Please
Don't Let the ‘Poodles’ Succeed Once Again
Dr
Zafar Altaf
THE
WAY present military cum civil set up is desperately trying to
bulldoze the political institutions of the country by following
dirty tricks to keep PPP away from the governance of Sindh, is
distressing to say the least and a cause for concern for those
who have some love left for the infant democracy!
Same
dirty tricks were to be used against MMA in Balochistan had its
leadership not shown some "flexibility".
The
ruling elite of politicians are proving the military establishment
correct that they cannot live like true democrats and rule the
country in the given environment of democracy and thus be discarded.
I
really wonder why the present ruling elite is not ready to understand
what even a commoner can. Why don’t they realize that such
dirty tactics of forcing the shameful defection in political parties
would not strengthening their rule. It will not only weaken them
but would also help the future ambitious military general to wrap
up the entire political set up.
But
all know that no one learns from the brutal lessons of history
thinking that he or she would manage and maneuver the things for
his or her advantage unlike their “stupid” predecessors!
So we have it, a political system in the making. It took a long
time to settle the nature and manner of governance. Those that
have suffered the sensitivities of this country were relieved
that finally the matter has come to an end.
The
straw that broke the camel's back in 1946 and that led to the
creation of Pakistan was the result of the Punjab elections. Politically
the Muslim League had the most votes but intrigue wise the Unionist
Party and the Congress could muster enough votes to ensure that
they could form a government. It was called a minority coalition
and Mr. Khizar Hayat became the Chief Minister. The English realized
that in a majority Hindu country the Muslims would never be able
to get their rights.
The
same thing came to light when the Awami League was not allowed
to form a government despite its majority. What it led to is too
painful for the sons of this country. When a right or an ostensible
right is taken away, the immediate victory is nothing compared
to the ultimate loss? The annals of history are full of fair and
equitable handling. The process of decay and degeneration need
not be with us. We should understand that degeneration and decay
could always set in if we do not adhere to age-old principles.
Just
go over Yahya Khan’s speeches of the time. Just go over
the speeches of some of the people that were involved in that
activity. Is it so difficult to reason, is it so difficult to
understand that ultimately it is decency that wins out.
The
majority parties in Sindh are not in the run for governance. Today’s
criminals are always tomorrow’s heroes and vice versa. The
matter is so writ.
The
result of this ignominious way of thinking and looking over your
shoulders is not conducive to survival of this nation. Ultimately
individuals are not worthy of anything but contempt. The colonial
mind set is with us despite the bravery or the weaknesses of the
National Reconstruction Bureau. When losers lead the conceptual
reasoning what else do you think can happen? Unreasonable actions,
tyranny, treachery and the different cultures bring about societies
that ultimately cannot survive.
The
lessons can and should be taken from God made things. The body
deteriorates with age, so does the body politic and if the baby
is still born it deteriorates sooner than later. The body is an
unwilling victim of this decay, so is the body politic. Decay
is created when there is implied superiority. For once one wishes
that there is not this implied superiority and that the will of
the people, howsoever exercised or not allowed to be exercised,
should be allowed to prevail.
The
aristocracy that is in Pakistan must understand this. That to
every servile policy there is an alternative and there are alternatives
ad infinitum. In India our legacy has been that five hundred of
them with a small number of people in the garrison ruled this
country for over two fifty years. Do we allow this inconspicuous
way of doing things. Is Aurangzeb’s legacy desirable; is
the British legacy desirable? And the more one asks these questions
the more one finds chinks in the armor. Clive was a clerk and
heaven forbid that we should have more Clives from the counting
houses?
We
need to understand that the Balochistan and the Sindh saga will
not work if there is this hidden hand. This hidden hand is there.
The aristocracy that is developed through a connected handing
system does not respond to these facts as they should? The British
did the same. They handed lands and assets to the people of this
country and created a culture of ‘poodalism’ in which
the person gaining the advantage was forever grateful to the tyrant.
Land was given to the persons for going as far as the eye can
see or the distance that one traveled in a day, from sunrise to
sunset. Are assets still given on meaningless basis? Are the modern
capital markets worth their salt? Are the scions of the political
system capable of looking at themselves and determining their
warts and all?
