Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Has Pakistan lost its manhood?
"J'accuse"
ROEDAD KHAN
Those who hold power and shape the destiny of others should never be judged in a moment of misfortune or defeat. If seen as a corpse hung by the feet, even Mussolini could arouse some pity. They must be judged when they are alive and in power. At the heart of leadership is the leader's character. He must always walk on a straight line. Honour and probity must be his polar star. People will entrust their hopes and dreams to another person only if they think the other is a reliable vessel. His character - demonstrated through deeds more than words - is at the heart of it. Mr Jinnah never misled his people even when they wanted to hear something gentler than the truth. "You could take his word to the bank", as the old saying went. If a President has credibility, nothing else matters. If he hasn't, nothing else matters. General Musharraf lost credibility on Thursday, December 30, 2004, when he reneged on his promise to give up his post as Chief of Army Staff and doff his uniform. When a man thinks he can get away with denying his own words even though there are thousands of witnesses and a video record, he clearly believes he can get away with murder. A few days after the 1999 coup, Musharraf's spokesman, Brig Rashed Qureshi (now Major General) insisted that, "while others may have tried to hang on to power, we will not. We will make history". Musharraf agreed. "All I can say", he assured a television interviewer in January 2000, "is that I am not going to perpetuate myself - I can't give any certificate on it but my word of honour. I will not perpetuate myself". That was six years ago! General Musharraf is not thinking in terms of Pakistan and her honour. Surrender rather than sacrifice is the theme of his thoughts and speeches. The tide of capitulation has swamped even the gesture of defiance. The lack of virile reaction has now become a cloying helplessness. 58 years after independence, are we really free? Are we masters in our own house? Is our sovereignty untrammelled? We lost our independence and sovereignty when we capitulated, said yes to all the seven demands presented, at gunpoint, in the form of an ultimatum, by Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State. "It looks like you got it all", a surprised Bush told a triumphant Colin Powell. No self-respecting, sovereign, independent country, no matter how small or weak, could have accepted such humiliating demands with such alacrity. Our government executed a U-turn, disowned the Talibans and promised "unstinted" cooperation to President Bush in his war against Afghanistan. Pakistan joined the "coalition of the coerced". There were no cheering crowds in the streets of Pakistan to applaud the decision to facilitate American bombing of Afghanistan from US bases on Pakistan soil. Musharraf had to choose between saying No to the American Diktat and shame. He opted for collaboration. Thus began Pakistan's slide into disaster. We would have suffered if we had said No. But that is a little matter. We would have retained something which is to me of great value. We would have walked about the world with our heads erect. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif defied President Clinton and carried out a nuclear explosion. The Turks said No to the Americans and refused to allow them transit facilities. The Iranians are under tremendous American pressure, but are courageously guarding their nuclear facilities. In stark contrast, under American pressure, this administration stripped Qadir Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, of everything - his freedom, his honour, his dignity, his self-respect, his name, his fame, his unprecedented services to Pakistan; and, to sharpen his humiliation, made him appear on national television to confess to his crime! The lesson of history is that nations which went down fighting rose again, but those which succumbed to pressure, sold their honour, surrendered tamely, and capitulated, were finished. Examples abound. 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, kill innocent men, women and children in Waziristan and Bajaur. To please the Americans, General Musharraf has deployed over 60,000 troops in the rugged tribal area and is fighting a proxy war against his own people. He has handed over more than 700 so-called Al Qaeda militants to the United States as his contribution to the American war on terrorism. More than 500 soldiers, the flower of our army, have died fighting Wazir and Mahsud tribesmen. For what? Six years after General Musharraf took over, Pakistan has turned cynical and has jettisoned the last vestiges of idealism on which the people had hoped the nation's polity would be based. October 12, 1999 will go down in our history as another day of infamy, another sad milestone on the downward path. Life flows placidly downstream. We were a nation founded on laws and rules. What has been done is essentially to throw away the rule book and say that there are some people who are beyond the law, beyond scrutiny, totally unaccountable. People are filled with anger and angst. If you believe in democracy and rule of law and sovereignty of the people, you would not be anything other than angry, living in the current day and age. Of course, some people are happy under the present system. The rich are getting richer. For the rest, life is nasty, brutish and short. It is like an open prison. You get complacent because of the comfort. They give you just enough to make you