Advice to Musharraf: Dismiss the People, Appoint Another

First, in October 1999, Gen. Musharraf dismissed his boss, the Prime Minister, because the boss had disappointed his subordinate by dismissing him.

Second, also in October 1999, Gen. Musharraf informed the people that their representatives had all along fallen short of the expectations of their chief of army staff, and so he dissolved the senate and the assemblies, and exiled leading politicians. Under new rules, new legislators were elected, so they could work hard to regain Gen. Musharraf's trust.

Now, in Nov 2007, Gen. Musharraf has dismissed the Chief Justice, and other senior judges, and arrested a high proportion of all lawyers in Pakistan, because they have disappointed him (by insisting that he can't be both army chief and president, as the constitution requires, and that he can't break the law by picking up citizens to torture without formal charges and due judicial process, among other grievances). The judges have to regain his trust by taking a fresh oath of allegiance, not to the constitution, but to an Order issued by Gen. Musharraf.

He has also shut down the media, because the very media that (as he believes) he personally had created and given freedom have disappointed him (by "being irresponsible" in allowing the people to see how he was governing). Once again, the media have to regain his confidence by working hard to adhere to a "Code of Conduct" that is being drafted for them.

In sum, over the course of the last 8 years, Gen. Musharraf has dismissed the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, and the media -- all four pillars of the state, as he seems to recognise -- for having failed to live up to his expectations. He is now engaged in a battle with the people.

In a famous German poem, Die Lösung (The Solution), Bertolt Brecht (1913-1956) had commented on the brutal suppression by the Soviet Army of the 1953 uprising in East Germany:

After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts.
Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Would it not be easier, Gen. Musharraf, to dismiss the people of Pakistan also, and appoint another?