By  Dr. Mahjabeen Islam
Toledo, Ohio

November 30, 2007

Puppet on an American String

 

(This article was written before the imposition of emergency in Pakistan. –Editor)

One would have thought that in the 21st century the sole super power of the world would implement foreign policy in a measured, visionary manner rather than the blinded, myopic and blustering way in which it obviously is.
To some degree it is to be expected that situations are analyzed in a personal perspective. The Western view of Muslim women remains etched as one that walks a few steps behind her husband and is servile and generally illiterate. A Harvard educated, half-scarf donning, plastic-surgerized woman cunningly baiting America has now given birth to what one has to suffer daily in the American media: Bhutto fascination.
As a dual national of Pakistan and the United States I am doubly piqued. At the gross incompetence of my leaders. Being a quarter as old as America, perhaps Pakistan can be forgiven its birthing pains, but what of American foreign policy? American columnists are writing about Condoleeza Rice being rather taken up by Benazir. True, far-reaching global decisions can be made in back hallways and parting conversations, but repeated errors in which personalities are backed rather than processes speaks of an abysmal foreign policy. Lessons have not been learned from American entanglement with Jalal Chalabi, Raza Pahlavi and even Saddam Hussein himself.
What differentiates the industrialized world from the developing one is the fact that in it processes and templates are firmly in place and personalities become secondary; departure or death are surmountable and someone else comes in and fills the slot and life and nation continue with nary a ripple.
The tragedy of the Muslim world and especially of Pakistan is the personality cult orientation of just about everything, from politics to multi-national corporations, instead of the wonderful talent that Pakistan has, concentrating on the placement of processes, templates and following principles.
America is disingenuous in its pressure to democratize Pakistan . For if it really wanted that, it would not have excluded Nawaz Sharif from the process. Or it would not have shamelessly bit the bait that Benazir, equivalently shamelessly, actually wholly unpatriotically, dangled before Uncle Sam. First, she said if she gained premiership, she would provide the IAEA access to Abdul Qadeer Khan. Second, the Taliban would be in trouble, forgetting rather conveniently that she is actually Ummul-Taliban (the mother of the Taliban) herself, for while she preened in her diamonds, padded her Swiss accounts and jet-setted to her Surrey estates, the Taliban were born and nourished next door. Third and most grievous to the sovereignty of Pakistan, was that she would allow an American attack on Pakistan if there was credible evidence of Osama bin Laden’s presence.
American columnist Dan Simpson writes well about “the naïve and pious Bush Administration idea that America has the right to convert the whole world to American-style democracy”. Pious is indeed the word. And worse, under the guise of democracy the havoc it has wreaked in Iraq is worth many columns. Similarly in Pakistan when it suited the United States in its War on Terror, Pakistan was indispensable and received multimillion dollars in aid and Musharraf was praised as though he was indeed the messiah.
But America is now tired of the Musharraf doll and fascinated with Barbie Benazir. And all its policies will now be ratified to rationalize that goal.
It is only some American columnists that write sense. Publications such as Newsweek can reach tabloid levels and claim that Benazir had cleverly sized up the threat to her person when she traveled to Pakistan. They so conveniently omitted that she was advised repeatedly to use a helicopter instead of taking the road route from the airport. CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked his correspondent why it was that Benazir took the road route when she had been told of the severe danger. Peter Bergen’s reply was painfully amusing: “to show off”. And so, however much there is rhetoric and lament of the loss of precious lives, and letters sent ahead while still in Dubai to the Government of Pakistan of “should I be attacked, these are my attackers” the issue remains that this gross exercise in self-glorification and perpetual self-projection is the reason that those innocents died.
That America is not sincere in its democratization agenda for Pakistan is also proven by the fact that the constitution of Pakistan does not allow a third run at premiership. If there is sincerity with the process of education about democracy and the wonders of freedom and civil liberties and the rule of law and due process, would-be leaders should not be forced on a nation and the nation’s constitution should not be mangled again, again and yet again to justify one person’s insatiable thirst for power and the world-is-at-my-disposal chess game hubris of America.
Adil Najam an American academic said poignantly to the BBC that Pakistanis were a democratic society, trapped in a non-democratic state, to illustrate the desperation that there is for the return for democracy. But Pakistan must find its own recipe for democracy, not Uncle Sam’s apple pie. Several months ago columnist Gwynne Dyer had written a very hopeful article about Pakistan ’s politicians being able to cobble together a coalition and salvage a fledgling democracy that would move Pakistan forward. He seemed confident and it was so balming then, and seems so remote and inane now.
America’s little favorite has arrived alright in Pakistan, leaving anxiety, havoc and death in her wake. And though the “American passport” got her entry to Pakistan, the fact is that her patron is currently the most despised entity in Pakistan. So that is in and of itself a great damper, if not a Catch-22 situation. It is to be mentioned that the Musharraf government showed amazing restraint and professionalism in the face of her daily brazen, personal attacks on them, nonplussed as they were that “this was not part of the deal”. Even more interestingly, her frontal assaults would be echoed by the Americans! What drugs are these people on?
Under American pressure the Amnesty Ordinance was passed and now it shall be reviewed by the Supreme Court and probably ruled unconstitutional. One would hope so, after all, US$ 1.5 billion is not a mean sum of money. And even if by some amazing luck, or the narcolepsy of the Supreme Court, the Amnesty Ordinance is considered legal, the Swiss and British Courts want their pound of flesh.
Which leads me to my pet peeve. Why must a nation of 165 million, replete with a multitude of talented individuals have to suffer the three stooges, Benazir, Sharif and Musharraf? And if the sole super power on earth would have its way-Pakistan would be led by a puppet on an American string. Like Jemima Khan wrote beautifully: a kleptocrat in a Hermes scarf!
(Mahjabeen Islam is a physician and freelance columnist residing in Toledo Ohio. Her email is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com)

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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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