A rchive Date
[ 05-05-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Pakistan ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis_may5.html
Not your everyday Third World dictator
By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Contributing Foreign Editor
May 5, 2002
If you want to be a successful dictator, don't hold a referendum designed to show how much the people love you. No one believes such nonsense any more, particularly not the world media, which rightfully dismissed as a farce last week's crudely rigged referendum in Pakistan.
The vote, designed to give military leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf some semblance of political legitimacy, didn't. But it certainly embarrassed Pakistan in the eyes of the world. Washington, the champion of world democracy, remained stone silent.
I interviewed Musharraf at army HQ in Rawalpindi five months after he came to power in a military coup that ousted the corrupt prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. The diminutive general looked more like a doctor or academic than the commando officer he was.
Musharraf did not have any of the toughness or charisma I had felt when meeting with Pakistan's previous military ruler, Zia ul Haq, none of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's brilliance and charm, nor any of the fire-breathing military panache I'd come to expect from Pakistan's warriors, the ones Benazir scolds me about, calling them, "Your beloved generals."
During our interview, Musharraf seemed weary and withdrawn, a reluctant leader unexpectedly put into power by his fellow generals. It seemed Musharraf almost wished he didn't have to face Pakistan's enormous problems: near bankruptcy; political instability; a hostile neighbour in India; omnivorous corruption.
Washington greeted the coup with anger and outrage. The U.S. media and Congress denounced Musharraf as another nasty Third World military dictator, branded Pakistan a "terrorist state," and called for an immediate return to what in Pakistan passed for democracy.
Then came Sept. 11. The White House declared war on Muslim extremists as well as Islamic groups opposed to American domination of their homelands and resources. The Bush administration seized on 9/11 to launch a campaign to acquire the oil and gas of Central Asia and Iraq. Total co-operation from Pakistan was a key part of this plan. Washington put a gun to Musharraf's head. Musharraf accepted the American ultimatum with unseemly haste, abandoned former allies, and became an eager, obedient servant of the United States.
Exit Musharraf, the Third World Dictator. Enter Musharraf, statesman. American criticism of Pakistan's new dictatorship abruptly ceased. In a remarkable volte-face, the White House and U.S. media overnight transformed Musharraf into a bulwark against Islamic evil and an enlightened ruler.
Each time Musharraf took a major step that pleased Washington - abandoning the Taliban, providing the U.S. with military bases, sharing intelligence, locking up Islamic militants, curbing the media, banning political demonstrations, giving up the quest to end Indian rule in Kashmir - his stature abroad grew apace. American aid flowed in; Pakistan's huge debts were rescheduled.
Over the past seven months, Pakistan has gone from being the world's leading independent Muslim state to a client of the United States. Pakistan's best military and intelligence officers have been purged on orders from Washington; its soldiers now serve as auxiliaries - or loyal native troops - to U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is under constant U.S. monitoring.
During this remarkably short period, American support transformed Gen. Musharraf into a true Mideast-style strongman, complete with a growing cult of personality worthy of Saddam Hussein. Most interesting, Musharraf has clearly been bitten by the bug of international celebrity, an infection that has afflicted numerous other Third World leaders.
When Washington turns on the charm, it's hard to resist. There are meetings in the White House with the world's most important man (who recently referred to Pakistanis as "Pakis.") Speeches to Congress, gala state banquets and intimate dinners with Barbara Walters and Henry Kissinger in New York.
There are glowing stories in the media about progress in human rights, women's rights and agriculture. There are tens of millions in American aid, much of which can be siphoned off by the ruling elite into foreign bank accounts, or used to reward cronies and supporters in the military and media. This is what happened to Egypt's Anwar Sadat, who ended up adored in New York but hated in Cairo.
Pakistan, which used to pride itself on its independence, is now going the way of U.S. allies in the Mideast like Egypt,Tunisia and Jordan - thinly disguised military dictatorships whose armed forces, intelligence agencies, media, police, national bank and very economic survival are controlled by the U.S. government. No doubt, after so many decades of political and economic crises, some Pakistanis will welcome becoming an American satrapy. But there will be just as many who do not and will likely resort to violence to oppose their government.
Pakistan deserves better than becoming Washington's newest gendarme in the Muslim world. Musharraf, a decent, honest man and patriot, still has a chance to show his independence and, like Chile's former military ruler, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, to put his nation on the road to real democracy by cleaning house, then returning the army to the barracks.
If Musharraf does not, and allows ultimate power to ultimately corrupt him, he will confirm what many Indians have long sneered - that Pakistan is simply too backward for democratic government.
Eric can be reached by e-mail at margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com or visit his home page
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