Pakistan News and Discussion-8

Naresh · 09-25-2006, 03:04 AM

[center]Cry, beloved Pakistan - Roedad Khan <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /> [/center]

In these harsh and difficult political times, the question of leadership is at the center of our national concerns. The times cry out for leadership. At the heart of leadership is the leader's character. Pakistan is a nation of teahouse politicians, midgets with no commitment to principles and no values; nothing to die for and nothing to live for. Here we have pocketbook liberals, pseudo democrats and orthodox religious leaders concerned only with short - term profits and only too eager to do business with the military. A chasm separates them from the people who see them as a predatory group, self-enriching and engaged in perpetual intrigue while the country collapses. And when the winds blow and the rain descends and the house is about to collapse, they all vanish in a night.

When the history of our benighted times comes to be written, Tuesday, December 30, 2003, will be remembered as a day of infamy. On that day, elected representatives of the people of Pakistan had to make a fateful choice: they could either collaborate with the military regime, thereby losing all their credibility or insist that the Generals call it a day, restore parliamentary democracy and go back to the barracks.
Regrettably, MMA sacrificed principle for expediency, broke rank with the opposition and joined hands with the government party to subvert the constitution. The parliament passed an extraordinary constitutional amendment bill, jointly sponsored by the government party and MMA, which added a new clause (8) to article 41 of the constitution, providing for a "one-time vote of confidence for a further affirmation of General Musharraf's presidency"!

Two days later, on January 1, 2004, in an unprecedented move made in a carefully orchestrated process, General Musharraf obtained a "vote of confidence" from the parliament and four provincial assemblies and was declared "elected" as President by the Chief Election Commissioner! How could MMA, for many Pakistanis the voice of authentic opposition, enter upon the path of collaboration? How could members of the National Assembly, sworn to preserve, protect and defend the constitution, participate in this charade? How could they perpetrate this fraud which has made a mockery of the entire constitutional process? How can a dubious "vote of confidence" be a substitute for election, of the President of Pakistan, as provided for in the constitution? How can it confer legitimacy? More disgusted than dejected, I still can't fathom this ugly turn in our political history.

Barring a few blissful exceptions, can anyone among our leaders say, in all honesty, that he is in jail or in exile because of his ideals; because of what he stood for; because of what he thought or because of his conscience? Can anyone of them face the court like Nelson Mandela and say, "whatever sentence your Worship sees fit to impose upon me, may it rest assured that when my sentence has been completed, I will still be moved, as men are always moved, by their consciences. And when I come out from serving my sentence, I will take up again, as best I can, the struggle for the rights of my people". Can anyone of our leaders face a judge and declare that he always cherished the ideal of a democratic, corruption - free Pakistan - an ideal which he hoped to live for and to achieve. And like Mandela, "if needs be, it is an ideal for which he is prepared to die".

Nobody expects our leaders to die in the service of Pakistan or suffer the crushing effects of prison life, even for a good cause, as Mandela did on Robbin island - clean his toilet bucket in sinks at the far end of a long corridor at 6:35 AM every day, sit cross - legged for hours forbidden to talk, bash away with a 5 - pound hammer at piles of stone in front of him, crushing them into gravel, receive only one visitor in every six months, write and receive only one letter in the same period, work in the lime quarries for about 27 long years on Robbin island with the cold and fierce Atlantic winds sweeping across the island, numbed to the bone hardly able to raise his pick. Mandela suffered all this and more not because he was charged with corruption or that he had looted or plundered the state treasury or that he had betrayed national interest. He suffered because he refused to accept the injustice and inhumanity of a cruel system which a fascist white minority government had imposed on his people. He didn't flinch. He did not waver. He did not run away. He made no deal. He stood his ground and won. That is the stuff that leaders are made of.

