"Give me seven years and I'll change the complexion and culture of politics in Pakistan," said Musharraf to an applauding 'jam-packed' crowd of Pakistani-American 'elite' assembled in the city of New York on Friday to hear him speak for 80 minutes.
According to a news report, this was the same elite crowd which had been as equally generous with its applause to Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in 'yesteryear'. 'They always give a big hand to Pakistani leaders but to Musharraf, with Abdul Sattar Edhi by his side, they gave a standing ovation.'
To effectively change anything in this country in seven years is not impossible, but it is improbable. To do so, General Pervez Musharraf would have to be a dictator in the true sense of the word. But Musharraf says, "Let me tell you, I firmly believe in democracy. I am no usurper of power. I am going to give it over to the elected people and my role will be that of a neutral umpire."
The man is a commando, trained to take risks. Presumably he has calculated that by the years 2009 he will be ruling over an illiterate, ignorant, bigoted mob of some 180 million, the majority of whom will also be hungry and thirsty.
As for today, just what has he on his plate? According to an AFP report printed on the back page of one of our morning newspapers, dateline Multan, September 13, headlined 'Teacher cuts boy's tongue' says: "A religious school teacher allegedly chopped off the tongue of his 13-year old student to destroy evidence after he allegedly saw the teacher sodomizing another student, his family said."
The boy, in the small town of Yazman, had reportedly seen the learned teacher sexually assault a fellow student in a side room of the school a couple of weeks ago. He was warned by the imparter of religious knowledge, Bashir Ahmad, not to open his mouth; if he did he would lose his tongue. But the boy told his parents, and on September 3 the teacher got hold of him and cut off his tongue with a razor. No arrest has so far been made as no complaint has yet been lodged with the police.
The recent scandals concerning the Roman Catholic church and the homosexual activities of some of its priests have been largely reported in the foreign media, but there has been no instance of any of the accused good fathers amputating tongues or any other portion of the human anatomy.
Was Bashir Ahmad, with his religious background and his knowledge of the holy scriptures, at heart a mere barbarian? Had he no thought as to what effect his actions - sodomy and tongue amputation - would have upon his students ?
What else was in the news yesterday?
Atal Behari Vajpayee, in his turn, in the tit-for-tat exchange (as the foreign media has referred to the two addresses by the head of state and head of government of Pakistan and India, respectively addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations "in his mother tongue, Hindi, in which he is known for his oratorial flourishes." No statesman he, as Musharraf showed himself to be no statesman. Had Vajpayee had the stuff of statesmanship in him he would have ignored Musharraf's speech the previous day and touched upon the issues with which the democratic developed world is now wholly concerned - the Middle East and, more importantly, Iraq and Saddam Hussein.
Another headline: 'Musharraf rejects LoC conversion into international border'. We have rejected the conversion of the 'line' for over half a century, and by the look of things, with the status quo of the firm 'principled stand' adopted by Pakistan for over half a century, the rejection will continue for the next half century.
Bigotry is born of ignorance. During the three years he has been with us, had the general been confident and strong enough he would have wiped away the blasphemy laws and the Hudood Ordinance, or at least changed the administrative processes which allow them to be abused and misused for personal vengeance or gain. How many men has he been able to free who are languishing in the death cells or in other cells of our prisons having been wrongly charged under these iniquitous laws? How many women who have been raped have ceased being in turn victims of the law and accused of adultery ? Not one of us will be at all surprised if the four men who raped the woman of Meerwalla are acquitted and freed to rape again, rather than sent to the gallows.
Democracy is being once more cobbled up. Who do we now have coming into our assemblies ? For instance, the honest Chaudhrys of Gujrat, the honest Sherpao of the Frontier, the honest Imtiaz Sheikh of Sindh, the party of Altaf Hussain of London whose members have already started extorting 'bhatta' (a.k.a. election expenses) from the people and disfiguring the city with graffiti. The one decent monument we have, Bhutto's Teen Talwar, stands disfigured with 'MQM' sprayed all over and around it.
Education is the sole answer to the travails and troubles with which this country is faced, and it cannot be encapsulated. I have on my desk an e-mail message from an Indian, a Hindu, professor friend of mine who teaches at a university in the US. He is concerned about Pakistan, and would like India to coexist with us. He opens up with the Gujarati salutation 'Sahebji' and goes on to say: "I have some disturbing news. Pakistani students who have applied to come to the US for post-graduate degrees, Masters and PhDs, are categorically rejected. No explanations provided. In general, a Muslim/Arab-sounding name is especially researched for its religious affiliations and if found Islamic - turned down.
"Muslim professors in US universities are under pressure not to recruit Muslim students and they are obliging. The number of students from Arab/Muslim countries has reached a record low. The slack is picked up by Indians and Koreans (who are in great demand), and the visa status for J-1 exchange and H-1 is "Currant" - i.e. no restrictions on numbers and duration. This was bound to happen sooner or later but I was amazed at the suddenness and unanimity of the ranks joining in. Education is the first and final frontier, everything else is in between. There can be no commerce, no development, no nukes, without education (unless you are ready to pay retail prices, the way Pakistan is doing and in the process going bankrupt). When will the rulers of Pakistan understand the economics of what is the price the people of Pakistan are paying to languish in the dark ages?"
To Musharraf's credit, he realizes the importance of this disturbing news and he took up the matter with President George Bush when they met in New York. Reportedly, Bush has promised to do something to ease the situation. Let's hope he moves quickly before too much time is lost to our blocked students.