January 27, 2012

Alexander the Great: Zardari the ….

 

Though centuries and continents apart in all other respects, Alexander the great (356-329 BC) and our own Great Zardari(1955- ) will go down in history as having shared one thing in common: a wry neck. According to Wikipedia, Alexander’s “neck was in some way twisted, so that he appeared to be gazing upward at an angle.” His biographers agree that his wry neck was probably the result of a familial neck and spinal deformity, which might have even contributed to his death at age 32.

Fortunately, our man at the top of the current ruling oligarchy suffers from no such deformity. Zardari holds his neck at a discrete angle, not because of some fashionable affectation, but probably owing to the nudging of his own hubris and the swagger that pelf and power have rendered to him. After all, no erstwhile small landlord has emerged from eight years in jail and several years in the shadow of his wife’s august position in society, to amass some two billion dollars in assets at home and abroad. His derogators point to the innumerable corruption scandals behind the wealth, but the end result is what counts in the scale of values of the ruling elite of the day. They uphold this on the authority of no less a person than Niccolo Machiavelli - the end justifies the means.

One cannot but marvel at the way he kept grabbing all opportunities, including the intense wave of sympathy over the assassination of his wife, to accumulate levers of power till he catapulted himself into the top position of the influential political party and then to the country’s Presidency itself.

He may or may not have read ‘The Prince’ by Machiavelli – almost all politicians, the demagogues in particulars, read it avidly while distancing in public from the prescribed precepts - but his attainments betray an uncanny similarity in perceptions.

Even without Machiavelli’s advice about means and ends, he has his priorities well demarcated. Making money is a pleasant pastime, he had himself said years back. Acquisition of knowledge through formal education or self-study appears to be quite at the fringe of his interest. The first thing he did on assumption of power was to arrange the cancellation of the constitutional requirement that all parliamentarians need must be college graduates. He claims to be a graduate of the London School of Economics and Business. But media reported that no such institution existed in London.

In a speech in Larkana, he said that Pakistan’s population was over 200 million, while official statistics put it at 170 million. Addressing his party workers in Birmingham, he claimed that Pakistan’s exports totaled $35 billion, while the actual figure is $18 billion only. He also claimed that the country was recording over one hundred percent growth rate. Actual rate has fallen during his watch from 7% to 2%.

Such facts and figures have little significance in his scheme of things. But, he would know each and every feather he had put in his own nest, which is now worth almost two billion dollars. Press reports have alleged that his visit to Paris some time back was to inspect his palace in Normandy. His visit to London too (at official expense also) had on the unannounced agenda the supervision of his properties and investments, apart from the launching of his son, Bilawal, into active politics as the young man had completed his graduation from Oxford.

Unfortunately, the timing of his tour of Europe turned out to be inopportune as the country was hit by unprecedented monsoon rains and floods taking over 1600 lives and plowing a swathe of destruction more than 1000 km long from northern Pakistan to southern Sindh –almost a third of the entire country. The massive floods, according to a UN report, have affected over 13 million people, that is more than the combined total of 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2005 Kashmir earthquake and 2010 Haiti tremor.

Zardari could have easily cancelled the tour, visited the affected areas, caused a speeding up of relief operations, and addressed the people to keep their morale high. His egoistic proclivity, his feudalistic mindset and, above all, the sycophantic advices his aides and cronies egging him on to keep pursuing his own agenda, caused a groundswell of resentment at home and abroad and to the shoes-throwing incident at his party’s Birmingham rally.

Alexander was tutored by the eminent intellectual, Aristotle. Zardari is nurtured, one suspects, on the advices served to him by his aides and close compatriots, comprising sycophants and cronies of doubtful intellectual caliber and integrity. They created a complete mess of the shoe-throwing incident. His over-enthusiastic minions in government and PPP arranged the banning of the broadcasts of Geo TV and ARY as both had carried stories about the unsavory incident and Geo had telecast an interview with Shamim Khan, a London-based PPP activist, who admitted to having thrown the shoes.

In an interview to an international news agency, Shamim Khan remarked: “There was no need for him (Zardari) to be here in London. The whole of Pakistan was telling him not to go. This thing got one enraged, fomented my emotions, and this (shoe-hurling) was the only means of protest available to me at that time”. What an argument! Shamim Khan in his skullcap and flowing beard did not strike as a senile person. But, there was perhaps not much beneath his cap to flaunt. He was taken into police custody but was released after some questioning. Why? Is it not an offense in UK to throw shoes at a visiting foreign head of state? In all probability, he was set free on the recommendation of some VIP in the President’s entourage who thought that the incident would be obliterated by denial and the absence of any accused! Whatever the case, it does not reflect well on the image of the country and its people; more so, on its leadership.

Bilawal Zardari, will inherit vast properties and large bank accounts in his father’s legacy but, one hopes, not his feudal mindset and eccentricities.

What about Alexander’s legacy? He fell ill while on his way home after conquering many kingdoms. He called his Generals and expressed his three wishes. He said, “I would like the world to know the three lessons I have learnt.

“First, I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize that no doctor can really save anyone from the clutches of death.

“Secondly, I want the path leading to the graveyard be strewn with gold and silver to tell people that not even a fraction of all my gold and silver can be taken by me.

“Thirdly, I want my hands dangling out of coffin, so that people know that I came empty-handed in this world and empty-hand I go out of this world.”

An Urdu poet has put it in the following couplet:

Kya laya tha Sikander, kya lay gaya jahan say

Thay donoN hath khali baher kaffan key niklay

Alexander’s wry-neck was indeed an inherited family affliction, and not because of any arrogance.

arifhussaini@hotmail.com 714-921-9634