"Watta
Satta: A Soap Opera"
By Mir Mohammad Ali
Talpur
Sindh, Pakistan
The
adage that 'Marriages are made in Heavens and
suffered on Earth', is based on vast human experience
and is generally accepted. What this axiom doesn't
cover is the types of marriages that are not strictly
marriages because some marriages though marriages
may not be marriages at all. In these types of
marriages, the consequences are mostly suffered
by those who have nothing to do with them.
These are the marriages of conveniences although
these tend to produce more inconveniences than
conveniences. In fact, their only offspring is
inconvenience. Such marriages sometimes become
a necessity for the aspirant of the third term
PM and include wooing a tyrant, who is totally
unacceptable to the people, with the sole purpose
of adorning the corridors of power under name
of democracy and making use of the acquired power
trappings for personal ends. This action is an
outrage against all political, moral and legal
norms and is as reprehensible as it is unacceptable.
Politicians endeavouring to bail out beleaguered
tyrants for personal perks and privileges are
guilty of abominable crimes against the people
and their sovereign rights. Such marriages sound
the death knell not only for democracy but the
country itself because the rights and aspirations
of the people are sacrificed and violated for
personal gains and self-aggrandisement.
I have been wondering how one should term the
present moves by Benazir Bhutto to give a new
lease of life and legitimacy to Musharraf who
is floundering and sinking in the morass that
he has created for himself during the eight years
of his arbitrary rule?
After much thought and deliberation I arrived
at the conclusion that this marriage of convenience,
which is bound to sorely inconvenience the entire
people here, can safely be called a ' Watta Satta'
marriage. This in simpler terms means you scratch
my back and I'll scratch your back. In this 'watta
satta' the rights of the people are to be
exchanged for power and pelf and at stake are
the rights of the people who desire and demand
an immediate end to military rule cloaked by 'sham
democracy'.
It in fact more closely resembles a 'Vani'
or a 'Sawara' marriage because there is gross
and disgraceful violation of principles both political
and moral, not to mention the legal and constitutional
ones. Depredations both physical and spiritual
have been in vogue in the political and matrimonial
fields here and this is the most despicable example
of political opportunism and deceit.
I would advice 'The daughter of West', yes West,
to consult the expert and indisputable authority
on marriages of convenience, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman.
If you notice that he in his marriage of convenience
which spawned the monster of 17th Amendment was
the shy bride and has now transformed into the
detested mother-in law who hunts with the hounds
and runs with the hares with extreme agility in
spite of age and body weight. A feat only he can
accomplish. He is still looking for a suitor and
Chaudary Shujaat is once again proposing him as
an alternative to Benazir. The only hitch is the
White House occupant.
The present 'watta satta' is not the
first time for either Benazir or for Musharraf.
His first 'watta satta' was with the
PML (Q), when after accusing the entire breed
of politicians here as incompetent, corrupt and
unacceptable he had brazenly gone ahead and glorified
and accepted the inveterate turncoats and incorrigibly
corrupt politicians as his mainstay and bulwark.
He will soon see how these rats abandon the sinking
ship and sink it will, in spite of the lifeline
being thrown by BB.
Benazir's last 'watta satta' was with
GIK when she had turned tables on Nawaz Sharif.
She had reneged on her supposedly inviolable principled
differences with GIK for the pleasures of second
tenure in the PM House along with the polo ponies
of Mr. Zardari. So both are quite accomplished
and gifted in this particular form of marriage.
As is always the case in soap opera marriages
there are conditions imposed from both sides.
Benazir is demanding repeal of Article 58 (2)
(b), a share of one-third in the interim government,
repeal of the clause barring her from third time
as PM and withdrawal of corruption cases against
her and her equally corrupt party members. Musharraf
is demanding his re-election as President, his
re-election as President and his re-election as
President. He seems to be obsessed with the idea.
