Daily Times

I know that I have written on this subject in the past but it is one of those topics that never go away. There are people who will just never give up on the hope of the saviours emerging from Pindi and bringing in news of tranquillity. The people on the idiot box, and especially the royal guests who yell and claim to be the voices of the uniformed, live for the warnings of a coup, almost every night. The other idiots, who do not openly say this, use subtle hints and leading questions in front of their guests at the opening of their discussion, painting a scenario of ‘uncertainty’. We all know what that truly means. Then some use the term “undemocratic forces” and all refrain from plainly saying in simple and straightforward fashion that they are inviting military intervention.

One has to be either totally dim or just an absolute idiot to overlook a very plain and simple fact: there is an ex-general who is going through a tonne of challenges because he violated the constitution. However, there are people who openly and blatantly call for the violation of the constitution and no action, no notice and, yes, no mention.

These ‘psy ops’ (psychological operations) that have been going forever on our television screens are quite entertaining. This must be the very first country on the planet where people are always onscreen and that too for years, begging the uniformed to intervene. If you think that this is just a fetish of the jugglers on television, then you are seriously mistaken. I have had many discussions with many educated Pakistani people who repeat the same lines like parrots. When you engage these people, they use the usual words, “corruption” and “nepotism”. The usual come back is that the military brings stability — it is one of the most able and organised institutions, according to their line of defence. These are people who have experienced a decade of Musharraf’s rule yet they will welcome any other general or commander who will follow in Musharraf’s footsteps.

When you bring the constitution and its supremacy into the discussion, it evokes a very common line of thinking: these things are not meant for our people; we only know the language of the cane or the stick. When the uniformed come in, they bring the fear of this cane and then all of us become as straight as an arrow. The people only understand the magic of that cane. It takes a decade or so for that magical spell to fade and then we itch for someone with plain clothes. However, after five years or so, we have pangs and itches for a uniformed person, very vigorous pangs.

The argument stretches from there to the Muslim world and the meaningless word “ummah”. One can look around the Muslim world and see that most of the Muslim world as a whole lacks democratic values. The monarchs, dictators and their hybrid rule the Muslim world or ummah. I am often told that this in itself is irrefutable testimony that only a cane or the fist works for us. This democratic mumbo jumbo is all western nonsense. Add the recent developments in Iraq and the ‘khalifa’ who has decided to form an ‘Islamic state’ and you will see many takers on our end as well for that kind of model.

No one will admit this but, in their mind, the power-centred general gives them the image of that central iconic figure resembling a khalifa of sorts. Part of the reason for such disinterest in the so-called western style of democracy is that we have been fed a mythical illusion of the perfection of our past. We are brought up with the history of our religion, where things were just the way they were supposed to be. We somehow overlook all kinds of conspiracies, opposition and battles that took place, right from the very beginning. The Prophet (PBUH) and his companions went through intrigues and the constant onslaught of not only the non-believers but from their enemies within as well.

This is one of the primary reasons why most of our folk yearn for an imaginary world where things are going to be the way most of the people of the pulpit paint for us. To add a bit of reasoning, none of the people of the pulpit, who claim they know the ‘perfect way’ to lead, have been able to practice it themselves. None of these people have ever stood up to the usurpers of power and showed them the true light by becoming martyrs themselves. All they love doing is giving the audience the incitement to do exactly what is being told, to reach perfection and of course salvation.

Coming from an extremely sinful yet utterly humble viewpoint, this process, this rotten system, this imbalance is ours. It has to be fixed by us. No angel or angelic general can bring his magical cane to fix it. As incompetent as the elected representatives may be, these people are a reflection of who we truly are. As crooked, as dysfunctional, as mundane as this process may be, it works and it will work, so long as we are willing to work with it.

The writer is a Pakistani-American mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at dasghar@aol.com.
He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar