An interview with Dr. Mahaiuddin Mehdi, member of the "Opposition Hope and Change" and a parliamentary candidate
Q: Looking at the preliminary results of the Parliamentary elections, you and some of your colleagues are on the preliminary list of winners. Do you have any specific platform for the upcoming Parliament?
A: I am optimistic about the upcoming Parliament and about the future of elections in Afghanistan. One thing that encouraged me was that Afghans made well-informed choices and voted for some very well-known figures. Fortunately, people elected good representatives for this Parliament.
The previous Parliament was our first experience in this form of government and no doubt there were some mistakes and shortcomings. These related mostly to the leadership of the body. Unfortunately, in addition to the government, the legislature was also violating the law in many circumstances.
Considering this situation, I hope the new Parliament learns lessons from the mistakes of the old one; it should adopt strict measures to enhance its power and authority and give the people a voice in governance.
Q: The people are dissatisfied with the current Parliament. In your opinion, what should be the top priorities for the new legislature?
A: In my opinion, weak leadership and internal regulations are the main reasons for the people’s dissatisfaction with the Parliament.
When a TV channel broadcasts pictures of empty chairs in the Parliament, it damages the reputation of this legislative body. Furthermore, Parliamentarians have forgotten their main responsibilities and spend time in governmental offices doing their own business. They forget to implement laws or monitor government activities. This has seriously damaged the Parliament’s credibility.
Unfortunately, the government has made the Parliament into a puppet and frequently interferes in its activities. The government tries to involve the Parliament in its illegal actions.
I hope the upcoming Parliament will be as independent as the law allows. The Parliament should act independently in order to gain the people’s trust and keep its credibility.
During the five years of the previous Parliament, we witnessed many problems. Shortcomings in the Constitution are the main challenges that keep us from acting properly in some cases. For instance, we faced a power vacuum when last year’s Presidential elections were delayed. There was no provision in the Constitution for such circumstances; there was no guidance to say that whether or not the president should continue to work during that period.
There were shortcomings in other laws, too, and Parliament should have modified them. Unfortunately, the Parliament aided the government in violating the law.
Q: According to analysts, the current Parliament was extremely isolated, particularly over the past year. The government did not even consult with the Parliament regarding negotiations with the Taliban. In your opinion, how can the new Parliament tackle such challenges?
A: in my opinion, one of the main reasons for forming the High Peace Council was to decrease the Parliament’s authority. The government considers the new Parliament to be its rival, and has illegally given some of Parliament’s authority to this Council. Decisions on war and peace are within the Parliament’s purview.
If the people’s representatives do not have the opportunity to make decisions about negotiations with the Taliban, then persons appointed by the government should not be making those decisions. They will not be able to bring peace because their decisions have no legal standing.
When the government sets up an illegal council to deal with such an important issue and the Parliament shows no reaction, it means that the Parliament is involved in this illegal act. This damages the credibility of the Parliament among the people. I hope the upcoming Parliament makes every effort to regain its credibility and to use its legal authority properly.
Q: There have been many conflicts over some complicated laws in the current Parliament; for instance, disagreement over the election laws and laws on higher education. These laws have not been approved. Will the new Parliament work on these laws?
A: Absolutely! We cannot ignore such important issues. Both the election law and the law on higher education have shortcomings and we must modify them. All laws should be enforced only after approval by the Parliament; it should not be the case that the government benefits from conflicts inside the Parliament and issues legislative decrees in its favor.
I suggest that any complicated issue should be discussed among the relevant commissions in the parliament before being presented to the body as a whole. One of the main reasons that the laws we just mentioned were not approved is that they were presented to the general session without prior discussion.
Some of the problems with the lack of transparency in the elections come from the absence of a valid census. The government had promised to conduct one but it has not happened yet. This is a very important issue for solving social problems in Afghanistan.
I hope the new Parliament can attract the international community’s support for conducting an accurate census in Afghanistan. When we have valid statistics then we will have no conflict over the number of seats allocated for Kuchis (nomads) in the Parliament.
Q: Members of the current Parliament had opposing positions in many circumstances. In some cases their stance were based on tribal interests. How will the new Parliament be able to overcome such problems?
A: Unfortunately, the government is afraid of forming multi-tribal and national political parties and insists on elections without strong party backing. The government considers political parties a serious challenge.
On the one hand, the government is frightened of multi-tribal and countrywide political parties while on the other hand; small tribal political parties were allowed to register over the past five years.
Fortunately, reforms and changes in the law on political parties have imposed strict conditions for the formation of political parties. I personally welcome this initiative because such changes pave the way for forming multi-tribal and countrywide political parties.
Parliamentarians will rely on tribal interests if we have a Parliament without strong, national political parties. Political parties can gather people together and focus on national interests.
I suggest working to establish political parties inside the Parliament in the future. If this is not possible, we should try to establish Parliamentary factions. These groups should be multi-tribal, so they can work for national interests.
Q: Do you have any program for the presence of political parties in future elections?
A: In the contemporary world, governments consider it important to pave the way for establishing political parties. Political parties are not rivals of the government; they are good colleagues. Governments should fund political parties, and political parties should submit their expenses report to the government.
Q: As a predominant figure of the opposition, you always emphasize the establishment of a parliamentary system. Will you keep working on this when you take your seat in the Parliament?
A: I think the only way to solve Afghanistan’s problems is by establishing parliamentary system; many people think that the issue of the Taliban is a problem in Afghanistan. We should know that this problem has existed since 2001, but the issue of non-democratic systems in Afghanistan has existed for a long time. Anyhow, we need to deal with Afghanistan’s problems.
In my opinion, if we do not address these problems, other problems will emerge in the country. I suggest that a parliamentary system is a suitable way to solve Afghanistan’s problems. The parliamentary system transfers authority form individuals to the real representatives of people of Afghanistan.
We should focus on modifying the election law to have transparent elections in the future in Afghanistan. I will continue to insist on transferring power from individuals to the people. I believe that a parliamentary system is the best system for multi-tribal Afghanistan.
I'm very happy with the emerge of new faces that are hilighty motivated, well educated and very experienced representatives selected by the Afghan nation. I'm sure following the initiation of Parliment's second term there will be various challenges that will be facing by the respective elected representatives and In the mean time I'm very confident that the newly elected rep's will face those changes rather changing their faces.
Mr. Mehdi is one of the well experience and hilighly educated Afghan whose able to take additional responsiblilties rather than being a peoples representative into the next Parliment. He is willing to manage this well and increase the level of Parliment's credibility toward achieving nations confidence and have their interest for a close community contribution for the rebuilding of their own state.
Afghanistan since the withdrawal of Taliban rejime has made some remarkable recovery in areas of political, social and economic developments but still the Afghan state is not fully rebuild. Two decades of war nearly plus ten years of corruption made the credibility of Afghan government weak. But with the assistance of the international community and the emerging of some highly motivated Afghan representatives into the Parliment things will get better.
Representing a new Parliment with new faces of educated Afghans will help to enhance the level of International Communities assistance as well that helped to provide the financial support to the elections Afghan government is conducting. Doing so is very essential, both the active representative and the assistance of the International Community is intended to make the development of infrsutructure more sustainable again the sustainability is determined by who will be their in the long run that is ofcourse the Afghan nation.
In conclusion, I wish the new Parliment to make their best of efforts in order to make things running well.
Thank You,