If this marriage is unfortunately consummated
they will be gifted the power to deprive the people
of the right of freedom of expression, the right
to association, the right to elect representatives
of their choice, the right to sovereignty, the
right to good governance, the right to transparency
in all government dealings, the right to hold
the government accountable for its deeds, the
right to clean water, the inalienable right to
education and health and all those multifarious
rights which citizens have the right to expect
and demand of their governments, in return for
fighting the 'war against terror' in the region.
This iniquitous arrangement will automatically
give the contractors the authority to deny people
their basic rights under their plea of 'war against
terrorism', 'moderation', 'the writ of the state'
and of course the ever present 'national interest'.
They will have the complete backing of their best
man, the US, to ride roughshod over the rights
of the people as long as they obsequiously fight
its war against Al-Qaeda. It is the people who
will lose heavily and irreversibly.
You may have noticed that ostensibly the participants
of this soap opera 'watta satta' do not
tire of claiming that this nuptial knot will benefit
the people while in fact there is absolute disregard
for wishes of the peoples. The main actors of
the opera and consequently the main culprits of
the envisaged heinous crime against people have
like any other cheap soap opera threatened dire
consequences if these love-birds are not allowed
to have their way. The threats parcelled being
that of Emergency rule, of Martial Law and of
takeover by the fundamentalists. All this duplicity
and deceit is reprehensible.
The 'watta satta' deal involves the fate
and future of the people but they have not been
made privy to the underhand dealings. Even the
party members of the contractors have been left
high and dry so the thought as to what is about
to be spawned this time around sends shivers down
the spine.
In case there is a divorce after marriage as happened
after the 17th Amendment there will be clauses
for the Golden Handshake. It would be naïve
to expect a shrewd dealer like Benazir, when it
comes to her own interests, to be without a parachute
when the plane stalls but she may not be as lucky
as Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman who is still enjoying
the benefits in spite of a quick divorce because
the times have changed since March 9th and people
have become more aware. As for Musharraf his goose
is cooked with or without deal.
The adage at the beginning needs to be changed
to "Marriages are made in Washington and
suffered by the people in Pakistan”. This
marriage is a double whammy for the people here,
a whammy which they may not survive because of
the lethal ingredients, Mush and BB, it is made
up of. There is not a single redeeming factor
for the people in this entire soap opera 'watta
satta'.
There is also a strong possibility that like in
old Indian movies, the hero will dramatically
declare, "Yeh Shaadi Nahin Hogi". Though
it is difficult to predict just yet as to who
is destined to throw the spanner into the works
but this drop scene seems inevitable. It could
be the Supreme Court, the civil society and the
lawyers or a mass uprising of the people.
They fail to understand that they will stand discredited,
disgraced and exposed in front of people either
way. The power lovebirds have become so blinded
by their self-interest and egoism that they have
entirely lost their bearings and reason.
Sheikh Saadi says in 'Gulistan',
"Aai Aarabi Ba Kabba Nami Rassi
Kay Ruhk Ba Turkistan Ast"
It means, 'O' Bedouin you will never reach the
Kabba
Because you are traveling towards Turkistan"
They are never going to reach their cherished
goal of remaining in power eternally because they
have failed to understand the writings on the
wall and have in their misperception of reality
started considering themselves infallible, indispensable
and inevitable, which they are certainly not.
P.S. There is news of apparent failure in this
'watta satta' but keeping in view their
predilection for power, their unimpeachable subservience
to the US, and their coteries of assiduous sycophants,
I wouldn't yet rule out their clinching the deal.
Some columnists have been mentioning astrologers'
predictions. I hope people are not swayed by these.
A Sheikh Saadi hikayat tells: A sage saw ruckus
going on outside a house he was passing by; on
enquiry he learnt that the owner was a 'kahin'
(astrologer) who had unexpectedly returned to
find his wife with her paramour. The sage said
"One who doesn't know what transpires in
his house how can he claim to see into the future."
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