| March 29, 2008 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 20, 1429 |
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The ghost at the banquet
IN a country replete with ironies, perhaps the most delicious was the sight of Musharraf administering the oath of office to the prime minister-elect, Yusuf Raza Gilani.
Here was a dictator who had ruled without check or balance for nearly nine years being forced to hand over most of his power to a decent, respected man he had locked up for half a decade on the flimsiest of charges. From his body language and his facial expression, it seemed that Musharraf was undergoing a most painful operation without the benefit of an anaesthetic.
And in a sense he was. Power is as addictive as any drug, and to have to give it up must be a painful, wrenching experience. I have some idea of how difficult it can be as I stopped smoking twenty years ago, going from forty cigarettes a day to zero one morning when I decided I would not smoke any more. But while my decision was voluntary, Musharraf has had to be led kicking and screaming to this point.
In reality, though, his power has ebbed away gradually. Starting with the chief justice’s defiance in refusing to resign on March 9 last year, to his being forced out of his army post last November, to the election results last month, Musharraf’s fall from grace has been like watching a disaster movie in slow motion.
Now he is like a weak, indecisive man standing on the ledge of a tall building wondering whether he should take the plunge or not, while the crowd below shouts: “Jump! Jump!” There were echoes of this chant in the National Assembly the other day when guests in the visitors’ gallery shouted “Go, Musharraf, go!” But it seems some people just can’t take a hint.
Others who proved to have an equally thick skin were Negroponte and Boucher, the US State Department heavies dispatched by Bush and Rice to twist arms even before the new government has been properly formed. Like gatecrashers at a party, they threw their weight around, while their hosts were too polite to point them towards the door. I am glad both Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari told them, according to The New York Times quoting Hussain Haqqani, that “there’s a new sheriff in town”.
In cowboy movies, the old sheriff is supposed to ride off into the sunset, with a guitar twanging softly in the background. But as I think I once wrote, dictators don’t do graceful exits.
Surely even Musharraf must realise that he has outlived his sell-by date, and it really is time to do what he promised when the PML-Q government came into being in 2002: play golf and spend time with his grandchildren.
If the swift release of judges from their illegal, five-month confinement was not enough, there was more bad news for Musharraf, this time from GHQ. In a major reshuffle of the high command, Gen Kayani has sidelined several Musharraf appointees. This should drive home the fact of his irrelevance to his old constituency, the Pakistan Army.
His other crutch, the PML-Q, is now a spent force, reduced to a fraction of the strength it had garnered through the rigged 2002 elections. Even the MQM, realising the shift in power much quicker than its mentor, has ditched him. Bizarrely, it has voted against its coalition partner’s candidate for PM, while sitting in the opposition with the PML-Q. Over the years, the MQM’s byzantine twists and turns have baffled and confused its few friends and many foes alike.
So what keeps Musharraf in the presidency? Surely not the perks of the office? A retired four-star general lives in more luxury than any millionaire can dream of.
Of course he does not get the VVIP treatment the president does, but with numerous free staff, a free house and endless other benefits he does not exactly live a life of penury.
Does he perhaps fear that charges will be brought against him were he to step down? As we all know, the army looks after its own. Despite the mess he has created, I doubt very much that the new government would want to take on the army just to settle scores with Musharraf.
But he can take comfort from the legions of his supporters in drawing rooms across Pakistan. Although the rich realise he is a spent force, they cannot bring themselves to welcome the new order that is taking shape in the country.
Instead of wishing the coalition government well, these people are busy carping from the sidelines.
Questions and comments I hear every day include: “Can the coalition stick together? Can a leopard change its spots? So why are the PPP and the PML-N taking so long in announcing a cabinet? I give this government one year before the deal falls apart.
What will happen when the National Reconciliation Ordinance is challenged in the Supreme Court? We know Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif can’t stand each other.” And so on.
Hey, give the new team a break! None of these critics have asked why Musharraf is taking so long in summoning the provincial assemblies, or why he tried so hard to block the PML-N from forming a coalition with the PPP. And earlier, they were completely uncritical of his blatant support for the PML-Q despite the constitutional neutrality presidents are supposed to display.
Irrespective of this covert support from the moneyed classes, the fact is that Musharraf is the lamest of lame ducks. Indeed, he is now an embarrassment. His presence is a distraction at best, and a threat at worst. The sooner he is divested of the sword of Damocles of Article 58-2(b) the better.
Over the years, my support for democracy and criticism of dictatorship has not gone down well with many readers. I am often attacked on the grounds that somehow I am supporting ‘corrupt politicians’.
The truth is that more and more I am convinced that the worst kind of democracy is better than the best kind of dictatorship. The reason is simple: the electorate can throw out inefficient and corrupt elected leaders, as they have just shown. But, as Musharraf is proving, they cannot get rid of a usurper as easily.
No doubt I will have occasion to criticise the new government in the future, but for the time being I would like to wish Yusuf Raza Gilani and his team good luck in tackling the huge problems facing Pakistan.
