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Khaki beau geste

By:Rana Hussain Tahir Koshal

The Pakistan army is the astrologer in Pakistan’s story

Robert Greene recollects a very interesting anecdote of Louis XI. He writes that the great Spider King of France had a weakness for astrology. He kept a court astrologer whom he admired, until one day he predicted that a lady of the court would die within eight days. When the prophecy came true, Louis was terrified, thinking that either the man had murdered the woman to prove his accuracy or that he was so versed in science that his powers threatened Louis himself. In either case he was to be killed.

One evening Louis summoned the astrologer to his room, high in the castle. Before the man arrived, the king told his servants that when he gave the signal they were to pick the astrologer up, carry him to the window and hurl him to the ground, hundreds of feet below.

The astrologer soon arrived, but before giving the signal, Louis decided to ask him one last question: “You claim to understand astrology and know the fate of others, so tell me what your fate will be and how long you have to live.”

“I shall die just three days before Your Majesty,” the astrologer replied. The king’s signal was never give in. The man’s life was spared. The Spider King not only protected his astrologer for as long as he was alive, he lavished him with gifts and had him tended by the finest court doctors.

The astrologer survived Louis by several years, disproving his power of prophecy but proving his mastery at keeping the king dependent upon him.

The Pakistan army has brilliantly played the role of the astrologer in Pakistan’s story. By helping us in time of floods and earthquakes, it has made us believe that it is indispensable to Pakistan and her people, thus giving rise to arguments not only against a democratic Pakistan but against democracy as an institution.

On the top of this, the army tries to make us believe that we are not meant for democracy. For those who are thinking that this is some sort of a conspiracy theory, I would like to recall Ayub Khan’s address to the nation on March 1, 1959. He said, “To work a Westminster style democracy you need really cool phlegmatic temperament which only people in cold climate seem to have. This system has only worked in Britain and the Scandinavian countries. Elsewhere it has not taken real roots. So do not let us kid ourselves and cling to clichés and assume that we are ready to work such a refined system.”

The present state of affairs, including the brutal killings of our Shia brethren has seen the popularity of the same rhetoric, “Pakistan and its people can be run by a dictator only.”

The reason why we succeed so brilliantly in electing the most clownish representatives from amongst us is because we have not yet developed democratic acumen of any sort. This is because out of the 66 years since Pakistan came into existence, for 32 years it was ruled over by force by its own military, which was supplemented by the Inter-Services Intelligence whose power is considered equal, if not more, to the combined powers of the CIA, FBI and the NSA in the US. Where Pakistanis should have seen around 16 democratically elected governments complete their term, they have seen one. It is high time the army starts focusing on protecting the country’s territorial boundaries instead of, what a senator recently said, its ‘ideological frontiers’.

Our misery is such, that even during the remaining 34 years, the military establishment was the puppeteer behind the stage; the Kargil debacle and the Asghar Khan case being a testament to this fact. Moreover, what happened during these so-called non-military governments was and still is more detrimental to the country than the martial law governments themselves. The atmosphere of distrust between the democratically elected and the ever-ready-to-takeover military makes governing extremely difficult. This is the reason why our government is not a great advocate of a military operation in Quetta and Karachi, thus giving a chance to miscreants like Lahskar-e-Jhangvi to succeed in their sinister plans.

Firstly, the government fears that once the military is called in it would refuse go back to the barracks. Secondly, people would think that as the military has been called in to help, democracy has failed yet again. What people do not understand is that the army is a part of the government and should always be at its disposal. By helping us during national calamities like flood and earthquakes, they are not doing us a favour; they are doing their job just like the air force does when it is called in to deliver aid in calamity hit remote areas.

Our military and intelligence chiefs may be unaware of the fact that the world’s most dangerous man is residing in a mansion a stone’s throw away from our principal military academy, but their skill at executing perfect coup d’états is unquestionable. Our commander-in-chiefs decide when our country is in danger and the only logical solution they see is for them to step in, and to never step out. The phrase Mere Aziz Humwatno, Asalam o Aalaikum brings back terrifying memories despite the fact that it is a rather beautiful way to wish one’s countrymen well.

It takes great sacrifices to establish democracy, and even greater to institutionalise it. It takes decades, sometimes even centuries before democracy can be concretised into an institution. In Pakistan, democracy has never been given a fair chance. If the upcoming elections do in fact take place, it would be the first time in the country’s history that a civilian government would pass power to another through general elections. In India, democracy began showing results after 40 consecutive years, whereas in Pakistan, it has had only five so far.

Winston Churchill once said, “With all its weakness and with all its strength, with all their faults, with all their virtues, with all the criticisms that may be made against them, with their many shortcomings, with lack of foresight, lack of continuity of purpose or pressure only of superficial purpose, they (democracies) nevertheless assert the right of the common people – to take a conscious and effective share in the government of their country”.

The writer is staff member. Email: rana_hussain_tahir@hotmail.com, Twitter: @rhkoshal

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/columns/
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