happy. The Farewell address of George Washington will ever remain an important legacy for small nations like Pakistan. In that notable Testament, the Father of the American Republic cautioned that "an attachment of a small or weak toward a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter". The strong might have interests and objectives that could be of little real importance to the weak; but once the latter submitted to acting the role of a satellite, it would find it no easy task to avoid being used as a tool by the strong". George Washington highlighted the dangers inherent in an unequal relationship between a very strong nation and a weak nation and the folly of a weak nation succumbing to the belief that "real favours" would flow to it from the strong partner. "It is folly in one nation", George Washington observed, "to look for disinterested favours from another...it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character". No truer words have been spoken on the subject. If you want to know what happens to an ill-led and ill-governed, small country, ruled by a military junta which attaches itself to a powerful country like the US, visit Bajaur and the graves of the 18 innocent men, women and children killed by our "American allies". Nuclear Pakistan lies prostrate and has lost its independence. It cannot protect the life and property of its citizens. It cannot prevent the violation of its airspace. Why? Because it is now virtually an American satellite and is portrayed in American media as a 'retriever dog'. Pakistan has lost its manhood, its honour, its dignity, and its sense of self-respect on General Musharraf's watch. "O what a fall was there my countrymen"!Here in Islamabad there is nothing but the nauseating stench of resignation. With everyday passing, the tide of hope recedes, revealing the unpleasant mud that the souls of slaves are made of. 'The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity'. An evil spirit hangs over Pakistan. Is it our destiny that there must always be darkness at high noon, that there must always be a line of shadow against the sun? We need people who will stand up and say: Enough! Enough! This is not acceptable in the 21st century. Why is the better sort of the nation so silent today? Why have the intellectuals adopted 'the genre of silence'? Why is there no outrage? Why is there no loud protest? "Where are the men to be found who will dare to speak up", as Voltaire said. The creative intellectuals have been driven to ramshackle ivory towers or bought off. The legal profession has lost its integrity and has nothing left of its former power but its rhetoric. Show me an educated man with a silver spoon in Pakistan today, and I will show you a man without a spine. So when will somebody pose a finger at General Musharraf and say: "J'accuse"?
ROEDAD KHAN
Those who hold power and shape the destiny of others should never be judged in a moment of misfortune or defeat. If seen as a corpse hung by the feet, even Mussolini could arouse some pity. They must be judged when they are alive and in power. At the heart of leadership is the leader's character. He must always walk on a straight line. Honour and probity must be his polar star. People will entrust their hopes and dreams to another person only if they think the other is a reliable vessel. His character - demonstrated through deeds more than words - is at the heart of it. Mr Jinnah never misled his people even when they wanted to hear something gentler than the truth. "You could take his word to the bank", as the old saying went. If a President has credibility, nothing else matters. If he hasn't, nothing else matters. General Musharraf lost credibility on Thursday, December 30, 2004, when he reneged on his promise to give up his post as Chief of Army Staff and doff his uniform. When a man thinks he can get away with denying his own words even though there are thousands of witnesses and a video record, he clearly believes he can get away with murder. A few days after the 1999 coup, Musharraf's spokesman, Brig Rashed Qureshi (now Major General) insisted that, "while others may have tried to hang on to power, we will not. We will make history". Musharraf agreed. "All I can say", he assured a television interviewer in January 2000, "is that I am not going to perpetuate myself - I can't give any certificate on it but my word of honour. I will not perpetuate myself". That was six years ago! General Musharraf is not thinking in terms of Pakistan and her honour. Surrender rather than sacrifice is the theme of his thoughts and speeches. The tide of capitulation has swamped even the gesture of defiance. The lack of virile reaction has now become a cloying helplessness. 58 years after independence, are we really free? Are we masters in our own house? Is our sovereignty untrammelled? We lost our independence and sovereignty when we capitulated, said yes to all the seven demands presented, at gunpoint, in the form of an ultimatum, by Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State. "It looks like you got it all", a surprised Bush told a triumphant Colin Powell. No self-respecting, sovereign, independent country, no matter how small or weak, could have accepted such humiliating demands with such alacrity. Our government executed a U-turn, disowned the Talibans and promised "unstinted" cooperation to President Bush in his war against Afghanistan. Pakistan joined the "coalition of the coerced". There were no cheering crowds in the streets of Pakistan to applaud the decision to facilitate American bombing of Afghanistan from US bases on Pakistan soil. Musharraf had to choose between saying No to the American Diktat and shame. He opted for collaboration. Thus began Pakistan's slide into disaster. We would have suffered if we had said No. But that is a little matter. We would have retained something which is to me of great value. We would have walked about the world with our heads erect. