fatman17
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PENSIEVE: Government, know thy enemy!
Farrukh Khan Pitafi
If the meeting between the president, the PM and the army chief is any indicator, a war has just been lost by the enemies of the government. How long will the victory last is another matter
My country has seen enough but during General (retd) Musharrafs last days in power McCarthyism rose to new heights. If you did not like whatever the government was doing and spoke about it, you were essentially an enemy of the state and unpatriotic to boot. It is understandable that such a naïve approach derives its strength from the inherent insecurities of a failing regime. However that regime is now gone. Yet like several other biases, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has inherited this bias too. So, whosoever criticises the government today either has to be an enemy of democracy, the Bhutto bloodline, or, finally, sold out to the enemy. Not everyone is on sale in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Last week I wrote about the change that somehow coincided with the orgasmic cries of those who desire absolute annihilation of the PPP. But my stance was different. I was not advocating change of individuals but of policies, or to be more precise, the absence of any policy. As a leading newspaper wrote in its editorial, staying in power is not an end but only a means to deliver. When a government forgets the chief purpose of its existence, all sanity and hope of progress is lost. I would not blame the government for everything. We, the media people, have been behaving quite obnoxiously since the very inception of this government. If truth were told this government was never any good for our utopian dreams. First, it failed to sack the dictator, then it did and today the dictator is a martyr.
And if by any chance you happened to see the media coverage just prior to the last hearing of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdict implementation case, you will know that as per their projections the prime minister (PM) should have been under arrest, the president on a flight and the army on the streets. Fortunately, none of that has happened thus far. And if the meeting between the president, the PM and the army chief is any indicator, a war has just been lost by the enemies of the government. How long will the victory last is another matter.
I want to change the emphasis of the talk that is going on and bring back the emphasis on good governance. I know there are those who will never be bosom friends with any PPP-led government. But they can be marginalised if the government knows what to do and does it in a fashion that makes the task of defending it easier for its supporters. This is the simple test of governance. If you keep losing your supporters you are bound to be doing something wrong. This government started with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as an ally and lost it in no time. The lawyers movement was its ally too. That soon started protesting against it. And the same goes for some in the media. I know the opportunism of the other side cannot be discounted. But the official paranoia and distrust of its own allies when coupled with arrogance make the official response frankly offending.
So, is the government out of the woods now? Since it has lost so many allies from the very start, things have boiled down to hardcore bargaining. Each time the government of PM Gilani finds itself besieged or stranded it makes some big concessions to the other side. Concessions, which could have proved to be a strength if made at the right time, are usually made in such delayed fashion that their purpose is lost and they can at best buy a couple of more months. When the crisis of the appointment of judges came to the surface and we thought the government might sniff it, the government retreated. When the fake degree crisis assumed alarming proportions, the army chief got a three years extension. If the timing of General Wynes appointment as the new Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) is viewed in the context, it seems the government has reached a new agreement. The only issue is that while all of this might be necessary, if the government starts trusting its allies, it can make better use of their judgement and advice. So what are the impediments in the way of this trust? I must say the ministers and advisors who have for various reasons become controversial, some of them behave in such a ridiculous manner that one has to start thinking that they are undercover agents of the enemy.
The word on the street has it that during the current crisis, the president had in principle agreed to let the NRO-affected ministers, minus one of his personal friends, go but Dr (?) Babar Awan convinced him not to do this. I do not want to go into the law ministers detailed profile, just the glimpses. I first knew about him when in the 2002 elections he was contesting the election on a PPP ticket and the partys own workers used to say that they will give their votes to anyone but Mr Awan. Why? Because he had distributed sweets in the Aabpara market of Islamabad when Zulfikar Bhutto was hanged. Then we learnt he had lost. Then we see him announcing the death of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. And then the law ministers resistance to the restoration of the judges, which alienated many, and the ridiculous way in which the government chose to throw away the NRO case. Am I paranoid or is there something seriously wrong here?
The actual problem now is of governance and no geniuses, especially no evil geniuses, are needed here but plain and simple common sense. When we are playing power poker at the Constitution Avenue, 20 million Pakistanis need the governments immediate attention. The country is on the brink of insolvency and we need serious reforms if we want to ensure more capital in the country. Similarly, a serious policy upgrade is needed in the war on terror, especially because the right-wing media and parties want to obscure this epic struggle. If the government stops creating more enemies from among its allies, stops shooting the messenger and works out a better strategy, a change of faces may not be necessary. Otherwise it will be stuck forever in the vicious cycle of retreats and alienating its own supporters. Just this word to the wise: we are not your enemy, you are.
