Ata Mohammad Noor, a familiar face in Afghan politics, recently reacted to the statements of Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran’s ambassador to Kabul, who said that if necessary, more than one suicide brigade would be sent from Afghanistan to Gaza. His words sparked controversy. According to Mr. Noor, “Afghanistan is not a source of proxy forces and the territory of others to issue orders for the movement of suicide forces from there.” Astonishing! Doesn’t Mr. Noor know that Afghanistan, currently under Taliban’s control, has turned into a hub of terrorism and is also involved in the export of suicide bombers to neighboring countries? It seems this politician, still in exile, has not yet abandoned the delusion of ownership that the Taliban currently imposes upon him. For this reason, he continues to boast politically.
Ata Mohammad Noor once again surprises us by stating that the Taliban’s cult of martyrdom has no connection to Afghanistan. There is a strange sanctity in his statement. Mr. Noor’s envisioned country is the most immaculate and faultless land on earth, where only he and his allies have “roots” while others are “rootless.” The term “rootless” appears frequently in Mr. Noor’s speeches. The term comes from a delusion of ownership that has not even left him in exile. But the harsh reality tells a different story: the country is wholly under the control of a regime bent on absolutism; a regime whose leaders claim sole ownership of Afghanistan, not others. Mr. Noor, during the more than two years that the Taliban have relied on force, should have realized that ownership comes from power, not from fantasy and political boasting.
Mr. Noor states that Afghanistan, under Taliban control, has experienced such a level of “political decline” that “senior diplomats of neighboring countries feel a sense of ownership over our land.” There is no doubt that the country has undergone political decline. However, this is not a new phenomenon and has persisted in the past. If there were no political decline, the Taliban would not have returned, and people would not be once again ensnared by this ignorant and nomadic group. Afghanistan experienced a political decline when politics in the country turned into a highly lucrative yet deeply corrupt trade infected with the viruses of corruption, tribalism, nepotism, and party politics. In this type of trade, everything is permissible, and there is no room for human conscience, shame, restraint, or abstention. All political merchants strive to gain a larger share for themselves in the turbulent market of Afghanistan and to outdo others. Therefore, political merchants seize every opportunity to profit and show their presence on the scene, and thus they should not be ignored.
If Mr. Noor and his son are not involved in this corruption and seizure, other merchants of politics will take advantage of the opportunities that arise. I am not saying this to justify Mr. Noor’s behavior and that of other political merchants in Afghanistan. Politics in our land has become so tainted that there is hardly any place left for shame and conscience in it. This is one of the worst characteristics of politics in Afghanistan. When the element of shame disappears from politics, every betrayal, corruption, and crime becomes justifiable, and everyone failed and corrupt politician portrays themselves as a leader and hero, someone who has been unfairly treated and victimized rather than being the one responsible for leading the country into a state of rampant corruption and betrayal.
In Afghan politics, it has been observed time and again that corrupt, treacherous, torturous, and murderous politicians wear the cloak of victimhood and try to throw the snow of their sins onto the roofs of their rivals. Yet, if they do not dare to acknowledge their mistakes, they should at least remain silent and not engage in populism, whitewashing, and justifying their dirty deeds. When Ashraf Ghani blames everyone, excluding himself, for the downfall of his government, the peak of official corruption in Afghanistan becomes evident without any reservation. Ghani, during the more than two years since his government fell to the Taliban, has consistently played the victim role and claimed that he has been wronged and that the Taliban have prevented him from achieving what he wanted in Afghanistan.
Corrupt politicians and political merchants have brought destruction to the politics of Afghanistan to such an extent that few trust politicians anymore. In such a disastrous situation where pessimism about politics among the people is increasing, even those who are genuinely pursuing politics have little chance of building trust among the people because they are forced to pay a very high price due to the prevailing pessimism about politics: they either compete fiercely with political merchants who control the political market, or they withdraw from the scene and become like the minions of these political merchants, in which case they are no different from them.
In the twenty years of the republic, they played politics to such an extent with honor and dignity that they completely deviated from their essence and even turned against themselves. From the institutionalization of corruption in governmental and non-governmental institutions to playing with democratic processes to gain political power, it was essentially an attempt to debase and distort politics, even in its Hobbesian sense, which is constructed around representation. The presidency was obtained not through elections but through organized fraud, seats in the parliament and provincial councils were bought, and governmental positions were attainable through bribery, both monetary and sexual. This cruel suicide of politics reached its peak during Ashraf Ghani’s era, and the main culprit was none other than Ghani himself and his intensely corrupt, incompetent, tribalistic, and absolutist team. I’m not saying that others were blameless, but since Ghani and his corrupt team held the reins of power, they played the biggest role in Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban, and therefore, the primary responsibility for the collapse lies with them.
In other words, if Afghanistan has now turned into a haven for terrorist groups, and the regime ruling over it is exporting suicide bombers to other countries, and the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran is pleased that if necessary, suicide bombers can be sent from Afghanistan to Palestine, alongside America and other Western powers, who besides Karzai, Ghani, and other political merchants, including Ata Mohammad Noor, are to blame? If today suicidal politics has replaced the usual and prevalent modern politics based on democracy, there is only one reason, and that is the political collapse caused by the dominance of political merchants over Afghanistan. The overnight collapse did not happen; its seeds go back to the Bonn Conference, where the first brick of the country’s political structure was laid askew.
Following Walter Benjamin, who said, “Fascism is the expression of a failed revolution,” I believe that the victory of suicidal politics is a clear sign of the failure of democracy on Afghan soil. The repercussions of this failure are more deadly than what meets the eye. The destructive effects of the victory of suicidal politics have not yet fully manifested, and its investments in fear and terrorism have not yet completely come to fruition.