There
are so many advisors going around and so many ways of keeping
influence going that it boggles the mind. All one has to do is
to see how the people are visiting other people and what is the
nature of the political and social stroke play. The social confetti
that is thrown around the people so that they become part of the
seedy system. The Parsi industrialist of the British Raj has given
way to our kinds of nefariously connected industrialist. Papanek’s
[advisor to the Ayub government] way of saying that it takes only
100 robber barons to develop a country. He forgot a few things.
It seems that Papanek is still alive and well in Pakistan and
may have some of his protégés in positions of power.
Development is secondary. What is primary is the creation of politically
powerful people.
When
legacies of this kind are available one becomes subject to a slave
mentality. Keep the one man happy and do as you want to do. The
silent manner of doing things by the powerful comes out eventually.
By that time the consequential actions become irreversible. The
limb is chopped off. The misallocation of resources is exacerbated
and a poor country becomes poorer still with no way out but to
toe the line or face the consequences of incarceration. Pregnant
women get beaten up by officialdom in officialdom’s places
and manhood takes a soaring dive.
The
long hard drive to civil rule will be obstructed by those who
have been set up in the social system for whatever disruptions
they can cause thus making the body decay before its time. At
the end the danger is that the abusively powerful will say ‘I
told you so.’ The ‘I told you so’ philosophy
is akin to the tadpole philosophy. The tadpole keeps on wagging
its tale and does not do much more. The greater the danger the
more vigorous the wag.
Are
we as Pakistanis subject to this conspicuously inconspicuous governance?
All the time the surgery that is made on the system throws away
the brain but keeps the tumor intact. The danger of an invisible,
faceless and remote rule leads one to believe that there will
be a continuous sapping of national unity or even the sense of
national unity leading one to believe that the whole people would
remain powerless for ages. The benefit of the few would be remorselessly
strengthened and the ‘poodles’ gain significantly.
Please
do not let the ‘poodles’ win? Our current dreams are
of doing away with obsolete systems and seek new dimensions and
new paradigms. Not reinforce the old and obsolete ones. The gains
from derived intrigues are not sustainable. The worship of and
continuous slavery to a source is easy to identify. It comes out
in understandable proxies. I look for these proxies in the paper.
A cement dealer has given his ways of selling through hard work
and now derives his income by committing dacoity on his former
colleagues. Meantime the oath of office is the oath of sanctity.
That enjoins that one believes in keeping that oath in letter
and spirit. Although it was collectively taken [?] it has sanctity
and a spirit behind it. I can only say that the only persons I
found even remotely conscious of this were the MMA. They had already
taken an oath of true allegiance to a much higher and powerful
God. They have a commitment to a higher form. The governance of
NWFP will be a major source of interest so far as governance is
concerned.
And
should Pakistanis shoulder the responsibility of inconsequential
actions of those in power like that of Yahya Khan and this is
what some one wrote of him ‘Like all senior people he was
blind to the true state of affairs.’ Sorry I lied for I
have not given the true version for it is too painful for me and
I would leave that part as a crime of omission but was the Pakistani
nation guilty of criminal neglect and were they guilty of other
misdemeanors? How after all will you get your guilt away? I have
yet to do so. So beware, for you have allowed this thing to happen
too often and the result is that you are not part of the civil
society.
Those
holders of scepters and swords and those Cardinal Wolseley’s
who have served their masters more and better than their Lord
should look at their own actions and feel a little remorse and
try washing off the stains of despotism. All those who have used
the instruments of government for their nefarious ends need to
be made accountable. But where and how? Who will do it? The hangman
cannot hang himself and neither can jurisprudence for we have
people sitting in authority over their own case. Calling every
one every conceivable thing and doing much better for themselves.
Self service for you.
Are
we then to become a nation of shifting sands? The choice is of
all Pakistanis and no sacrifice should be considered inconsequential.
Instant coffee is all right but instant obedience is not. Please
savor your dialogues and your reasoning as well as that of the
other. Feudal everywhere and in every form behave. It is time
to take stock of the ones that have been collaborators. We may
not have Nuremberg style trials but it is necessary to take the
cancer out of the body. Dryden did say ‘It is time to start
anew.’ Good health and good reasoning be your mandate.
So,
time has come for the politicians to get some maturity. Please
have mercy on the infant democracy and let the vulnerable opposition
political parties survive as people have suffered a lot during
the last three years of military regime and they need a break
now. Otherwise, soon yet another energetic general will be knocking
on the doors!
The
writer has been a Federal Secretary, Government of Pakistan