It gives me no pleasure to say that Pakistan no longer exists, by that I mean the country of our dreams, our hopes, our pride. The Bonapartists have robbed us of everything - our past, our present, our future. Today a moral crisis is writ large on the entire political scene in Pakistan. The Pakistan dream has morphed into the Pakistan nightmare. The country is under army rule for the fourth time and in deep, deep trouble. This is the darkest era in the history of Pakistan since 1971. The independence of Pakistan is a myth. Pakistan is no longer a free country. It is no longer a democratic country. American military personnel cross and re-cross our border without let or hindrance. They violate our air space with impunity and kill innocent men, women and children. Everyday I ask myself the same question: How can this be happening in Pakistan? How can people like these be in charge of our country? If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I'd think I was having a hallucination.

At a time when leadership is desperately needed to cope with matters of vital importance and put the country back on the democratic path, Pakistan is ruled by a regime which lacks both legitimacy and credibility and seems oblivious to the realities and is interested only in perpetuating itself. It doesn't seem to share the feeling of national shame. The nation is breaking down. It has become ungovernable and would remain so as long as the present set-up continues.

God save Pakistan. I have never prayed, "God save Pakistan", with more heartfelt fervour. You can feel the deep apprehension brooding over all. The proverbial little cloud no longer than a man's hand has already formed over the Pakistani scene. The country is in the grip of a grave political and constitutional crisis. General Musharraf is leading the country to a perilous place. Thanks to our political leaders, an authoritarian rule is fast acquiring the mantle of legitimacy and permanence. There is no one to restrain him. It is unnerving to realize that General Musharraf is going to be with us for an indefinite period of time. Grinding our teeth, we have been reduced to the role of spectators.

A pall has descended on the nation and we are fast approaching Arthur Koestlers' Darkness at Noon. At this time, all those, in the country or abroad, who see the perils of the future must draw together and take resolute measures to secure our country. The tragedy is that each man feels what is wrong, and knows what is required to be done, but none has the will or the courage or the energy needed to speak up and say Enough is Enough. All have lofty ideals, hopes, aspirations, desires, which produce no visible or durable results, like old men's passions ending in impotence.

Today, there is only one measure by which people appraise their leaders in these troubled times: the degree to which they stand up to despotism. Many questions rush to mind. Why can't the opposition unite around one single irrevocable purpose: end of military rule before free, fair, impartial elections can be held, a neutral interim government, restoration of the un-amended 1973 Constitution? Why can't they make a solemn commitment never to parley, never to negotiate with any usurper, and never to allow anything to cause the slightest divergence of aim or slackening of effort in their ranks? Why can't they form a grand alliance against the military dictator? Why don't they resign en bloc end this charade? Why are they sticking to their seats in a rubberstamp parliament? Why? The answer is simple. To such as these leaders, talk of resisting despotism is as embarrassing as finding yourself in the wrong clothes at the wrong party, as tactless as a challenge to run to a legless man, as out of place as a bugle call in a mortuary. Why is tyranny retreating elsewhere and not in Pakistan? The reason is that, unlike Pakistan, they had leaders who loved liberty more than they feared persecution. They did not dread persecution.

One thing is clear. Tyranny is not abandoned as long as it is served by a modicum of those two enormous and dreadful powers: the apathy of the people and organized troops. It is going to be an uphill task. There is no doubt about that. The lesson of history is that you almost never succeed in bringing freedom back in a country that has lost it. If you do succeed, it is almost always the result of a war - it seldom happens that a nation oppressed by dictatorship finds a way to liberate itself without a war. This is true, but history always has new developments up its sleeve and sometimes satisfying ones. A single voice - a voice that has credibility as the voice of the anger of the people and its will to resist, can break through the conspiracy of silence, the atmosphere of fear, and the solitude of feeling politically impotent.

"Do you think that history is changed because one individual comes along instead of another", Oriana Fallaci asked Willy Brandt. "I think that individuals play a definite role in history", Willy Brandt replied, "But I also think that its' situation that makes one talent emerge instead of another. A talent that already existed.If the individual and situation meet, then the mechanism is set off by which history takes one direction instead of another". Today Pakistan is ripe for profound changes. When a nation is in crisis, it needs a man to match the crisis. Cometh the hour, cometh the men. The voice of history beckons Benazir and Nawaz Sharif to play their historic role. Blessed are those who return to lead the people to victory. If they fail to respond, the hour will find the man. Website: www.roedadkhan.com

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

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