A festive season commenced in Lahore from February 2. Basant is usually celebrated on the second Sunday of February every year, but local authorities’ concern for the public made them provide an extended run of entertainment to the people and dedicate three days to kite-flying.
Basant has also been linked with the spring season to ensure prolonged festivities. Fun and frolic would thus continue after Basant to offer people some relief in these grief-stricken times. It would give them an argument for ignoring realities.
Festivities have been staggered because of Muharram and would recommence after that. The first part of the festive season is packed with Eid-ul-Azha, that coincides with the aftermath of Basant and the prime period of the spring festival. The Cricket World Cup would chip in with its own excitement.
While Pakistan plays Australia on February 9, and England on February 22, people would remain engrossed in the tournament, regardless of Pakistan’s performance in these matches because the Pakistan-India fixture takes place on March 1. Everyone bills it as the match of the tournament for the two teams from the subcontinent. All in all, it is a long, colourful and absorbing entertainment haul for the people.
This is needed as another major event is likely to take place while the spring festival is in progress, the festival of grief marked by bloodshed and bombardment, and the death rained on the people of Iraq from the skies. Thousands of deaths have been forecast by international agencies. One of them is actually making arrangements for serving one million refugees. Whether the US President, George W. Bush, would keep his pledge of liquidating Saddam Hussein and ridding the world of what seems to him the only dictator in the world, is difficult to predict. But war or not, times of excruciating misery are ahead for Iraq. Pakistan’s uniformed President has already peeped into his jam-i-jam and told the nation that we could be next on the hit-list. The pragmatic leader, with his popularity among the people authenticated by a referendum in which he scored massively, has tried to prepare the nation in his own way, but the speculative forecast has apparently not impressed political parties in opposition to the government. They are flexing their muscles for a showdown with the authorities over its Iraq policy.
The opposition parties plan to launch country-wide demonstrations to protest against the US designs on Iraq that are viewed as casting a dark shadow over the Pakistan Government’s position on the issue. Islamabad does not want the US to attack Iraq, but feels that it can do little to persuade Washington to review its declared intentions.
This is realistic because the US is the sole superpower of the world. The tough US manner of sticking to its guns does not evoke any hope of relenting on any issue, let alone Iraq that has become a matter, politically speaking, of life and death for the American President.
Iraq may also have become more important for Israel in the wake of Sharon’s victory in the elections. A world preoccupied with Iraq would ideally suit him for pursuing his campaign of genocide against the Palestinians. The campaign of brutal attacks on Palestinians, the planned, systematic and persistent destruction of their homes and relentlessly conducted merciless massacres would have an uninterrupted run as the world focuses on Iraq under the attack of the world’s deadliest arsenal.
This is accepted by the West as Israel’s right to defend itself. The rest of the world falls in line, Muslim countries in particular, because of the fear of getting punished for taking a stand. Sharon has apparently been given a free hand for the ‘final solution of the issue’.
The spring festival would coincide with a festival of protest at one stage. The kind of mix the two, spring and protest produce, or the government’s reaction to a show of disenchantment by the people is difficult to forecast. Optimists would expect the government to be swayed by the electorate’s opinion, but that is letting imagination run wild. The authorities are likely to explore other options to deal with the situation.
They could instruct the Parks and Horticulture Authority to use the contents of its water tankers to cool the tempers of protesters and harness fire brigades for this purpose, if the first measure does not produce the desired results. They can also assign to police the task of leading the misguided away from the path of mischief. We may be a democracy, but the Prime Minister has expressed the state’s position by supporting exile for Saddam Hussein, without bothering to take the issue to the National Assembly for a debate.
The Iraqi President has the reputation for being sterner stuff. That is what makes him a villain for the West and arch villain for the US. They cannot understand his refusal to sign along the dotted line, when most other leaders eagerly await the chance to stamp their thumb impressions at marked points. The question whether elected or self-anointed leaders wield authority is not relevant because the system is increasingly turning into a two-in-one formulae. The general opinion holds that the military authority has created a buffer between itself and the people by installing elected, political governments.
There is disagreement on the representative credentials of elected houses because many of their members have vociferously declared the October elections as rigged. Why did they accept rigged success or, if it was a tactical move, why they do not create a crisis by resigning? There seems to be no answer to the question.
There is another intriguing question: the fuss about LFO being a part of the constitution or not. There can be no two opinions. The LFO has been incorporated in the document called the constitution. The government simply provided the opposition leaders an excuse to hide behind by maintaining ambiguity. Neither is there much point in trying to persuade General Musharraf to replace his uniform with civilian clothes, because no wardrobe can change the body that it covers. Would a different set of clothes create different ground conditions? Would the result of the referendum become acceptable to segments that condemned it as illegal and a fraud committed on the people if General Musharraf starts patronizing a new tailor? Are legitimacy and illegality separated only by a dress?
The answer to all these queries is in the negative. Another question props up: Why are opposition parties raising issues that have neither relevance nor any bearing on national life? What are they clamouring about when facts are known and are in fact incontrovertible?
If the man in the street can see through facades, there is no reason why politicians should not. But they insist on playing games with people. This cannot be done. They can only play games with themselves. Or, the politicians are acting on the principle that it is necessary to join to oppose, that resistance can only be from within. That is another form of self-deception. It is possible for them to genuinely believe that the government can be forced to change policies and positions by demonstration of public support. But all this has been tried before. The attempted cure has led to a worsening of the malaise every time it is applied.
Pakistan has reached a point where it cannot afford games, neither political nor war games, with the masses. The personal ambitions of generals and the willingness of politicians to strike compromises to be in power, even if it is fake and marginal authority, has inflicted incalculable damage on the nation, divided the country and sapped the will and self-respect of a majority of countrymen. Breaking that strength any further would bring down the very structure that provides safety and shelter. This is the writing. Can anyone read?
