Afghanistan - A New History by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781136803390
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2002-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Return of Daoud and the Saur Revolution

Writing to the Foreign Office shortly after Daoud’s resignation in 1963, the British Ambassador in Kabul, Michael Gillett, ventured the forecast1 that

If the relaxation in the control of the press and the gradual introduction of a liberal political system should lead to an upsurge of anti-government sentiment and a factious opposition, there is certain to emerge a group with supporters among the royal family urging a return to strong government under Prince Daoud and, possibly, the suspension of the Constitution.

Gillett would probably have attached a shorter time span than the ten years that it took for his forebodings to be realised, but Daoud’s return fully bore them out. Daoud himself said2;

For more than a year, the subject was being considered by some friends, and various plans discussed. Only when anarchy and the anti-national attitude of the regime reached its peak was the decision for taking action made.

During his ten years of enforced idleness, Daoud never ceased to discuss affairs with his cronies, and he had probably been planning a come-back for a much longer period than a year. The trigger may well have been, not the anarchy that he alleged, but rather the fact that Moosa Shafiq was beginning to look as if he might be able to turn the country round. Daoud may have believed that if he did not move when he did, there might no longer appear to be any justification for his action. As it was, the King’s democratic experiment was reckoned to have failed, and Daoud was able to muster sufficient support for his move.

In large measure, responsibility for the failure has to be laid at the door of the King. He was generally seen as a decent, well-intentioned man who was a genuine patriot and had the best interests of his country at heart. For most of his reign, however, he had done little more than occupy the throne, while the country was run by his uncles and cousins, and he seems never to have learnt the art of leadership. In the early 1960s, he saw the need to exert himself, but he lacked the courage and decisiveness to follow through his reforms and ensure their success. He needled his Prime Ministers, but rarely gave them the support they needed in successive crises. The nub of his failure was his refusal to pass into law the political parties, provincial councils and municipalities legislation, which would have given his governments, as well as the provincial and municipal councils, the political support they needed in order to function effectively. His concern seems to have been that the passage of these acts might have opened the door to extremism and factionalism. In particular, his cousin and son-in-law, General Abdul Wali, who in the early 1970s became the power behind the throne, is said to have advised him that there was a real danger of a left-wing electoral victory if political parties were allowed to operate legally. Given the left

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