Most keen observers, both in
Pakistan and abroad, were often puzzled and struck by the strange and surreal bonds between George W Bush, the 43rd elected president of the most advanced and powerful democracy on earth, and General Pervez Musharraf, the third army dictator of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. There seem to be some new Bush-Mush similarities as Jeb Bush, the younger brother of the erstwhile Bush is also beefing up to contest the presidential elections. At the same time, General Pervez Musharraf is also trying to recapture the reins that he was forced to surrender but still finds too fascinating to forget. Their routes to this quest, of course, would be entirely different depending upon the procedures prevailing in their respective countries.
Jeb would have to wind through a long and torturous trail of proving his worth and credentials to his party, seeking approval from party voters in the primaries, which are to be held in various designated constituencies, and win at yet another national convention of party delegates to become his party’s candidate to contest the presidential elections against the democrats and other likely opponents. The machinations of General Mush, however, are quite confusing. His ambitions to emerge as a formidable force in the 2013 elections, on the basis of his new brand of the Muslim League, were miserably dashed by the decision that debarred him for life from contesting any public office. He is also implicated in two murder cases and a treason trial for defiling the Constitution. Even if these trials do not lead to a conviction, they are bound to drag on for an inordinately longer span.
Yet, his bubbling optimism against these overwhelming odds is buoyed by the sovereignty, supremacy and supra-constitutional sway that his brethren in arms wield in our country dominated by the mullah mindset mired in martial glory, grandeur and conquests. Their recent action, under an undeclared or veiled martial law against the MQM and PPP in Sindh, has sparked a general perception that Mush may be thrust into the driving seat of the MQM bandwagon. The sudden saucy media salvos and spiels about the corruption of some leading Sindhi politicians is similarly perceived to be a replay of the familiar praetorian ploy to prove that the politicians are dishonest, inefficient demons as compared to the upright, dedicated and disciplined khaki angels and their protégés.
But even if Mush is imposed upon the MQM or the strategy to skewer some selected icons is used as a pretext for direct army rule, Mush, by any sensible stretch of the imagination, has no future in this game. This takes us to yet another similarity: given the wider alienation against the Republican policies and the democratic tide coupled with the clout and charisma of the Clintons, the chances for Jeb’s presidency also seem to be rather slim. Still stronger parallels, however, prevailed between Mush and the former Bush, as both were practically made presidents by the Supreme Courts (SCs) of their respective countries. The Bush ballot in Florida was reportedly boosted by his brother Jeb, the current aspirant, who then reigned as governor of this state. Mush, in an indigenous brand of Jeb’s brotherly boost, was also propelled to the dictator’s perch by his brethren army commanders while his plane happened to be in the air. His subsequent usurpation of the presidential office through the farce of a referendum was facilitated by the SC, which validated his coup by its verdict on May 13, 2000. It further affirmed his referendum in April 2002 and his amendments to the Constitution in October 2002. Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who later posed as a born-again champion of democracy and judicial independence, incidentally also concurred with all these decisions. Still another apex court bench directed the Election Commission in November 2007 to declare him president for a second term.
An even more striking similarity between Mush and Bush emerged with the notions of patriots running their governments. Bush prepared and introduced the Patriot Act in October 2001 to revamp the US’s security agencies against terrorism. The act, as depicted by the famous movie Fahrenheit 9/11, was widely resented for its lack of adequate deliberation and infringement on the citizens’ rights and liberties. Mush also crafted his own patriots to sabotage the election results and to muster political support for him and his crony politicians. They were a group of lota (turncoat) legislators, originally elected on the PPP ticket but weaned away to secure and sustain a majority in the assemblies for the handpicked prime munshis like Jamali, Shaukat and Shujaat. The promulgation of the Patriot Act in the US was evidently enforced as prompted by the security agencies, and they were consequently quite satisfied with its passage. The security upper crust in Pakistan, similarly, seemed ecstatic at the support supplied to Mush by these renegade patriots, who were publicly accused of having swapped their loyalties at the order of General Zameer. Without their support, no surrogate premier, like Jamali, could ever get elected. The entire design of democracy, under the shadow, supervision and blessings of the mighty Mush command, consequently could have crumbled at the very outset.
These bonds were further reflected in the appreciation of the myriad Mush policies by some top-ranking Bush functionaries and associates, including Condoleezza Rice, Wolfowitz and the US ambassador in Pakistan. Condi, while appreciating this drama of democracy under the Mush dictatorship, even advised other Muslim countries to emulate this pattern. Likewise, the US ambassador, while venting his vexation at the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) movement launched against Mush by the opposition political parties and other civil society clusters, even declared that “Americans were not happy with the democracy experienced earlier by the Pakistanis”. These remarks ruffled the opposition to the extent that they drafted a letter of protest against this intrusion in the internal affairs of Pakistan. Wolfowitz, a known neoconservative Bush buddy, had also exhibited an overt rapport with him. Some more similarities are that both claimed to be bulwarks against terrorism, Mush created the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) as a ploy to impress the world with the clout of the clergy in Pakistan while Bush resorted to religion as a political platform and both are popular on Facebook. But rather than recounting the bonds, buried with dictatorship, it would certainly be far savvier to seek similarities between the Pakistani and US masses, movements and mindsets to create far better bonds between Mush and Bush.
The writer is an academic and freelance columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]