Musharraf
Bears the Khaki Man’s Burden
By Dr Ahmad Faruqui
Dansville, CA
About
two weeks ago, Nigerian President Obasanjo, a
former military dictator who was elected to office
after taking off his uniform in 1999, announced
that he would not seek a third electoral term.
A week later, General Musharraf told Al Arabiya
television that the uniform was like a “second
skin” for him and he would seek re-election
for a third term. The unstated sub-text was that
he will continue to wear the uniform for at least
another five years.
How does one explain this discrepancy in actions
between Nigeria’s former dictator and Pakistan’s
current dictator? Let us step back in time to
the year 1899 (a hundred years before Musharraf’s
coup), when that great poet of imperialism, Rudyard
Kipling, penned a paean to the White Man’s
burden.
Kipling, born and raised in Lahore who at one
time edited the Civil and Military Gazette, called
upon the Americans who had invaded the Philippines
to shoulder the White Man’s burden, as the
British had done:
Send forth the best ye breed,
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild,
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Kipling’s White Man would have to “abide
in patience,” to “veil the threat
of terror” and to “check the show
of pride.” He would be called upon to “wage
the savage wars of peace” and to “toil
endlessly” to end famine and sickness. He
would have to be prepared for the hate of those
he guarded and the ungratefulness of those he
brought out of bondage, those “silent, sullen
peoples/Shall weigh your gods and you.”
In the end, after all those thankless years, the
White Man would have to search his manhood, only
to come up “Cold, edged with dear-bought
wisdom/The judgment of your peers!”
Fast forward to 2006 and we find that Pakistan’s
Khaki Man is toiling to save an ungrateful nation.
But why? In private conversations, uniformed officers
from generals on down to lieutenants concede that
the people of Pakistan are not fit for democracy,
since they are unruly, illiterate and corrupt.
In public statements, they blame the politicians
for bringing the country to the verge of ruin.
During the Musharraf years, the blame is placed
at the door of the leaders of the two largest
political parties. During the Ayub years, all
politicians were held accountable, found wanting
and forbidden by the EBDO law from engaging in
political activities.
Ayub was the first Khaki Man to assert that the
army had been given the task of saving the people
from themselves and that it would take two generations
before they would be ready for self-rule. Of course,
while arguing this position, Ayub had no hesitation
in recommending self-rule for the people of “occupied”
Kashmir.
Viewed in this light, it is not surprising to
hear today’s Khaki Man saying: “At
the end of the day I am a soldier and I love to
wear the uniform.” He said the uniform was
a part of his being and “in fact”
his second skin, when it would have sufficed to
say that it was second skin, in a manner of speaking.
Musharraf went on to say that his wearing the
uniform had been good for the country and the
fulfillment of a constitutional requirement. One
of these days he will be telling us that his coup
also represented the fulfillment of a future constitutional
requirement that was only known to him at the
time.
Of course, Zia had essentially said the same thing
when he said that his uniform had been sewn into
his skin. So why do Pakistan’s Khaki Men
insist on wearing the uniform till the bitter
end? Because they know that the moment they lose
their uniform, they will lose all their power.
Their uniform carries the same power as Samson’s
hair. A biblical figure, he was known to have
performed heroic feats unachievable by ordinary
men such as wrestling a lion, slaying an entire
army with nothing more than a mule’s jawbone,
and tearing down an entire building. When Delilah,
his female companion, betrayed him to his enemies,
they shaved off his hair, gouged out his eyes
and put him in irons.
So don’t expect the uniform come off any
time soon. In the meantime, the Khaki Man will
continue to afflict his burden on society. The
visible aspect of this is the defense burden,
measured by the ratio of defense spending to the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This bears almost
no resemblance to the optimal ratio that would
be derived from an objective analysis of Pakistan’s
security environment. According to governmental
data, the defense burden has declined to a mere
2.8 percent of GDP, which is very near the optimal
number. But is there any independent economist
out there, i.e., one who is not beholden to either
the government or the international lending agencies,
who believes the government’s figures, especially
those relating to defense spending?
And, even if one was to accept the government’s
numbers, they measure only the tip of the iceberg.
A bigger burden is placed on civil society by
the intrusion of the military in commercial corporate
activity and nowadays even in non-commercial affairs,
such as running universities. So, even if defense
spending were to be cut, it would not affect the
military’s ability to extract rents from
the populace.
So why has Nigeria’s Khaki man chosen a
different path? He also rules a large nation with
a long history of military rule. In fact, President
Obasanjo’s supporters wanted to amend the
Nigerian Constitution to enable him to run for
a third term but parliament defeated the measure
and Obasanjo wisely accepted their decision. Obasanjo
backers had argued that he needed more time to
complete his reforms but opponents said an extension
would undermine democracy. Pakistan’s parliamentarians
should talk to their Nigerian counterparts.
And Musharraf should talk to Obasanjo, who restored
Nigeria to financial health and shed his uniform.
The Nigerian economy grew at 8 percent this year
(faster than Pakistan’s) and it has become
the first country in Africa to pay off its foreign
debt of $30 billion to the Paris Club (while Pakistan
carries a foreign debt that is close to $38 billion).
If Obasanjo was able to tame the coup-prone Nigerian
army, surely Musharraf can do the same. And it
would be best to do it while he is still in the
good books of the Americans.
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