1/A thread on @ashrafghani #ashrafghani, the former President of #Afghanistan who recently fled the country. I worked with him very closely for 5 years (2007-2012) before he was President- writing speeches, researching Afghanistan etc. At that point I knew him very well.
2/Most of what is out there on #Twitter so far tends to fall into 2 camps: the “he ran off with bags of cash narrative and is a traitor” or “he tried to do the right things but was a product of circumstances.” #Afghanistan #Taliban
3/ It is the Russians that are pushing this idea that he ran off with bags of cash- which the Western press is now amplifying. No evidence for this yet except unknown “witnesses”- and the Russians have a clear motive to discredit the American-backed regime.
4/ No doubt #corruption is a massive problem in #Afghanistan but #Ghani was not a #kleptocrat, he was a #technocrat. He is the same person the @NewYorker hailed not so long ago as “the kind of reformer that the American government desperately needed”: newyorker.com/magazine/2016/…
5/ The fact is that #governance in #Afghanistan is probably as hard as it gets. It is irresponsible to lay the blame for its failure at the feet of a man who has been one of the foremost thinkers on #governance and #corruption issues of his generation. #Ghani.
6/ Having said that- the way in which #Ghani departed, surreptitiously- especially after such belligerent rhetoric about how he would stay and fight- is understandably painful for many Afghans. The lack of handover plans of any kind seem to have sown chaos. #Taliban
7/ There is no doubt he shoulders some of the blame for what happened- he is an imperfect character & his flaws have been well documented: too cerebral, micro-managing & unable to take criticism. A part of this stems from the fact that intellectually he is on a different level
8/ If you read the failed/fragile states literature in depth, you can place #Ghani's thinking clearly w/i the technocratic camp- which I too supported: the idea that improving functionality is key; without sufficient recognition of the role of #politics. #Afghanistan
9/ This played out in #Afghanistan- and you can see it in the criticisms #Ghani received- he didn’t sufficiently negotiate with the warlords, ensure ethic-inclusion in decision-making or find ways to build the #trust and relationships needed to hold the project together…
10/ But do you know how hard that is in #Afghanistan? He was sidelined from the negotiations with the #Taliban & abandoned by a US govt that betrayed him on the peace deal. The structures of the international engagement in Afghanistan would never have allowed him to succeed.
11/ We need to take a good hard look at how we think we can support #governance around the world and what this means. We also need greater #accountability for mistakes: thenation.com/article/world/… #Ghani was a flawed President but he was set up to fail. #Afghanistan #Taliban
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