And now...a moment of sanity....

Dumbness passing understanding




By Ayaz Amir

WE can be so dumb, at the highest levels of government too, that it is not even funny. Imagine someone going into crouching position and ramming his head into a brick wall and then, head all bandaged, saying life is unfair. Or someone diving superman-style to clutch an arrow flying through the air meters away, and sticking it into his own back.

In the Mukhtaran Mai case the generalissimo’s government of “enlightened moderation” has done precisely this, ramming into a brick wall, making a complete ass of itself, and in the process spreading the impression around the world that a woman who is raped in Pakistan stands the additional risk of having her passport confiscated. In terms of sheer silliness, it’s hard to beat this.

Of course, rapes happen everywhere, certainly more in the United States than in Pakistan (all the statistics vouching for this statement). But is that the issue here? Rapes happen but they are usually not sanctioned by village councils which is what happened with Mukhtaran Mai and which is the single most important factor which has lent her case international publicity.

This and the added factor of police incompetence. Mukhtaran’s case having hit international headlines, shouldn’t the Multan police — shaking off the lethargy, corruption and sheer incompetence which are the staples of police work in Pakistan — have shown extra care in investigating it and making the prosecution case stick? Apparently, however, large enough holes were left for an elephant to walk through. Little wonder if the high court threw the case out and acquitted the prisoners.

This may have been strictly in accordance with the tenets of justice — a court handing out a verdict on the basis of the evidence before it. But what does it do for Pakistan’s image? Well, from here to Topeka, Kansas, the impression spreads that in Pakistan you can subject a woman to collective rape and then walk away free.

Pakistan’s blessed image gets another ducking in dirty water.

Considering that all this is happening in Punjab, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi’s bailiwick, you wonder what Pakistan’s leading advertizing genius is up to. He’s a great one for ads — at public expense, naturally — singing his praises and extolling his largely fictional achievements, but has he thought fit to ask his chief secretary, the inspector-general of the Punjab police, the district police officer, Multan, why such a mess has been made of Mukhtaran Mai’s case?

Asif Zardari thinks of arriving in Lahore and all hell breaks loose. Mai’s case does wonders for Pakistan’s international standing once, twice and then once again, but Punjab’s chief minister remains unfazed.

One would think this was enough. But, no, who should step into the breach but the generalissimo himself? Some do-good NGO invites Mukhtaran to the US and someone in government has an apoplectic fit. As Mukhtaran was sure to give Pakistan bad publicity, she shouldn’t be allowed to go to the US. The government goes into overdrive, virtually arresting Mukhtaran, confiscating her passport, putting her name on the Exit Control List.

As anyone but the government of Pakistan might have guessed, the dirt hits the ceiling. The New York Times pummels Pakistan editorially. The State Department says it will look into the matter. Columns are written, e-mails sent. As outrage spreads and Pakistan becomes a laughing stock, from overdrive the government jumps to damage-control mode. What is its idea of damage-control? Parading Mai on television in the company of prime ministerial adviser, Neelofar Bakhtiyar.

Doing all the talking and fielding all the questions, Bakhtiyar says Mukhtaran is not going to the US of her own free will and because her mother is ill. Obviously, the government of Pakistan thinks that everyone else is as dumb as itself.

Trying to be charitable, you think some over-zealous official must be responsible for this fiasco. But, no, the generalissimo on one of his frequent flyer programmes — at the rate he is going, he is sure to clock up more air travel time than anyone else in history — declares that it was he who ordered the ban on Mai’s going abroad. For good measure, he denounces NGOs for working against the country’s interests.

A hundred speeches on “enlightened moderation” — the phrase in danger of sticking in Pakistani gullets — and this one declaration takes care of all of them. And the general likes to think that he is an image expert. Mukhtaran going to the US: so bloody what? Taken around Capitol Hill, so what? A confident nation would never worry.

As for NGOs, it is true most are foreign-funded. As a result some of Pakistan’s best and brightest earn a good living from the NGO trade. (Perhaps I would too if given half the opportunity). Their agendas, more often than not, are foreign-driven. The old story: he who pays the piper calls the tune. But why is it that Gen Musharraf is discovering the ills of the NGO sector only now? He has been in power for almost six years, the time it took to start and finish the Second World War. He should have done something about it long ago.

The luxury of whining is for those without power and influence. It sits ill on the powerful who can fix problems if they choose to. So let’s hear no more about NGOs unless someone is willing to do something about them.

Charity, however, is best begun at home. The nation’s political affairs are in a mess. Don’t ask the opposition, ask anyone from the ruling party (or the nominal ruling party, the real ruling party being the army). You’ll hear as much from that quarter. If the government can’t clean up its own mess, how can it clean up anyone else’s?

Know what this whole fiasco underlines? The perils of one-man rule. One man in his wisdom ordering a certain course of action and because his word is law and there is no one to question him, he can do anything he likes. The nation then has to live with the consequences.

Can George Bush just get up and prevent any American he likes from going abroad? He has to abide by the rules even if he has something unsavoury up his sleeves. A Pakistani president is under no such compulsion, his word, diktat, whim or prejudice instant national policy, the compass determining national direction. The great helmsman speaks, never mind if he is no Mao, and that is that.

This is one reason why our American friends, contrary to what they like to profess, have always been in love with military rule in Pakistan. Without having to work through any system, they just need to speak to or tackle one man to get something done. Saves a lot of time and bother. Powell’s famous telephone call asking Musharraf to make a choice was so productive precisely for this reason: Musharraf said yes and that was all that mattered, decision taken, time saved.

It would be something if we were dealing with perfection and infallibility. But we are not. We don’t have to go far. The record of the past six years provides ample warning against the perils of one-man rule. The referendum, the formation of the Q League, squabbles within the ruling party, the elevation of the Chaudhries, the continuing inability to craft a political system that would stand the test of time. No surprises then if Pakistan has been made to look foolish because of the Mukhtaran Mai case.

One-man wisdom for close to six years, too long a period by any stretch of the imagination. Time Pakistan moved on