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Business News/ News / World/  Ashraf Ghani: Afghan ‘free spirit’ seizes presidency
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Ashraf Ghani: Afghan ‘free spirit’ seizes presidency

Ghani is an intellectual high-achiever who proudly describes himself as a 'free spirit', and his rule as president of Afghanistan is unlikely to be dull

Ashraf Ghani worked with the World Bank from 1991, becoming an expert on the Russian coal industry, and finally moved back to Kabul as a senior UN special adviser soon after the Taliban were routed in late 2001. Photo: AFPPremium
Ashraf Ghani worked with the World Bank from 1991, becoming an expert on the Russian coal industry, and finally moved back to Kabul as a senior UN special adviser soon after the Taliban were routed in late 2001. Photo: AFP

Kabul: Ashraf Ghani is an intellectual high-achiever with a famous temper who proudly describes himself as a “free spirit"—and his rule as president of Afghanistan is unlikely to be dull.

Ghani, now 65, enjoyed a stellar career as an academic and economist after leaving Afghanistan in 1977, only returning 24 years later to pursue his dream of rebuilding the country.

He studied at New York’s Columbia University, before teaching in the US during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

He worked with the World Bank from 1991, becoming an expert on the Russian coal industry, and finally moved back to Kabul as a senior UN special adviser soon after the Taliban were routed in late 2001.

In the days that followed, he was a key architect of the interim government and became a powerful finance minister under President Hamid Karzai from 2002 to 2004, campaigning hard against burgeoning corruption.

Renowned for his energy, Ghani introduced a new currency, set up a tax system, encouraged wealthy expat Afghans to return home, and cajoled donors as the country emerged from the austere Taliban era.

But he also earned the divisive reputation that still dogs him today.

“He never allowed anyone to get too close, remaining aloof," wrote veteran author Ahmed Rashid, who has known him for 25 years.

“Unfortunately his explosions of bad temper and displays of arrogance with fellow Afghans and Westerners were all too frequent and soon made him a loathed figure."

Strong campaigner

After performing poorly in the 2009 election, Ghani shocked many Afghans this time by choosing as a running mate General Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord accused of numerous human rights abuses.

But Ghani lit up the campaign trail with a series of fiery speeches, and he did better than many expected in the first round by taking 31.6% of the vote to the 45% of his rival Abdullah Abdullah.

Preliminary results from the run-off in June put him 13 points ahead of Abdullah, and the official result on Sunday confirmed his victory—though no figures on the final margin of victory were immediately released.

Despite allegations of massive fraud, the outcome is a major comeback for Ghani, who says his patient negotiating over a “national unity government" with Abdullah has demonstrated he has the temperament to be a unifying president.

Ghani is Pashtun—like Karzai—and recently started using his tribal name Ahmadzai to underline his background, though he stresses the importance of unifying Afghanistan’s disparate ethnic groups.

His most recent role was overseeing the security transition from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) to Afghan command, a job which he used to travel to all parts of the country and raise his public profile.

“I’m not going to have an isolated life (in the presidential palace)," Ghani told AFP recently.

“I intend to travel as I did during my stewardship of the transition. Look, I am a free spirit—I can’t be confined to palaces. They tell me every day somebody or other is going to assassinate me, but I still move."

Ghani is married to Rula, whom he met while studying for his first degree at the American University in Lebanon, and has two children.

He maintains a disciplined daily routine after losing part of his stomach to cancer, leaving him to nibble on snacks as he is unable to digest a full meal.

Some say his brush with death fuels his fierce determination—as well as his decision to take a tilt at the top job against the odds.

He told AFP that his one regret if he takes office will be having to live in the palace in central Kabul rather than his house on the city outskirts.

“I think I will be able to sneak back," he said. “By law I am told I have to live in the palace. I checked, it is one of the most unfortunate things that I have discovered."

“My garden is just yielding fruits and vegetables and I hope to enjoy some of it."

Once in power, Ghani is likely to repair frayed ties with the US, but his antagonistic style may make for rocky relations with Abdullah and outgoing President Karzai. AFP

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Published: 22 Sep 2014, 02:57 PM IST
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