Dr. Zafar Altaf
Finally,
the cat is out of bag and an arrogant President General Pervez Musharraf
while addressing a press conference in Islamabad last week has frankly
made it public that he would love to keep everything in his pocket
specially the Presidency and office of the 
chief
of army staff for next five years simultanously to lead that troubled
country into new era of prosperity and above all "genuine"
democracy!
I really
wonder will all these one man announced "constitutional shields",
ever protect our presidents including the present one from disasterous
end as it has been happening in this country in the past.
After
going through the details of all these questionable amendments..(no
doubt announced in the best supreme national interest), I am reminded
of Capt. Liddlehart who might be turning in his grave for nations
are not learning the lessons of history.
The lessons
of military strategy are being used on the people of Pakistan. Nawaz
Sharif the former Prime Minister never learnt the lessons of history,
the one before never understood the factors of governance and what
is worse a third rater was asked to become the interim Prime Minister
only to serve as front man while decisions were taken by the high
and mighty elsewhere. We are a nation of elsewhere’s. Decisions
are handed over to us by whatever, whenever and wherever as we are
found wanting in our own efforts.
The current
political malaise is also an outcome of decisions where personal factors
were strongly played. No individual is stronger than an institution
and no institution is stronger than a nation and a country. It therefore
stands to reason to understand why Zia and company were ultimately
obliterated, why Nawaz Sharif is out on a limbo and why Benazir is
fighting a battle for survival. Individuals are finite and are terminated
over time while nations and countries survive turmoil after turmoil.
The history of Europe is testimony to the wars and stupidities of
there times.
Pakistan
and its people are suffering the consequences of their apathy. When
East Pakistan left us we were doomed not ideologically but because
the censorship and the correctness of the situations that was received
from the east was lost. The political awareness there was substantial.
Let me leave you there for the moment for more urgent current factors
are to be understood in the context of not an individual but the country
and its well-being.
First
who has the right to amend the constitution? The powerful or the collective
wisdom of the elected representatives? We saw in the last elected
national assembly the party toting Parliamentarians not even debate
the amendments. The mandate according to the then Prime Minister was
given to him to do as he thought fit. What happened? The intentional
guilt was that he wanted to have totalitarian powers. He got them
and for how long? He is out of the picture. He wanted to give justice
at the doorstep and for this he devised his own terrorist laws and
courts [at best described in Australian animal terms]. He fell into
his own trap.
The Chief
Justice of the time had the judicial wisdom to force him to allow
an appeal otherwise the people of Pakistan would have found themselves
on the gallows without a right to appeal. That notwithstanding in
one district they carried out cowboy style police killings and called
it police ‘muqabala’. Basra is reported to have died a similar
death. It is not confirmed. And hearsay has no place either in judicial
trials or in police and powerful peoples extermination squads.
The strategy
employed by the right arm of the current government was first to eliminate
any one that could object. So unleash a terror and put the fear of
God [or half Gods] in the ones that could intellectually take them
on. The civil society had to be taught a lesson. The power that could
stand up was eliminated systematically. The amendments that came from
the National Reconstruction Bureau were in two tranches [remember
IMF and the tranche system]. Both covered about 80 pages. What was
the idea? The idea seemed to be not to allow them to question the
credibility of the doers but to embroil the political parties in to
a long drawn confusion.
At the
same time the electronic and the print media, free as it is, was used
for the purpose of carrying out the necessary bludgeoning of the ordinary
mind. The basic question was are people allowed to do this or is it
a function of the elected members? Cabinet meetings were held and
it was given out that there was much that was thought out. I was reminded
of an incident before the 1971 elections. Brig. Kiernander had called
a meeting at Rangpur and for a full day they debated the process of
elections. Till some one told them that it was embodied in the Election
Act and they had no discretion but to follow the same. They did but
very reluctantly because all of them were from the Socratic school-highly
intelligent.
Why did
George Washington never become a life President? The answer was in
him. He had the wisdom and the sagacity to say that two terms were
enough. Nations are made when the top leadership assumes a humble
and an open and liberal attitude. What did Confucius have to say on
this? Simple. He stated ‘ Governance of a large country is like
frying a small fish-very delicately’. How do we govern? I leave
it to you to assume what you want to.
But much
more important in democracy is the procedure for the succession system?
How will future Presidents come about? By accident or by choice? Those
that have come about by accident and not by choice eventually gave
way to democratic strengths-Franco, Pinochet, the Brazilian Presidents,
the Argentinian jokers and when one goes through history one sees
that only those country’s and nations have prospered as have
lived by the popular will.
The power that is being invoked is totalitarian in as much as no person
has the right to dissolve and dismiss the elected representative.
This is what Nawaz Sharif sought and got it. Where power is so blatant
then extra-constitutional options come in to play. And please we do
not seek any of those options in Pakistan we are a peace loving nation
and we do not seek more blood shedding.
The national
security council is a high risk one. Why? It is so because of the
nature of the people that man it. They are more in physical prowess
than in intellectual and mental powers. In any case the intellectuals
are greatly outnumbered. The second issue here is the kind of information
that will be passed on to them. The information providers are secret
agencies and specifically naib-subedars and below [non-commissioned
personal]. So any decision based on this information will reflect
the level and the primacy of that data.
Thirdly
there is a likelihood of the council becoming a rubber stamp of the
power that be. Pakistan is its own breed of democracy. Its wisdom
is much more than the wisdom of the world. Its culture according to
the parrots of this country is far superior to that of the world.
We are a dozen to the dime. And if you do not believe me come to the
captured electronic media every day and see the painful affects of
this media on the captured audience.
Does
Pakistan have any other option than the current lot? Why not? Why
do we question the will of collective wisdom and allow the wisdom
of six to come in? Is it because these people have over the years
developed economic interests and they would not like them to be disturbed?
John Ruskin was right when he said that the army was not a profession
but a sacrifice and the nation would gratefully acknowledge its debt
to those that gave their life for the rest of the country? He did
not mention debt in anticipation of sacrifice? The shaheeds of this
nation are a living concern the Ghazis are not. Islam eulogizes the
dead and not the living because of a sense of duty to their families.
They gave of their best to save the others. The matters rest there.
Does
it then allow them the right to do as they please because of the power
that they have? Having lived all my life in cantonments I can assure
you that those that are the masses in them have a genuine pride in
the nation and its welfare. They are in a daze at the moment. They
are unable to fathom as to what is happening. The pride of the nation
is in the balance at the moment. Please do not barter it away for
personal reasons. Even if there is a vendetta that you have to resolve
do it in a peaceable manner. Take the Nelson Mandella options. Include
every one in the process of democracy. If not the ultimate loser is
the individual. He is the finite one. The infinite will do well in
the end for it can last a long time.
The
writer is a recently retired Federal Secretary of the Pakistan Government.
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