Ever since his emergence in Afghan national politics, and from the time he was linked to the Mujahideen government, later the "Rome initiative" of the former King until his selection as the head of the interim government and later his election as the president of the transitional government of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai was looked upon as a mild, compromising conservative politician. As one of the younger sons of a tribal leader, assassinated mysteriously in Pakistan, he took it upon himself to follow the path of his father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, in serving the Afghan cause. Even before that, when he was a student at Simla University in India, where I met him per chance one day, he seemed to be absorbed in the thought of how to take part in the liberation of Afghanistan from the Soviet occupying forces and the puppet communist regime.

His resolve to serve in the fight for freedom introduced him into the intricacies of Mujahideen politics. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan he joined the Mujahideen government as a deputy foreign minister. But probably, he was soon disillusioned by finding out that the government was polarized around ethnic interests and Islamic extremism. It is rumored that he was apparently found an intruder into such an environment and thus intrigues were planned for his capture or arrest. Miraculously, he abandoned his post safely and returned to Pakistan.

There he joined efforts launched by royalists to implement the famous three point proposal for convening of the Loya Jirga as the solution for the Afghan problem. The former King's trump cards in those days were Professor Seerat, Hamid Karzai, Amin Arsala and Ahmadzai. This is not to mention his son-in-law Abdul Wali. Hamid was assigned a variety of tasks including serving as the King's emissary to the United Nations, the United States, some friendly countries and regional powers. He was fully recognized as the King's man. When the Bonn meeting under the UN successfully chalked out a plan of action for Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, who at the time was engaged in hot battle with the Taleban inside Afghanistan, was chosen to lead the interim government of Afghanistan.

The nation and the international community hailed his selection and he scored great successes playing his cloak and Karakul to distinguish him form ordinary everyday world politicians. But his task was not easy. It required patience. He showed a lot of it. It required tact. He practiced a lot of that, too. It required the skill to unite and rule. Historically, to do the opposite is much easier. It is here that he had and still has great difficulty. Empowered by the expressed will of the nation, through the Loya Jirga, Afghans wanted him to show metal and take daring action in uniting the country and in forcing into submission of the wild powers of the warlords. Also empowered by the international trust and especially winning a special status of a wise friend of the United States after his direct contacts with the US president, and congress, he was expected to perform the miracles that were expected of him.

Yet the country remained in the hands of the warlords. Void of a national army, his power of enforcing his decisions remained nil. People he had chosen for pacification purposes to serve in his government continued to serve their own groupings and parties. People in his own cabinet either run parallel military establishments of their own, or led political parties. Many are moe loyal to their ethnic groupings and special interest trends than to the transitional government where they have been assigned by Karzai. Some even vie for his position as the national leader.

With a war going on in Afghanistan that is led and implemented by the United States without any say by the national government, collateral casualties, errors made by the US military in judgment and even by siding with certain warlords in certain parts of the country, the question arose in the minds of many whether Karzai was a stooge.

Last Thursday, the otherwise patient and mild Afghan politician, in a detailed, emotional speech shared his concerns with his nation and showed courage as a leader of the people to stand up and address the grave issues of misuse of power and looting and robbing of the nation by people in his government. Karzai told a seminar of Afghan judges that many commanders, governors and security officials were looting people rather than protecting them."If anyone thinks that our flexibility, our compassion, humorous words and admiration will last like this until Doomsday, they are wrong," he said.

"They are fighting about money, public property, customs duties," he said. "They are killing people, destroying houses and causing problems for women and children."They have sat under my name and been appointed by my signature. They loot and kill people and it is as though I am doing it. If they do not improve, then I will sack them."

The speech was hailed by the Afghans on the street and most others everywhere. It was what they expected their leader to say for a long time. It was what they wanted their leader to stand for, for a long time. It would deliver their leader from suspicion that he might be a stooge rather than a national figure. The speech was broadcast and telecast several times, on demand by the people, who are fed up with warlordism, factionalism, and party politics based on ethnicity and religion. They would now expect their leader to follow through his warnings and threats for the sake of establishing a united front for the reconstruction of the country. 10/26/02