PROFILE The people’s king

The Hindu

AUNOHITA MOJUMDAR
Mohammed Zahir Shah presided over the last uninterrupted peace the country enjoyed.
Photo: AP An observer: Mohammed Zahir Shah at his KabuL office.
It is not often in history that an era can be defined by the lack of what didn’t exist, the absence of what didn’t occur. tO many in Afghanistan, the 40-year reign of Afghanistan’s last king is defined by exactly that — the ab sence of war and violence and major changes.
Mohammad Zahir Shah came to power when his father was assassinated in 1933. In 1973, he relinquished power to his cousin in a bloodless coup. That was the last peaceful transition that Afghanistan was to see and the last uninterrupted peace.Behind the thrnone
If the absence of violence characterised his reign, at least part of the reason was Shah’s personality. In the first 30 years of his 40-year reign, power was exercised from behind the throne. The 19-year-old boy steered by his uncles gave way to the middle-aged monarch who seemed content to allow his ambitious cousin Daud Khan to wield power as Prime Minister. In 1963, an order prohibiting members of the royal family from taking positions of power in government was promulgated. This move, popular with citizens, also helped remove his powerful and sometimes controversial Prime Minister Daud Khan.
For 10 years, Zahir Shah ruled alone. In 1964, a new constitution was adopted providing for a representative government through a bicameral parliament though the powers of the parliament were confined to the consultative process and not all members were elected. The royal family’s attitude towards women was liberal and Shah also tried to take this forward through education. Uneasy reforms
However, he lacked both the forceful personality and political savvy needed to survive in the changing social and political milieu of Afghanistan. The reforms sat uneasily on his shoulders. Easily persuaded that allowing political parties would weaken his position, he never signed the bill that would enable them to participate in parliamentary politics (a political position he shared with the current Afghan president Hamid Karzai). Liberal reforms proceeded fitfully.
Much of the development and the programmes remained confined to Kabul, as the king exercised varying degrees of control in outlying areas. For the royal family, it was a time of hunting parties and foreign visits.
A severe famine and lack of economic opportunities helped create the conditions for the removal of Shah by a determined Daud Khan, who seized power and declared Afghanistan a republic while the monarch was in Rome.
The coup supposedly took place while Shah was taking a mud bath, a story that has assumed mythic symbolism. For the next 34 years, Shah was to largely play the role of an observer, the first 29 years in Rome and the remaining in Afghanistan until his death last week.
Though he expressed disquiet with the events in his lost kingdom from time to time, his intervention never took a more forceful form and he never attempted to regain his place.
Perhaps the lack of a powerful personality was also the reason why there were attempts to reinstate him from time to time. His neutral personality was viewed as being largely acceptable to most ethnic and political groups. Comebacks
The first attempt was after the Soviet withdrawal, but failed because of the bitter opposition from conservative groups. The move saw a new lease of life in 2001, as the international community searched for a non-controversial figure following the ouster of the Taliban. Contemporary accounts of the proceedings suggest that Shah was ‘persuaded’ to drop out in favour of the US-backed Hamid Karzai. The 2004 Constitution anointed Zahir Shah the ‘father of the nation’, effectively stripping him of the last vestiges of monarchy.
Since 2002, when he returned to the country, Shah’s presence did create a political space that has now acquired a momentum. Shah was allowed to retain part of the royal palace as his personal quarters and his presence helped leverage the influence of the members of the royal family. New political front
Unsullied by the bloodletting of the last three decades, members of the royal family also command a respect denied to factional political leaders. This has emerged as an important political element in the current fractured polity of Afghanistan. The past six years has seen a concerted attempt to consolidate power in the hands of an executive style presidency, and the result has been a growing alienation and frustration of disparate political groups.
Three months ago, disparate groups, apparently sharing little in the way of a common platform other than a disenchantment with the sources of power, came together to form a new political front.
The members of the Afghanistan National Front, include the former president Burhanuddin Rabbani; the former warlord from the North Abdul Rashid Dostum; the Vice president Ahmad Zia Massoud; the former war lord from the West Ismail Khan, Younus Qanuni from the Northern Alliance and Mustafa Zahir the grandson of the former king, among others.
While their efficacy as a united front is yet to be tested, it is already clear that they wield considerable influence. Buttressed by this new political group, Northern Alliance’ Younus Qanooni has used his position as speaker of the lower house to maintain an adamant stance on parliament’s powers to dismiss ministers, the case in point being that of the Foreign Minister Dadfar Spanta.
In a nascent democracy with an ongoing demarcation of powers, the influence of the royal family will go some way in shaping the new political balance of power, the reshaping of a republic by an erstwhile monarchy.