisoning their relations and, secondly, to see how they could force to comply any of the heavily armed and greatly self-reliant factions that would oppose the new law? At this time, the only law that should be taken care of is the one regulating upcoming elections. The international community should pay careful attention to it and ensure that elections are being held properly, fairly, in accordance to the rules and to the agreed upon schedule. As for the constitution drafting process, it should be left aside for the time being and the country should continue to use the 1964 law as an interim one, until Afghanistan returns to a minimum of normalcy with a legitimate government, a fairly elected parliament and senate and a minimum of rule of law perceptible throughout the landscape. A major sign that Afghanistan has returned to a more normal situation would be to observe the end of any tutelary foreign military presence on its soil. Finally, it is worth mentioning that there is a real risk that the birth by forceps of a new fundamental law in this particularly sensitive time gives way to more divisions than unification. Indeed, Afghanistan does not need to see some of the existing rifts go deeper and wider because of an untimely constitutional avatar. © Assem Akram.