The Good Monster: Musharraf's Cultural Legacy

tahmed the peon of the West writes "anil sahib: mush's biggest "achievement" is in uniting the nation to separate him from his uniform"

The "people" had nothing to do with that, the Americans had everything to do with it. The "people" don't want anything to do with Musharraf with or without the uniform....but as usual, this peon of the West will try to associate the will of the US elite as if it were the will of the people of Pakistan...

anil sahib: mush's biggest "achievement" is in uniting the nation to separate him from his uniform.

Re: # 96

Eklavyaji,

I do not know, As far as I think, the concept itself
was rotten, so foundtion was shaky. And then the
rot started with Objective Resolution.

Re: # 91

Tahmed Sahib:

I agree that answer is uncertain, and it is like asking about road taken. That is my point also, it is easy to romanticize, but reality is Musharraff has indeed delivered on many things.

Nasah:#93
Faiz was practically banished at the time of Zia and Faraz was also curbed.
Jalib died and Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi compromised.

shishapa and arjun

In its earliest days, right up to the sixties, Pakistan was a very different place than it became later. It's not for me to say which is or was better, but it was a place where Muslims lived, not where Islam thrived. Imagine India without Nehruvian socialism.

Re: # 93

What? What was declarng Ahmadiyas as non-Muslims
and keeping it that way?
A progressive state/society thing?

#93 Posted by nasah on December 13, 2007 2:10:25 pm


Pakistan was not a fundamentalist Jahiliya state before Musharraf


yes...lashkar-e-toiba, jaish-e-mohammed and the taliban are all cultural societies..

"This is like giving the credit of “French Revolution” to “King Louis the Fourteenth” instead of Voltaire or Roseau or acclaiming British Imperialists for ‘Quit India Movement’."(Nikhat)

Nikhat it couldn’t be said any better. This is a misplaced "Shahnama" from a supposedly progressive Firdausi to a self-serving reactionary one-man dictator.

Pakistan was not a fundamentalist Jahiliya state before Musharraf – the land of Faiz, Jalib, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Ahmed Faraz – was even ahead of India intellectually in those good old days of yore.

Pakistan was far more progressive, possessed many more people with powerful intellect than it is now – today mediocrity rules – in fact mediocrity and toadiness are the king and queen in civilian politics in the army’s performance, in the arts and sciences and in international relationships -- Pakistan has been pushed behind -- during these 8 years of chamcha cultivating dadagiri promoting personalized colonial kind of whimsical Durbari rule.

Strangely to this supposedly golden era of the Progressive Pervez the only crops that grew aplenty in the planes and the valleys of Pakistan are more and longer neards -- more fundamentalist militancy, more madarassas, more sectarian killings and more suicide bombings.

None of them by any means 'progressive' or of any ‘enlightened moderation’ by any stretch of Musharrafian imagination cum hallucination.

And talking about that 'economic miracle' -- with a 15 billion dollar infusion of Uncle Sam dollars in 7 years -- with a continuing manno-salva of 500 million dollars a month of US tax payers money -- even a Pygmy of African Savannah could outperform any citbank teller like Shaukat Aziz -- thanks to the Osama bin Laden's unloading of the 9/11 shit.

NFP,

Not so sure, tempted to agree but having difficulty understanding Mush & Co's deliberate push towards social liberalization. Events of 9/11 changed the geopolitical situation that has forced change in many Muslim countries. Gone are the days when Mohammedans were the dominant social factor in Gulf countries including Soodi Arabia, economics has become the new Almighty God. Mush simply presided over an era where China and India have emerged as the engines of growth and in turn have forced change in their regions. Add to that Uncle Sam trying to impose their political domination via Afghanistan and Iraq.

El Prezidente Musharraf can be credited with his economic policies but then again much of that credit belongs to easy liquidity and Dr Ishrat Hussein.

anil #79 in asking whether pakistan would have been better past 8 years with mush or with BB/NS, you make two basic mistakes:

1. You assume "other things equal", i.e. you assume the comparison is with mush vs bb/ns being within the same political system. in fact, it is mush running a dictatorship where he is clearly outside the law vs. bb/ns being within a democracy where they would have been accountable within the law.

2. Your question relates to a conjecture about the "road not taken", and as such is academic. What is important is: what is good for the future of Pakistan as of today - democracy or dictatorship, freedom or slavery?

Correcting for the above two, the answer to you question is obvious, dont you think?

Nikhat #82 Your post takes apart the rubbish Nadeem Paracha has tried to promote in this article that seeks to glorify mush and berate Pakistanis. Enjoyed reading it.

zeemax: you say "musharraf is not going to leave and no one can make him."

Mush has already left - without his wardi, he cannot order a single soldier to pick up his rifle. He as to go through the COAS (as he himself was whining about a couple of days back to the press about military "protocol"). And now time is against him - and his actions are probably now geared to saving his skin.

No doubt the "amendment" now being mushed (!!) into the constitution to allow a third term for PM indicates that mush sees BB as the best bet to being allowed to continue as president.

But then one has to ask: will BB, even if she wants, be able to compromise with mush and keep the Supreme Court disabled after getting elected? Seems highly implausible to me given the strong public resentment at the destruction of the Supreme Court by mush. We shall find out soon enough I guess.

Re: # 65
"wake up and smell the coffee...or don't...either way, indians don't give a shit".

Oh thats fine. Indian have my permission to remain eternally constipated.

Re: # 64 Dash_Dot
"I do not know if I should laugh or cry at this rather naive statement".

Why don't you try both and see which one works better for you.

"That it is heading in that direction now is something which every right thinking Pakistani must be more worried about than Kashmir".

But that is one of the biggest problem we have. We can't seem to figure out who is a "right thinking" Pakistani.

"Even Bangladesh, which was rendered a basket case because of the Pakistani policies, and it subsequent annihilation of the Bangladeshi intellectual class in 1971, is performing much better than pakistan".

I am not surprised. If they believe in themselves, and do what they can, they will do better.

In Pakistan we have zillions of views pulling it in all sorts of directions. Ironically the only ones who are focussed are the extremists.

"And you are worried about what is happening in some other country".

What other country are you talking about? I am thinking about Pak and its future.

"Has Pakistan not learnt that it has not taken the thekka of the muslim world world".

????

"Stop worrying about the world and start worrying about Pakistan. This is what Mush-e-ruff tried, and has done up to a point. I wish he continues for a few more years so that he can change the situation for the better. He has stopped the rot (not entirely, but made it more manageable) and he needs time to rectify the ills".

It remains debatable whether he has stopped, or compounded, the rot. Some, like me, would say he (Mush) has been busy putting the last nails in the coffin. Now it will take some doing on our part to bail ourselves out.

Re: # 63
"Again this notion that Pakistan is different by virtue of being Muslim are at best romantic ideas that have no place in the cutthroat world of realpolitik. I think folks such as Iqbal, Faiz and the others drilled such delusions through their patriotic songs among Paki minds, which are great to listen to at independence day parades and functions, but are of little value elsewhere. Pakistan has believed too seriously in such notions and embarked on reckless misadventures with almost all of its neighbors and beyond with the result that other nations think nothing of poking their noses deep into Pakistan without hurting Paki sensibilities. If Pakistan today is in such a soup, it is precisely because of the delusions of grandeur nurtured amongst its leaders and also an extent the public. I sincerely hope for Pakistan's own sake that Pakis come out of this delusion".

Yaar, I do not deny that we Pakis have many faults and shortcomings. Whether we are delusional or not, time alone will tell.

Let us leave it at that, shall we?