Do the people in power think there is no life after death?
PLUS Ca Change, Plus C’est La Meme Chose — the more it changes, the more it changes to the same thing, says Voltaire, the 18th century French writer, a crusader against tyranny and bigotry.
President Musharraf’s promise of change is a classic avouchment of Voltaire’s cry of anguish. Today, once more, the man in uniform has been told by America to remove the filters he has installed in the democratic process. In simple language, maybe it means ... let in Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif.
The evident hunger of the politicians, their willingness to wed any partner regardless of past divides, and the desperate manoeuvres of the incumbents in power (Pervez Musharraf et al) to hold on to the throne at all costs, have been with us for decades. Only the dramatis personae change. The dance steps are the same.
What is noticeable this time around is that more wish to voice their concern at what is going on in our homeland. Not just the “man in the street”. The continuing spate of Dawn’s ‘Letters to the Editor’ are a testament to this feeling.
Some have directed their ire at those writing critically from distant lands, essentially saying that moving out of Pakistan also implies severing all links with the country, be they emotional or political.
The criticism is understandable, but unfair. Most Pakistanis living overseas wish to remain in close touch with events at home. To translate an Urdu phrase, that is where their heart resides. Allama Iqbal said it best:
Ghurbat mein hon agar hum, rehta hai dil watan mein
Samjho waheen hamain bhee, dil ho jahan hamara
(If we are away from the homeland, our heart stays home And consider us to be where our heart is.)
Granted that some from overseas tend to go overboard with their heated rhetoric. But to ignore what is going on is to behave like an ostrich. Those away from home care deeply because Pakistan also belongs to them.
Good things are pleasing to hear. PIA, an important link for those in the US and Europe is one example. Some travellers, to and from Pakistan, had positive things to say about the planes and the service. The planes are new, the toilets work through the journey, and the service is better. Also, on the few occasions of personal experience, the arrival and departure was on schedule. But back home, the bad news has started to arrive like an avalanche. Columnists, reporters, letter writers, even the ‘man in the street’ whether on an avenue in Manhattan or a Karachi rampart, has every right to vociferously ventilate his concerns.
Worsened is the “VIP Culture”. This has got to a stage where a lot of people feel that the president and the prime minister disrupt life so seriously that they should not visit Karachi at all. This will be no loss to the people of the city. After all, most cricket teams refuse a game at Karachi for security reasons. The Karachiites watch the match on TV. They can be provided daily footage of the president and the PM doing various things in Islamabad. No extra work for PTV here. This is one project they have implemented ahead of schedule.
Overseas Pakistanis also fume at the total lack of accountability in Pakistan. Everyone has written about Umras on taxpayers account. The prime minister too has not spoken publicly in his own defence. And we thought he would be the one person who would shun such freebies.
Even in India, which is vigorously competing with Pakistan to move up the corrupt countries ladder, tehelka.com forced Defence Minister George Fernandes to resign.
In the US, Martha Stewart, a billionairess has just completed a jail sentence for a $50,000 improper profit from insider trading.
The duly elected Governor of New Jersey, James MacGreevey had to resign after news broke of his having an illicit affair. Admittedly, this being with a man, and an Israeli to boot, made it worse.
The chief of the New Jersey Boxing commission had to resign because he issued six free ringside passes. The heads of our various sports bodies will find this action naive or hilarious.
Would any member of the defence standing committee in Pakistan’s parliament summon General Pervez Musharraf as Chief of the Army Staff and ask probing questions on the defence budget and issues related to national security? Not in a million years, I say.
In America it happened only recently. The Full House Armed Services Committee met to receive testimony on the Fiscal Year 2006 National Defence Authorization budget request from the Department of Defence.
During the hearing, Representative Cynthia McKinney knocked General Myers, the Joint Services Chief of Staff and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld off balance by asking them about the four war games that were taking place on September 11 and how they may have impaired America’s ability to respond to these attacks.
It was an eye-opener for anyone watching the testimony on television. The flustered duo’s rapid hand movements and off-microphone murmurs spoke volumes of their being cornered and put in the dock.
“The courage and directness of this fearless woman never cease to amaze us. She has let it be known that she will be a perpetual thorn in the side of the administration for at least the next two years,” wrote journalist Michael Kane.
A young Pakistani technocrat living in Texas always has his finger on the pulse of Pakistani politics. He visited Karachi recently and on his return I asked him what he thought about the political malaise back home.
Pat came SK’s reply: “If nothing else, broader participation will lay to rest some of the sentiments recently seen in Balochistan and ensure a greater feeling of being stakeholders instead of hired hands submitting to the fancies of the patriarch. Unfortunately, under the ‘father knows best’ dispensation currently underway, the political culture is atrophying.
“As for stalling the rot, I’m afraid it’ll be a long hard struggle, based on kindling of sentiments that aren’t easily imbued in our clannish, self-centred (even if it be within the context of a family), clerical, and in egalitarian milieu. Although, greater liberalism in education and culture would help make things more hopeful ...”
Another Pakistani-American, whose heart is hooked on Pakistan and aches for the unfortunate millions caught in the vicious cycle of corrupt leaders said something disturbing and chilling: “These people (the perpetrators) are atheists. Anyone who believes in God can not do such things. If they believed in God they would fear the Day of Judgment.”
Do the people in power then think that there’s no life after death?
Do the people in power think there is no life after death? 
