Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Necessary Lessons to Learn from The Long Controversy of Parliament

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Necessary Lessons to Learn from  The Long Controversy of Parliament

After 41 days controversy and fourth round election inside parliament, finally Mir-Abdul Rahman Rahmani won the parliament speaker position with winning 136 votes. For the second time, some of the top government officials congratulate this position to Mir-Abdul Rahman Rahmani. Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, Abdullah and also the second vice president Moh Sarwari Danish congratulated his position as a speaker of national house. The second vice president hoped that the new speaker and new members of parliament would make efforts for peace, prosperity and peaceful coexistence in the country. He said, “The government of Afghanistan would make its serious contribution in the approval of fair and democratic law. Pointing to the ended tensions, the CEO, Abdullah Abdullah also hoped that representatives of people may perform their responsibly without any farther delay.
The new chairman of Parliament, Mir Rahman Rahmani, is son of Haji Qalandar-khan who was born in 1962 in Bagram district of Parwan province. He graduated from Bagram high school in 1979 and continued his studies in Russia and graduated from the Russian military university in 1983. Mr. Rahmani has served as head of the Social Council of Bgram people and has reached the rank of General in national army. Mr. Rahmani was also chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Parwan province. He is considered as a major trader in the country, and most of his wealth comes from providing transportation services and fuel contracts with the government and US forces. He is married and was a member of parliament in the previous round of parliament. 
As aforementioned, the long tension of parliament has ended with voting mentioned personality but we need to reassess and learn from the mistakes made in the house. First lesson that we should learn is to recognize the faces that fueled the tensions inside the parliament. Unfortunately, some PMs showed a very unprofessional and illegal behavior within the nearly two months period of time.  The social media networks repeatedly posted photos and ironic comments which embodied a very shameful scene of physical and verbal clashes in the newly inaugurated parliament.  Some members of parliament have not only attacked on each and other but also attacked on chairs and tables of parliament and broken some of national facilities begged from foreign countries. They have not only blamed for distribution of huge amount of bribes but also blamed for spread of hatreds among the nation.  Eventually, everything finished with paying respect to the rules of the game.
The second but important lesson that we can learn from nearly two months brawls and shameful scandals is victory of rationality versus the emotion. This victory should be a good lesson to all extremist groups regardless of their belongings to any race, color and types of faith. Everyone should understand that nothing is above than law and rule of the game. Electing the head of parliament and its acceptance by all PMs is a clear message to all of us, especially those who receive orders of war and destruction from outside of the country. They must understand that there is no way except accepting each other on basis of democratic rules and meritocratic principle.
Unfortunately, the behaviors of parliamentarians have seriously damaged the feeling of peaceful coexistence and national unity.  Ethnicization of politics and the hatred project among peoples was profoundly prevalent. There were some individuals who thought that they would achieve their personal desires through spread of hatreds and ethnical hostility. But in the end, everyone was compelled to accept each other and make the final decision based on collective wisdom and majority votes. There were many nations in the history that killed one and other for the sake of racial superiority but finally compelled to accept one and other. So, the most important lesson from the extreme controversy is to respect the rule of law.
The third lesson that we should learn was the show of a heroic action by Kham Mohammad Wardak. After he lost the election against Mir-Rahman Rahmani, not only he congratulated his opponent but also have him sit on his new seat. He asked all PMs to help him in his future duty. Such behavior is rarely showed by Afghan politician that is why many of the people, especially the social media networks have warmly praised his behavior. The people of Afghanistan will not forget such braveness and attitude. One of the main reasons that Hamid Karzai could satisfy people during his 13 years presidency was his opened mindedness and good behavior. Several times he embraced his angry critic in large gatherings. However, no ethnic group is entirely white or black and we should always make our judgment on the basis of individual background and meritocracy.   
Lastly, we will have another democratic national exam in a very near future; we have presidential elections in the near future while learned a lot lessons from controversial elections of 2014 and 2018. Today, when our country is engulfed with many social and economic crises, to a large extent, we are responsible as we never voted on the basis of meritocracy and national interests; we voted for ethnic, color and language belongings which is a serious ethical crime in our culture. Unfortunately, very few people are aware that a corrupt leader would corrupt the whole nation while a righteous and patriotic leader would make a righteous nation. That is why, neither we reached the national unity and nor to the peace and prosperity. In fact, we would be responsible in front of our conscious and also in front of future generation if we do not learn from the past mistakes!

Mohammad Zahir Akbari is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at mohammadzahirakbari@gmail.com

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