Afghan candidate Dr Ashraf Ghani vows to bring stability
Updated
Dr Ashraf Ghani, another Afghanistan presidential frontrunner claims "I am standing for the election, I have refused all offers of being the chief executive officer, I am not an individual now, I represent a social movement and without the constituencies that I represent - the youth, the poor and the women, I will not enter into an individual deal."
Presenter:Eleanor Hall
Speaker: Dr Ashraf Ghani, Presidential candidate, former Afghanistan Finance Minister
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ASHRAF GHANI: Voter turnout is an issue, a serious issue. It's going to depend on the number of security incidents today. (Inaudible) I think is a very serious issue. Unfortunately the international organisations that have been tasked with supporting the election process have failed miserably and now votes are being openly sold.
ELEANOR HALL: Now you have been highly critical of your former political colleague Hamid Karzai. Would he damage the country if he were returned to power?
ASHRAF GHANI: He would. He has not shown vision, leadership or management and the thing that team that he has assembled is one of the worst possible coalitions for bad government.
ELEANOR HALL: You've criticised him for forging alliances with warlords but is it possible to rule Afghanistan without having the warlords on side?
ASHRAF GHANI: Absolutely. When I was finance minister I centralised the revenue of these very same men and brought them to report on a weekly basis on their revenue and expenditure.
The warlords are a creation of the policies of the Bush administration and Mr Karzai's weakness. Afghanistan is not a country that wishes to have warlords.
ELEANOR HALL: You were in power with Mr Karzai as the finance minister. If you weren't able to yourself control corruption then, what do you hope to do about it now?
ASHRAF GHANI: I did. I did. I brought down corruption from the Ministry of Finance. I cut down the militia at the Ministry of Defence from 400,000 to 8,000 within two years. Whatever is working in the country is what I worked on during that period; that he either reversed those during the last five years or created massive bad governance.
ELEANOR HALL: Why did he do that?
ASHRAF GHANI: He really has no vision. He was not prepared for leading because suddenly they plucked him out of obscurity and planted him in the centre of government and he is one of the worst managers that humanity can possibly produced.
ELEANOR HALL: He has tried to do a deal with you. Is there any chance you would form an alliance with him?
ASHRAF GHANI: I am standing for the election. I have refused all offers of being the chief executive officer. I am not an individual now. I represent a social movement and without the constituencies that I represent - the youth, the poor and the women, I will not enter into an individual deal.
It would have to be a reform agenda that is so clearly delineated and some sort of deliverables for these constituencies that we can have assurance.
ELEANOR HALL: That does sound a little as though you are leaving the door open though to negotiating some sort of a deal with him.
ASHRAF GHANI: The country is volatile. My first duty is to prevent violence. In that regard I will do everything possible to bring stability to the country.
ELEANOR HALL: What about the issue of foreign forces in Afghanistan? When ideally would you like to see foreign troops leaving your country?
ASHRAF GHANI: My agenda is restoration of Afghan sovereignty. We need international the troops and I am thanking every Australian mother and father for sparing their sons and daughters. We are extremely grateful for this.
But my agenda is to bring an exit of these brave young men and women within the shortest period possible. That I think is a three to seven year framework.
ELEANOR HALL: And what is your approach for dealing with the Taliban?
ASHRAF GHANI: My agenda is multi-pronged. The first is we organise Afghan security forces so that they are coherent. Two, there'll be full coordination with international forces so we don't engage in bombing based on false information or use of force.
And then there is the question on unemployment. The reserve army of the Taliban are the unemployed youth. Unless we create the one million jobs there will always be a reserve army.
ELEANOR HALL: You are prepared to negotiate with them?
ASHRAF GHANI: Absolutely. We are bringing warlords into the Cabinet who created the worst human rights violations but we have excluded others who actually cleaned up these people. And those that are associated with Al Qaeda of course are ruled out. They cannot be part of this because they are planning to turn Afghanistan into the battlefield and not in the interests of Afghans.
