Rebuilding Afghanistan

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KABUL, Afghanistan --The election is over, andthepeopleof Afghanistanhave won. Months of setting up for this important day, including a voter-registration surge at the end, translated into success at the polls and significance for people's lives.

The presidential election wheretheincumbent, Hamid Karzai, has just won a second term? No. That one will take place on Oct. 9.

This was an election where small, large and medium-sized Afghan firms from all over the country were represented by their leaders and managers in building a new cornerstone institution for themselves andthefutureof Afghanistan. Not sexy, you're thinking? Well, think again. These are the people who are pushing for a market economy and fairness and transparency in government actions. These are the people who will grow a productive economy -- one not based mostly on charity -- and provide the necessities of life through gainful employment in lasting jobs that can substitute for employment by warlords or drug lords.

That's important if there is to be a viable Afghanistan.

Business is the only force that can cut through ethnic, tribal and religious barriers. It unifies by virtue of being blind to such differences. Yes, it can make warlords richer, but it also provides them with incentives for civility. Plus, it creates new centers of power in the society.

Three hundred people were expected; 2,500 showed up to vote. Obvious was their energy, their enthusiasm, their pride and their strength. They were creating one of those institutions that becomes a pillar of a free society, an economic power independent of the state.

In the words of the Afghan International Chamber of Commerce (AICC) interim president, Hamid Qaderi: "AICC seeks, and we have started to connect the business community ? to the very making of the policies, laws and regulations that determine the destiny of the private sector and a market economy in Afghanistan."

He added, "We create this strong voice, not only to promote our own dreams of enterprise for ourselves and our families, but the well-being of the people of Afghanistan, their children and their grandchildren. By promoting with our words and deeds the 'market economy' that our constitution designates for our country, we bring the possibility of a newprosperityto Afghanistan."

While it may not grab the headlines,thereisreal progress being made toward decentralizingeconomic power and building free markets -- oft-underestimated but vital factors in achieving democracy.

This national shift in policy toward private enterprise in Afghanistan is also good news for an American public under a constant barrage of bad news from Afghanistan.