When rumors and whispers were heard in 2014 that foreign forces were leaving Afghanistan and responsibilities were being handed over to local forces, the government would not be able to cover its expenses and would face economic collapse. Political analysts, economists, and advisors were signaling to the government, but they were not heard. However, the issue became significant when it was heard from the United States. Hamid Karzai also hastily accepted it and assigned his economic advisors and experts to conduct research in this area and determine the best economic strategy for the country.
This is from the time when these people had been playing the power game in Afghanistan for fourteen years. After a decade and a half, the government had no hope of lasting even a day, and twenty years later, it was still the same. Some people believe that when “Bonn” was making decisions about Afghanistan and the free market economic policy was being chosen for Afghanistan, there should have been comprehensive professional and specialized discussions on the subject, and an economic development strategy should have been considered for Afghanistan that was in line with our actual and mental conditions and did not conflict with the past natural unity of Afghanistan’s economic development!
Those who do not consider such a significant historical, professional, and specialized decision practical at that time argue that the representatives of the warring factions in Bonn were in the majority, lacking the knowledge, time, capacity, and will for such scholarly decisions. At that time, the representatives of the warring factions only believed in one thing: that they had obtained the legitimate deed of ownership of Afghanistan and that they should divide it among themselves as they pleased.
They became millionaires and billionaires; but they subjected a large nation to the sorrowful fear of defeat, unemployment, hunger, insecurity, administrative corruption, war, and repeated migration. This administration did not help the farmers of Afghanistan as an agricultural country to stand back on their feet. The successive droughts rendered many land barren, people built houses and fortresses on many lands, agricultural products from neighboring countries flooded the markets and stifled the increase of our national production. In the industrial sector, unprecedented events occurred; state and private factories ceased operations, industrialists closed their factories, sold their machines for scrap, and rented out their empty yards to Americans as warehouses. The markets of Afghanistan were filled with the products of neighboring countries, and all hopes for state support and protection of industries were drowned.
In the past twenty years, mafia circles have dominated Afghanistan’s economic relations. Family members of state leaders, including the president and his vice presidents Fahim and Khalili, leaders of factions, and some government officials, have pocketed foreign contracts, major projects, usurped lands, and the service sector. They plundered state resources, became millionaires, and billionaires; instead of legal economic activities, illegal monopolies, mafia operations, and plunder gained a strong foothold in the country. These new millionaires formed armed groups under the guise of security companies to protect their interests, putting the country’s security at risk. These companies not only failed to secure major roads and caravans but were also involved in the smuggling of weapons, minerals, timber, and drugs, leading the entire country towards ruin and destruction in their pursuit of profit.
In the past twenty years, Afghanistan has turned into a consumer country. Imports increased dramatically, and exports moved slowly, but they lacked legal support. During this period, the government failed to enhance and ensure the transparency of the state’s revenue sources. Millions of dollars in state revenue were embezzled by corrupt officials and bureaucrats, and all state executives turned a blind eye to looting and the mafia economy, seeing their own benefit in it.
Now, at the sixth meeting of the G7+ countries’ ministers, the ambassador of the fallen republic, Wahidullah Waisi, referred to the country’s ongoing catastrophe and multifaceted crisis and pointed to the caretaker government as the main cause of the current situation. Waisi tries to shift the blame onto others, ignoring the obvious and significant issue; with the fall of the republic, Afghanistan’s economy also collapsed, and the country had nothing in the name of an economy.
He makes this statement while the caretaker government has undertaken many tasks with limited resources so that in the near future, instead of a fake economy, we will benefit from a real and self-sustaining economy. Allah willing!
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