The writer is an independent columnist and a talk show host. He can be reached at farukh@gmail.com
Farrukh Khan Pitafi
If the meeting between the president, the PM and the army chief is any indicator, a war has just been lost by the enemies of the government. How long will the victory last is another matter
My country has seen enough but during General (retd) Musharrafs last days in power McCarthyism rose to new heights. If you did not like whatever the government was doing and spoke about it, you were essentially an enemy of the state and unpatriotic to boot. It is understandable that such a naïve approach derives its strength from the inherent insecurities of a failing regime. However that regime is now gone. Yet like several other biases, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has inherited this bias too. So, whosoever criticises the government today either has to be an enemy of democracy, the Bhutto bloodline, or, finally, sold out to the enemy. Not everyone is on sale in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Last week I wrote about the change that somehow coincided with the orgasmic cries of those who desire absolute annihilation of the PPP. But my stance was different. I was not advocating change of individuals but of policies, or to be more precise, the absence of any policy. As a leading newspaper wrote in its editorial, staying in power is not an end but only a means to deliver. When a government forgets the chief purpose of its existence, all sanity and hope of progress is lost. I would not blame the government for everything. We, the media people, have been behaving quite obnoxiously since the very inception of this government. If truth were told this government was never any good for our utopian dreams. First, it failed to sack the dictator, then it did and today the dictator is a martyr.
And if by any chance you happened to see the media coverage just prior to the last hearing of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdict implementation case, you will know that as per their projections the prime minister (PM) should have been under arrest, the president on a flight and the army on the streets. Fortunately, none of that has happened thus far. And if the meeting between the president, the PM and the army chief is any indicator, a war has just been lost by the enemies of the government. How long will the victory last is another matter.
I want to change the emphasis of the talk that is going on and bring back the emphasis on good governance. I know there are those who will never be bosom friends with any PPP-led government. But they can be marginalised if the government knows what to do and does it in a fashion that makes the task of defending it easier for its supporters. This is the simple test of governance. If you keep losing your supporters you are bound to be doing something wrong. This government started with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as an ally and lost it in no time. The lawyers movement was its ally too. That soon started protesting against it. And the same goes for some in the media. I know the opportunism of the other side cannot be discounted. But the official paranoia and distrust of its own allies when coupled with arrogance make the official response frankly offending.
So, is the government out of the woods now? Since it has lost so many allies from the very start, things have boiled down to hardcore bargaining. Each time the government of PM Gilani finds itself besieged or stranded it makes some big concessions to the other side. Concessions, which could have proved to be a strength if made at the right time, are usually made in such delayed fashion that their purpose is lost and they can at best buy a couple of more months. When the crisis of the appointment of judges came to the surface and we thought the government might sniff it, the government retreated. When the fake degree crisis assumed alarming proportions, the army chief got a three years extension. If the timing of General Wynes appointment as the new Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) is viewed in the context, it seems the government has reached a new agreement. The only issue is that while all of this might be necessary, if the government starts trusting its allies, it can make better use of their judgement and advice. So what are the impediments in the way of this trust? I must say the ministers and advisors who have for various reasons become controversial, some of them behave in such a ridiculous manner that one has to start thinking that they are undercover agents of the enemy.
The word on the street has it that during the current crisis, the president had in principle agreed to let the NRO-affected ministers, minus one of his personal friends, go but Dr (?) Babar Awan convinced him not to do this. I do not want to go into the law ministers detailed profile, just the glimpses. I first knew about him when in the 2002 elections he was contesting the election on a PPP ticket and the partys own workers used to say that they will give their votes to anyone but Mr Awan. Why? Because he had distributed sweets in the Aabpara market of Islamabad when Zulfikar Bhutto was hanged. Then we learnt he had lost. Then we see him announcing the death of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. And then the law ministers resistance to the restoration of the judges, which alienated many, and the ridiculous way in which the government chose to throw away the NRO case. Am I paranoid or is there something seriously wrong here?
The actual problem now is of governance and no geniuses, especially no evil geniuses, are needed here but plain and simple common sense. When we are playing power poker at the Constitution Avenue, 20 million Pakistanis need the governments immediate attention. The country is on the brink of insolvency and we need serious reforms if we want to ensure more capital in the country. Similarly, a serious policy upgrade is needed in the war on terror, especially because the right-wing media and parties want to obscure this epic struggle. If the government stops creating more enemies from among its allies, stops shooting the messenger and works out a better strategy, a change of faces may not be necessary. Otherwise it will be stuck forever in the vicious cycle of retreats and alienating its own supporters. Just this word to the wise: we are not your enemy, you are.
The writer is an independent columnist and a talk show host. He can be reached at farukh@gmail.com