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif defied President Clinton and carried out a nuclear explosion. The Turks said No to the Americans and refused to allow them transit facilities. The Iranians are under tremendous American pressure, but are courageously guarding their nuclear facilities. In stark contrast, under American pressure, this administration stripped Qadir Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, of everything - his freedom, his honour, his dignity, his self-respect, his name, his fame, his unprecedented services to Pakistan; and, to sharpen his humiliation, made him appear on national television to confess to his crime! The lesson of history is that nations which went down fighting rose again, but those which succumbed to pressure, sold their honour, surrendered tamely, and capitulated, were finished. Examples abound. 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, kill innocent men, women and children in Waziristan and Bajaur. To please the Americans, General Musharraf has deployed over 60,000 troops in the rugged tribal area and is fighting a proxy war against his own people. He has handed over more than 700 so-called Al Qaeda militants to the United States as his contribution to the American war on terrorism. More than 500 soldiers, the flower of our army, have died fighting Wazir and Mahsud tribesmen. For what? Six years after General Musharraf took over, Pakistan has turned cynical and has jettisoned the last vestiges of idealism on which the people had hoped the nation's polity would be based. October 12, 1999 will go down in our history as another day of infamy, another sad milestone on the downward path. Life flows placidly downstream. We were a nation founded on laws and rules. What has been done is essentially to throw away the rule book and say that there are some people who are beyond the law, beyond scrutiny, totally unaccountable. People are filled with anger and angst. If you believe in democracy and rule of law and sovereignty of the people, you would not be anything other than angry, living in the current day and age. Of course, some people are happy under the present system. The rich are getting richer. For the rest, life is nasty, brutish and short. It is like an open prison. You get complacent because of the comfort. They give you just enough to make you happy. The Farewell address of George Washington will ever remain an important legacy for small nations like Pakistan. In that notable Testament, the Father of the American Republic cautioned that "an attachment of a small or weak toward a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter". The strong might have interests and objectives that could be of little real importance to the weak; but once the latter submitted to acting the role of a satellite, it would find it no easy task to avoid being used as a tool by the strong". George Washington highlighted the dangers inherent in an unequal relationship between a very strong nation and a weak nation and the folly of a weak nation succumbing to the belief that "real favours" would flow to it from the strong partner. "It is folly in one nation", George Washington observed, "to look for disinterested favours from another...it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character". No truer words have been spoken on the subject. If you want to know what happens to an ill-led and ill-governed, small country, ruled by a military junta which attaches itself to a powerful country like the US, visit Bajaur and the graves of the 18 innocent men, women and children killed by our "American allies". Nuclear Pakistan lies prostrate and has lost its independence. It cannot protect the life and property of its citizens. It cannot prevent the violation of its airspace. Why? Because it is now virtually an American satellite and is portrayed in American media as a 'retriever dog'. Pakistan has lost its manhood, its honour, its dignity, and its sense of self-respect on General Musharraf's watch. "O what a fall was there my countrymen"!Here in Islamabad there is nothing but the nauseating stench of resignation. With everyday passing, the tide of hope recedes, revealing the unpleasant mud that the souls of slaves are made of. 'The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity'. An evil spirit hangs over Pakistan. Is it our destiny that there must always be darkness at high noon, that there must always be a line of shadow against the sun? We need people who will stand up and say: Enough! Enough! This is not acceptable in the 21st century. Why is the better sort of the nation so silent today? Why have the intellectuals adopted 'the genre of silence'? Why is there no outrage? Why is there no loud protest? "Where are the men to be found who will dare to speak up", as Voltaire said. The creative intellectuals have been driven to ramshackle ivory towers or bought off. The legal profession has lost its integrity and has nothing left of its former power but its rhetoric. Show me an educated man with a silver spoon in Pakistan today, and I will show you a man without a spine. So when will somebody pose a finger at General Musharraf and say: "J'accuse"?
