Afghanistan and Lack of Effective Political Intelligence

Politics and political practices in Afghanistan and some other parts of the world are interpreted as conspiracy and deception. Therefore, contrary to scientific teachings, politics has become highly discredited among the layers of society and people have developed hatred and disgust for politics and politicians. Undoubtedly, the formation of a negative mentality towards politics and politicians is affected by the performance that people and society have experienced from politicians and people involved in the power pyramid. Politicians in countries like Afghanistan have abused the people as a tool to achieve their legitimate and illegitimate personal and group desires and made them a ladder to climb and promote themselves, and as a result, a negative and pessimistic attitude and perception have shaped among the society.
In the world of politics, which today has a wide influence and involvement in all spheres of life, there is no logical structure, the hierarchy of communication is misused, and legal powers are ignored. Therefore, the rules of the world of politics are never written, but every politician acts and moves forward in the world of politics with the unwritten law that he has drawn in his thoughts. In this chaotic situation, however, there are successful actors who can use their power and influence among people and society well, who have high political skills and have political intelligence.
According to scientists, political intelligence means the ability to very actively management reactions to change and levers of power and influence. Some have interpreted political intelligence as the ability to create a good communication network that can create informal coalitions as well as formal coalitions.
In order to acquire political intelligence, people need to know the foundations and sources of their own and others’ influence and develop their communication and negotiation skills. People with high political intelligence know who to influence in order to gain benefits in changes. They also know the best time and the best way to get people to accept the changes.
In Afghanistan, however, political players have the least benefit of political intelligence and skill, or thinking that the people are illiterate and do not have the ability to properly understand the issues, they act in such a way that the people that are the main owners of the land and the main factor of the power and influence of the politicians are always forgotten and completely marginalized.
According to the scientific models that are drawn and used in the field of political intelligence and skill, Afghan politicians in most cases are completely lacking in political intelligence. This means that they do not have the social awareness to understand what is going on around them and observe others correctly. They do not benefit from the power of personal influence and are deprived of having a persuasive personality and a special style that is pleasing to the people. Their networking ability is extremely weak and they are not able to form a network of healthy and effective communication that will help them. Most importantly, Afghan politicians are far from being honest. This means that they do not have the ability to communicate and transmit honest and sincere opinions and avoid hypocrisy and deceiving people, or they deliberately ignore it.
Therefore, those who want to succeed in Afghanistan’s politics and continue their presence in power, need to acquire the necessary political intelligence and put rationality and wisdom in the center of people and citizens in order to provide the basis for individual success and improvement.