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OTTAWA — Military efforts in Afghanistan are being stalled by the perceived weakness of Canada's diplomatic and aid agencies, says the former cultural adviser to Canada's top soldier in Kandahar.

Despite having spent six years in the country, Canada still hasn't mastered the intricacies of dealing with Afghanistan's tribal culture and it's having a negative impact on the mission as a whole, said Malgarai, the Afghan-Canadian man who spent 13 months with the military in Kandahar.

Malgarai asked that only his first name be used to protect his family.

"The channel of communication is very weak," he told The Canadian Press in an exclusive interview at the weekend.

"You know communication co-ordination exists, you know that everybody is working together but in reality it doesn't work that way."

Malgarai was known as "Pasha" to the soldiers and Afghans he worked with as a language and cultural adviser to Brig-Gen. Guy Laroche, the former commanding officer of Canada's military effort in Kandahar, whose term ended in May.

While local Afghans are used as interpreters for soldiers, there are an undisclosed number of Afghan-Canadians who also work with the military to help translate and advise on culture matters in Kandahar.

Earlier this year, several Afghan elders petitioned both the Canadian and Afghan governments to have Malgarai installed as governor of the province.

"Neither the (Canadian) government neither the military had anything to do with it," Malgarai said of the petition.

"It was purely and solely an Afghan initiative. The tribal leaders of Kandahar, and the shura of Kandahar who asked the task force of Kandahar for my support and they spoke to (Afghan President Hamid Karzai)."

Instead, his contract with the military was not renewed and he left Afghanistan in late June.

The former Ottawa civil servant, whose family fled Afghanistan in 1994, said while the military has made some headway in training soldiers on the cultural realities of working in Kandahar, the aid and diplomatic sides of Canada's mission are falling short.

The appointment of Elissa Golberg as the representative of Canada in Kandahar is but one example, he said.

She assumed the position of Canada's top diplomat in Kandahar in February 2008, following her job as executive director of the Manley Panel, a task force appointed by the Conservative government to look into the current mission.

Among the panel's recommendations was the need for better co-ordination of the three branches of the mission.

Though Malgarai said he respected her intelligence and ability, she was a liability and not an asset when it comes to dealing with Afghans.

"The nature of work where we work, there are some traditional forces, cultural forces, which she may not be as effective, or any other Foreign Affairs representative in Kandahar as effective, as a male and this is again because of the society," he said.

"The thing is knowing Afghan culture, Afghan people, the people are not taking her seriously."

Too much money is being spent on so-called "Afghan experts" who have merely read some essays or taken a few classes, Malgarai said, whether they are aid workers, cultural advisers to the military or police trainers.

"Afghanistan is not a jungle that somebody just walked into and then they start trying to rebuild a country," he said.

"We had a government before, we had infrastructure, we had a system in place before, those people are around they used to train the Afghans. The infrastructure is still there and the people must be there too."

Malgarai said from his vantage point, the weakness in Canada's current efforts in Kandahar also comes from aid and political officials not adequately backing up military efforts.

"The military are on the forefront, they go see the villages, they see them in need of wells, electricity, things that will people live and support their own government," he said.

"But then the military is forced to put in a proposal and what comes back is bureaucracy, not help."

In turn, villagers feel they can't trust Canadians, Malgarai said, and have no incentive not to let insurgents use their land as staging ground for attacks.

The majority of Canada's aid to Afghanistan is spent through non-governmental organizations and bodies like the United Nations, who then parcel out the money to Afghan government ministries".

But Malgarai said with corruption rampant in the Afghan government, that policy needs to stop.

"Give the money to the military and let them spend it where they see fit and where they need to build stuff until we get a responsible government authority where they can be accountable and be trusted," he said.

Canada's efforts, he said, are also butting up against the current governor, Asadullah Khalid.

He said the Afghan people as well have rejected the governor and his near-continuous absence from Kandahar in the past few months is proof he has lost control of the province.

Khalid was rumoured to be days away from being replaced in April when then-foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier told reporters he asked Karzai to turf him because of persistent allegations of corruption.

The comments were understood to have quashed Karzai's efforts to replace Khalid, because he could not be seen to making a political move at the behest of western officials.

But the search for a new governor for Kandahar has not ended.

Among the potential new candidates is Gul Agha Shirzai, who was governor of the province in the early 1990s and again after the fall of the Taliban.

Malgarai said he hasn't ruled out a return to Kandahar in a political position, if Karzai will have him.

"I am an Afghan and I wouldn't want somebody else to talk to the president of my country, where I was born to say 'OK, please put Pasha as a governor,' " he said.

"If the president sees me fit for that position, good, but if the president doesn't see me fit for it, OK. My purpose is to help the Kandahar people and to help save the lives of Canadians."

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