Daily Times

So it was just last week when I had made a reference to the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ in passing and that so-called spring sprung again in the land of Pharaohs. Strange isn’t it that democracy good or bad is a stamp of approval from the voters for a certain period of time. If it is not to the satisfaction of the voters, then the voters have rights to recall the candidate. Every developed democracy has a mechanism built in the law to recall an elected representative. But when it comes to any such phenomenon in our part of the world, it looks and seems like an alien concept. It is an irony that the military takes the moral supremacy to oust someone. This by any stretch of imagination cannot be termed as their right and cannot be deemed as an acceptable course of action. No matter how good or well intentioned the action may be it is highly deplorable and utterly regrettable.

Mr Mohamed Morsi may be the villain and may have not been a satisfactory leader to the Egyptian public. Not to mention some of the western pundits and the governments too but what has the uniformed force to do with it? Democracy is a long arduous journey that takes a long time to take root. A country much like Pakistan ruled by generals when finally came to grips with the will of people, it ended up taking a step backwards. A coup by any name, shape or form is a coup and with any justification is dead wrong on all counts. The folks who draw elaborate parallels between Egypt and Pakistan must and should be thankful to one relentless soul in the Presidential ‘Palace’ of Islamabad. If anything the man deserves that much of credit for not failing an extremely fragile democracy. Though no stone was unturned to make Pakistan return to its familiar pattern of an intervention from the usual uniformed patriots.

The cry for a moderate in the land of Pharaohs is a welcome sign and the people should have been given the opportunity to recall Mr Morsi. The point here is that even if a moderate is elected as stated, it still gives the mighty military the right to intervene at any given moment should that moderate not be able to deliver the ‘goodies’ to the public. So this game of the so-called musical chairs can be played and replayed with the remote control in the hands of the uniformed ring leaders. I repeat with utmost humility, it is very regrettable and very deplorable. It does not create a healthy precedent at all for the people of Egypt and for that matter, the entire Muslim world.

Speaking of moderates, another Muslim country and neighbour of Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran has elected a moderate president by the name of Mr Hassan Rouhani. Mr Rouhani’s victory over the extreme hardliner Mr Ahmedinijad has perhaps eased the anxieties of a lot of western leaders and pundits. Again a welcome sign for the rest of the world as Mr Ahmedinijad’s radical views brought further isolation to Iranians from the rest of the world. The desperate folks on our end considered him as a hero as well, but the people of Iran perhaps disagreed with their Pakistani brethren. Amazingly a land where hardliners have been in control since the 1979 revolution, this sure seems like a crack in a rather solid shell. It remains to be seen what sweeping reforms Mr Rouhani would bring to Iran, but based on his campaign speeches, it appears like he has his head where it belongs.

If anything a moderate Iranian leader would give the citizens their due rights of personal freedom and perhaps cease the government’s unnecessary intervention in people’s private lives. Although, this may have been said in the past on multiple occasions, but the scribe totally believes in the concept of a government answerable to its people and not the other way around. This should be construed as a win for the moderates in the clergy controlled and dominated Iran. By the way, why do clergy get involved in politics in the first place? The short answer is not for any spiritual reasons or goodies of hereafter, but to gain and retain power.

With respect to the clergy, no matter what religion they belong to and propagate, they have no business in meddling with the political will of the people. It is one of those major ‘conflict of interests’ that cannot mesh or gel together. The clergy should relinquish their position of spiritual influence prior to running for a public office. It is the most appropriate thing to do. The people who give us examples of the companions of the Prophet (PBUH) and the role of his blessed companions are not even a micro fragment of a particle of the dust that the blessed companions ever encountered. So to use such high names to play with the psyche of innocent unsuspecting people is utterly shameful. The day this reality creeps in, it will bring a wave of sensibility that will engulf not only Egypt or Iran but the entire Muslim world. I can only wish that I get to live long enough to witness such a revolutionary spring.

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