Shameful Conduct
By Nadir Khan, PhD
Alta Loma, California
When Asif Zardari visited the Quaid’s mazar after his election as president, he signed the visitors’ book and under his name he wrote “President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.” It was a one-sentence statement and on the Internet there is some chat about the spelling of two words. But that is a discussion for some other time.
Now Mr. Zardari is in New York attending the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. During his stay in the city he met with Sara Palin, the Vice Presidential nominee of the Republican Party, to boost her foreign policy credentials for the upcoming November elections.
This is how the Los Angeles Times of Thursday, September 25, 2008, described the meeting:
“… At that point, Zardari entered and the conversation turned decidedly flirtatious. He told her she was ‘even more gorgeous’ than he thought. ‘You are so nice,’ Palin said. ‘Thank you.’ Zardari pressed on: ‘Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you.’ At that point a Zardari handler asked them to shake hands for the camera. ‘I am supposed to pose again,’ Palin said. ‘If he is insisting,’ Zardari said, ‘I might hug’”
A U-tube clip claims “Palin meets Pakistan ’s horny president.” What a shame!!!
The President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan humiliating himself and his country so very publicly. Every country in the world has a Chief of Protocol who lets the dignitary know how to conduct and what to do under certain situations. Either Pakistan does not have a person like that or Mr. Zardari does not care. He needs to know a simple fact: he is not there as Asif Ali Zardari but the representative of 160 million people. He is their public persona and their image. He is a mirror in which Pakistan is being reflected.
He needs to learn some very simple manners. He is on the world stage representing Pakistan and not as a feudal landlord from Nawabshah, where he can get away with whatever he wants to. Authority, power and wealth neither confer nor guarantee good manners. Please do not embarrass us any more!!!
