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)
