Seeds of democracy

Afghanistan's new constitution may serve as an example for Iraq, which must overcome similarly emotional ethnic and religious divisions.

True democracy is always a messy business, so people shouldn't be overly alarmed by the very messy, but ultimately successful, process of forging a new constitution in Afghanistan.

The loya jirga, or grand council, that created the new document was perpetually on the verge of collapsing over various political, religious, ethnic and tribal disputes. The longstanding divisions still exist, of course. In the end, though, members of the council built broad support for the new constitution through a series of compromises reminiscent of those that created the foundation for the United States more than 200 years ago.

President Hamid Karzai, with the backing of the Bush administration, ultimately won support for a strong-president system, but several deft concessions were made to ease the concerns of ethnic minorities who feared the concentration of power in a chief executive. The creation of an independent judiciary, along with a two-chamber national assembly, also will spread citizens' access to their new government.

The most delicate compromises involved the official role of Islam. It would have been unrealistic to expect the document to ignore Islam's powerful role in the Afghan people's lives, but the constitution does avoid language that might be used as a pretext for re-establishing the Taliban's repressive perversion of Islam. It also expressly gives women equal rights, and it bolsters the political and social autonomy of ethnic minorities.

A new constitution barely begins to solve Afghanistan's overwhelming problems, but the very act of creating it represents a step toward national reconciliation that would have been inconceivable two years ago. Afghanistan was hardly considered fertile ground for democracy even before the Taliban came to power and drove the country back toward the Dark Ages.

If Afghanistan stays on course toward national elections and a new government later this year, its progress could serve as a model for Iraq, which is attempting to begin a similar transition. The traditional divisions among Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmans and other ethnic groups in Afghanistan mirror those between Kurds and Arabs, and between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, in Iraq. Both countries also continue to fight a grim battle against terrorist insurgents bent on destroying the new institutions of democracy.

Yet most people in Iraq, as in Afghanistan, thirst for freedom after decades of dictatorship and war. Sebaghatullah Mojadeddi, chairman of Afghanistan's loya jirga, recited a poem to express his happiness with the council's work. "There is rain coming," he said, "and flowers are growing from my body."

The new Afghan constitution should give hope to people in many nations hoping to move beyond the arid landscape of repression.

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