What is it that Pakistanis want?

During May and June 1998, who were these militant, blood-thirsty lot who stood on streets with banners of jubilation over nuclear tests conducted on both sides of the Indian-Pakistani border? Who are the people who voted for Nawaz Sharif or Benazir Bhutto, but are unseen and barely heard when General Pervaiz Musharraff (in true General fashion) takes over the country. I hear that the army did not use the word ‘coup’. The demise of democracy did not merit the word ‘coup’ from the army but the word ‘takeover’. ‘Hostile’, ‘armed’, ‘necessary’ and ‘compelling’ are the connotations that come to mind. These small subtleties have deep meaning. In the Indian-Pakistan sub-continent, democracy is a novel idea. A culture deriving meaning from its collective context, finds the sheer individualism of democracy impossible to understand and implement. Democracy to the common man and woman on the street means a few extra rupees at voting time, it means noise and rallies like a live film shooting, it means a Prime Minister instead of a CEO. Mere terms don’t change the lot of the man who cleans the side-walks every morning or the woman who begs on the streets.

The ‘leaders’ of Pakistan have hitherto come like a line of crusaders on the horse-backs of ‘save ‘Islam’, ‘Morality’, ‘Kashmir’, ‘Ideology’ and ‘Soul’ but the latest crusader says he wants to save the ‘body’ of Pakistan. I hope he means it because the body of Pakistan is hungry, poor beyond imagining, ill-literate, simple and innocent. The body of Pakistan is made-up of countless discriminated, mal-nourished, mistreated and sick women and children, along with desperate macho men. It is made-up of millions of thwarted dreams and un-realized potentials. Barely 0.5% of the population has a college degree, and only 36% know how to at least write their name.

While we argue about the soul of Pakistan, its ideology, its Islam, its right to Kashmir, its non-Indian identity, the body of Pakistan is perishing on the streets.

The body of Pakistan needs much that seems impossible under the burden of global politics. IF the semblance of democracy, the rose of democracy, is not kept like a well-oiled mask on the rotten body of Pakistan, the USA slaps sanctions, and Canada and UK turf the body out of the commonwealth. In Pakistan’s attempts to be honest about the over-powering truth that IT NEVER WAS A DEMOCRACY, lies the paradox of ethics that the West finds impossible to comprehend:

A democracy does not mean the same things to Canada, UK, USA and Pakistan.

Zulfiqar A. Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have more in common, and share more similarities than the rest of the world outside the walls of Pakistan realize. All these people share an over-powering conviction that they were born to rule and plunder, that their’s is the destiny told to them by the lines on their palm or what have you. Their common need for power would run a generation of turbines if in some way it could be converted into energy. Each of these people comes to power not because he is cleverer or better or more competent but because others are sadly too stupid.

In this back-drop of exploitation and discrimination, when somebody marginally more disciplined like a military general arrives, instant peace is restored, calm and order appear and people are actually relieved — See the Chowk survey of 20th October, 1999.

This is how bad the problem of democracy is in Pakistan. There is no solution other than long-term massive and sustained investment in human capital. Pakistan needs schools, adult-literacy centers, health-care and peace. Whether it comes before or after democracy is not important, as long as some responsible Government of Pakistan does the needful.

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?