Daily Times

Dipping my fingers into what looked like a bread dumpling floating in a pool of milk, I popped the unfamiliar Indo-Pak culinary treat into my mouth. Hmmm. It tasted like it had a bit of cumin. I will always try a new food once, and ask about it later. Wiping my fingers on the napkin, I returned to the conversation at hand.

So, what you are saying is that a return to Pakistan is General Musharraf’s re-invented Patrick Henry moment, except that instead of “Give me liberty or give me death”, it is “Give me jail or give me death.” My companion nodded. “He believes he will return to Pakistan to be assassinated or he will go to jail.”

I stabbed my fork into an overcooked piece of chicken disguised with a spicy curry. “Well, he is not Nawaz Sharif. And he certainly isn’t Benazir Bhutto.” My mind wandered a bit to imagine a newly painted Attock jail cell in Punjab, but I resisted the image of an assassinated woman.

After spending an enjoyable lunch with my Pakistani colleague it dawned on me that the return of the former president was more closely aligned to a character in the film The Spy who Shagged Me. This second of three in the Austin Powers trilogy introduces ‘Mini-Me’, a character played by actor Verne Troyer. The plot line plays out thus: Before Dr Evil is sent back in time, his loyal minions fashioned a clone, which is an exact replica. But Mini-Me is only 1/8th the size of Dr Evil. When the glorious moment arrives in which Dr Evil is introduced to his clone he exclaims, “Breathtaking! I shall call him Mini-Me.”

Now I am not saying that Musharraf is evil. But it has been interesting to watch the splashdown of General Musharraf’s Mini-Me. He casts an eighth of the shadow, which he cast when firmly holding the reins of state. He is a fraction of the whole, or perhaps it is more apt to say he presents as an irregular number. His base of support is mainly in Karachi. It is a port city that harbours a mosaic of criminal activity and nefarious dealings. Lahore and Islamabad are the societal bubbles that he cannot possibly hope to own. So what is the problem with Mini-Me?

I can only speculate. But I must opine that narcissism seems the strongest of vices amongst leadership of Muslim-majority nations. Having read Pervez Musharraf’s autobiography shortly after it was published, I noted strong narcissistic tendencies throughout the text. Whilst wishing to give honour where honour is due and respect where respect is due, his dominant ego was prevalent throughout. Perhaps this ego was no more strongly displayed than in his whitewash of the Kargil affair. As the army chief, he bore the full responsibility of his rank for the cluster that ensued. An estimated 1,000 Pakistani soldiers lost their lives in an ill-advised and poorly executed military operation. But according to Musharraf, the operation was a success. The truth….is out there.

General Musharraf was essentially a leader of international stature by default. That default was a horrific event that is now simply commemorated as 9/11. That default was a nuclear state, which shared a 1,000 mile porous border with Afghanistan. The default status was also aided by an American president who courted the Saudi King on his ranch after 9/11, the same president who looked into the eyes of a Russian rogue and saw his soul; a president who imagined that other leaders shared his love and concern for our nation.

So now we have 1/8th of the man returning to Pakistan after a four year hiatus from the regional political scene. He has held court abroad. And now he returns…for what reason? Is it to preserve the corpse of his legacy or to resurrect it from the dead? The political corpse has the flies of Kargil upon it. The maggots that were birthed when he attempted to turn Pakistan into a military state are still busily feasting on the Constitution. And when he attempted to wrest the control and direction of the Supreme Court from Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the lawyers of Pakistan flooded the streets in protest.

But perhaps the enigma of President Pervez Musharraf’s season at the presidential helm in a post-9/11 environment is best expressed in the words of Henry David Thoreau: “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.”

Good intentions count for little in life. Having raised a couple of Mini-Me of my own, I know the inherent difference between their own good intentions and measurable outcomes. Is Pakistan better off for having had Pervez Musharraf as Commander-in-Chief during a most difficult decade? Or did he squander opportunity? You decide.

If there is one bit of advice that is well suited for all of us, let me toss it out. Each decade of life presents distinct challenges and change in vision. What was past can never be recaptured. It can merely be archived into the photo album of our life. There is a distinct need to transition gracefully into the seasons of our lives. It is always a bit of a waltz: two steps forward and one step back. But it is a beautiful dance.

Past glory is for the old men who sun themselves on park benches. Present reality is the work of individuals who have a keen understanding of the current challenges. Pakistan faces many difficult choices in the days ahead. There is a need for fresh faces and new political blood. There is a need to move in evolutionary manner away from dynastic rule to a true democratic form of governance. There is no place for Mini-Me.

The writer is a freelance journalist and author of the novel Arsenal. She can be reached at tammyswof@msn.com