The international community has given President Karzai six months to rid his administration of corruption or face the consequences, and the US is pressing for the appointment of a "high representative" to keep watch over his government.
The news has created excitement among Afghans who are waiting for the first heads to roll. There's been much speculation about the identity of the potential victims and the possibilities are endless. After all, corruption is a murky term in Afghanistan.
The vernacular translation of the English term is fesaad, a word which refers to moral corruption, conjuring up images of strip clubs and gambling halls rather than the Ministry of Islamic Endowment, one of the first government offices accused of corruption. The ministry's director responded to the accusation with indignation, and threatened to unleash 162 imams against Tolo TV.
Meanwhile, those with access to evidence of corruption would probably be tempted to offer it for sale and so undermine its validity of the evidence. As for the rest of the country, it's much ado about nothing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/01/afghanistan-corruption
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