Democracy is Like Virginity

Once, a Russian diplomat, posted at the UN Headquarters at New York, amusingly compared diplomatic immunity with virginity while commenting his refusal to settle several outstanding traffic violation tickets. He meant that either he was not liable to legal actions altogether by the virtue of his diplomatic status or his ambassadorial shield was of no use. According to his premise, a notion of “selected” diplomatic immunity is equally inane as that of half-virginity.

Convincingly, the same analogy can be applied to democracy as well. Either there is a rule of the law, and the will of people runs supreme or there is despotism. There is no midway. In fact, whenever as “controlled”, “sustainable”, “basic” or “true”, are being appended to democracy, regardless by whom, the history demands from us to be suspicious
of the integrity and underlying objectives of the marketing team.

Observe yourself: 29 constitutional amendments in one go. Almost all of them designed exclusively to appease the lust for absolute power of an individual. “This is part of the Constitution," General Musharraf declared at one point, waving his hand in the air. At another stage, he proclaimed, "I am hereby making it part of the Constitution, I do not need Assembly’s consent.” And this is what they call a sustainable and true democracy. What a joke, what an insult.

“The majority of people spoke against it. Some also spoke in favour, but honestly, I think this (council) is very important and this will be done".

Exactly so, General Musharraf justified the formation of National Security Council. This “I am the state” attitude is breathtaking, to say the least.

And if that was not enough, adding insult to injury General Musharraf decreed, "If there is any necessity for any further amendments to the Constitution or any difficulty arises in giving effect to any of the provisions of this order, the chief executive may make such provisions and pass or promulgate such orders for amending the Constitution or for removing any difficulty as he may deem fit." In simple words, the fate of 140 million Pakistanis hangs entirely on the will, wish and whim of a single omnipotent fellow.

As the legal basis for his sweeping actions, the general cited a May 2000 Supreme Court ruling granting him the right to amend the Constitution. The blatant inconsistency doesn’t bother him that an institution not entitled to alter the constitution itself, logically cannot confer that authority upon someone else either. If truth be told, that ridiculous validation of the military coup corroborates the incapacity of the courts at best and the appalling rot of the judicial system in Pakistan at worst.

Then regarding General Musharraf’s bizarre contention that his presence is necessary for the continuation of his policies to make them irreversible, the World Bank recently observed that such claims could never be fully credible: the nature of democracy requires that an elected government should be able to alter course.

The bank furthermore added that the most convincing way to make changes irreversible is for them to yield sufficiently positive results. In that way, a reversal of them would become tantamount to political suicide.

In reality, the much-hyped “continuity” is merely a codeword for the perpetuation of the hegemony of the military. The real aim of this propaganda is to prolong the status quo, in addition to preserve power, perks and privileges of the military high command, and keep on holding the country hostage to the whims of few self-styled “saviours”. Features,
General Musharraf eagerly wants to safeguard in person, for a long time to come.

One doesn’t require a doctorate in political sciences to understand that General Musharraf’s foremost tasks will be to hinder every move to curtail the encroachment of the military in civilian domain, to thwart every effort to net thousands of senior military officers who have looted this poor nation with full impunity. To guard that defence deals “continue” to remain effectively beyond any sort of accountability and ensure that a dozen prime residential plots each keep on doling upon star officers.

As someone said, even the will of the majority must be subjected to checks and balances if an elected dictatorship is to be avoided. In our country, tragically, our top gun insists on running the show all alone, without any curbs, whatsoever. With such an obvious sham, only morons can be conned.

However, one cannot avoid wondering, if the future course of action has already spiked by the NRB in tandem with the GHQ, leaving virtually no manoeuvrability for incoming political actors, than why having the formality of elections? If the forthcoming quasi civilian set-up is only meant to provide “democratic” façade to the dispensation already well-entrenched by the “overwhelming approval” of the “silent majority”, through the referendum, and now even by “irreversible”, “unchallengeable” amendments, then is it rational, let alone justifiable, to squander billions on (futile) electioneering -- once again?

It appears that the top brass is well aware of the fact that a stable civilian government would definitely demand transparency in defence spending and thereby deprive them of their precious goldmines. A painful scenario that is understandably least acceptable to the khakis. Hence, in fact, it is sheer selfishness and pure self-interest of the brass that don’t let democracy take root in the country.

To tell the truth, the moment, a mode of government, dubbed as “democracy”, needs a prefix/postfix for its justification; no matter how pious sounding, it can be plausibly assumed that it is a fraud, a spoof solely meant to camouflage the perverseness of the system and malevolent intentions of its top administrators.

According to General Musharraf, “If you want to keep the army out, you have to bring it in.” A perfectly correct analysis, except the delusion of the end destination. No doubt, you have to bring them in – IN the ambit of statute book. Absolutely, we need to prosecute all those who meddle in the affairs of government for high treason and put them IN jails.

Anyhow, by any measure, the hotchpotch being marketed by the messiahs is not conducive to running a state, which meets the just rights of the citizens and civilized standards of governing. Neither khaki’s pretended sincerity nor proclaimed intentions square with the historical facts and empirical evidence. I am tempted to paraphrase an expression from General Musharraf’s own speech delivered on August 14, 2002.
… “ A handful of individuals have held the entire nation hostage with their misguided view of politics”.

Therefore, fellow countrymen, it is our moral, democratic and not least religious duty to stand up to the tyrants. Patsies who eagerly trot after the usurpers are themselves responsible for the tragic outcome. What is at the stake is not just the military-civilian power sharing but also the very survival of the civil society. Our apathy will become our death. Or murder.

There is an old Bedouin legend that goes like this: An elderly Bedouin leader thought that by eating turkey he could restore his virility. So he bought a turkey, kept it by his tent and stuffed it with food every day.

One day someone stole his turkey. The Bedouin elder called his sons together and told them: "Boys, we are in great danger. Someone has stolen my turkey." "Father," the sons answered, "what do you need a turkey for?"
"Never mind," he answered, "just get me back my turkey." But the sons ignored him and a month later someone stole the old man’s camel. "What should we do?" the sons asked. "Find my turkey," said the father. But the
sons did nothing, and a few weeks later the man’s daughter was raped. The father said to his sons: "It is all because of the turkey. When they saw that they could take my turkey, we lost everything."

Please, for God sake, try to realize that a Khmer Rouge ala Musharaf is in making. A failure to unambiguously denounce these attempts and hinder such a sinister development AT THIS TIME will make us regret bitterly afterwards. The military has already stolen the camel, in West Pakistan too. What will be their next step …..? Need not to elaborate any further, I guess.