Of pocket tyrants and Rasputins
By treating the Russian Tsar’s hemophilic son and heir, Rasputin became indispensable to the Russian royal family. From a moderately successful faith healer he became an important but unofficial functionary of the State. Scandals about his amorous adventures and earthy lifestyle earned him the hatred of the intelligentsia and the masses who began to blame all of Russia’s ills on his meddling with official matters. Jealous of his all-pervasive influence, particularly his all-powerful hold over the Queen, well-wishers and opponents of the royal family both became unrelenting foes. Eventually he was murdered by those driven by overwhelming concern with this “evil” incarnate. Rasputin had told the Queen that the royal family would not survive him, it is an irony that the mass hatred for Rasputin ultimately boiled over to bring the Tsar down after his death. Pakistan has had its full share of Rasputins, drawn mainly from the civil service, some from the military but increasingly also from the political parties and business. Each political party has acquired a core of loyalist bureaucrats who remain in insignificant appointments of little influence when the Party they favour (or belong to) is out of power, on the other hand on assumption of office they have returned to the portals of power with a vengeance Rasputin would have been envious of. To quote Barbara Tuchman “every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed”, unquote. In our country there is so much potential to acquire illegal wealth with complete impunity, some try to do it sooner rather than later. A few civil servants and businessmen specialise in playing upto both the sides, some even managing not to be seen through as rank two-timers. A vast majority of civil servants remain in limbo, fearful for their careers and even their existence, anxious to please whoever is in power. Any hint of non-compliance of instructions (all verbal) and their careers are damaged if not shortened altogether. Successive rulers and their close associates, motivated out of their own personal interest, have utilised this feeling of insecurity of the “great silent majority” of bureaucrats to excellent effect, they have been terrorised into willing compliance with the wishes of the rulers. Since elected leaders can have an image problem if they are seen to be unseemingly authoritarian in a democratic society, a small but composite coterie of educated hit-men from among their inner circle and bureaucrat-collaborators are employed to ensure that their bidding is carried out, no wonder in time these hit-men give priority to their own interests over either the interests of their mentor or even the interests of the State. At the core of almost every government you will find a handful of such pocket tyrants. Some of them may not seem to savour what they do, the raw power of State machinery is like giving the first taste of human blood to a tiger, revelling in the use of it, very much like our Russian friend, Rasputin, the tiger soon becomes a man-eater.
The two most known pocket tyrants in recent history were US President Richard Nixon’s trusted aides Haldeman and Erlichman, “the Germans” as they were nicknamed. While Nixon was always a tough-enough character, as the official gatekeepers these two abrasive personalities went far beyond the pale, virtually terrorising politicians and bureaucrats alike, laying down the law on behalf of the US Presidency as never before seen in the portals of the White House.
One of the early Presidents in the US, Thomas Jefferson had it right when he said almost two centuries ago that, “the tyrants of the legislators is at present, and will be for many years, our most formidable danger. The tyranny of the executive will arise in its turn, but at a more distant period”. A government is elected to uphold the rule of law, when it starts to behave as if the laws of the land are not applicable to them then a situation develops that is counter-productive to the concept of good governance. History has shown that maximum disregard of the rule of law is usually the prerogative of those who make it into the corridors of power on the coattails of whom they serve, since they are almost never directly elected to office on their own steam except by shortest, they consider themselves above any form of accountability and subject to no self-restraint. The essence of democracy is that every elected person is accountable to his (or her) constituency in addition to the State, in the case of pocket tyrants their virtual existence at the core of governance depends upon the goodwill of the masters (or mistress) they serve, as such they have no constituency or electors to be responsible to but only their mentor, to serve them for better or for worse, usually worse.
The pocket tyrants act in the manner they do because, viz (1) their actions are motivated out of the national interest which they believe to be synonymous with the mentor they serve, right or wrong and damn the consequences (2) that their own personal and selfish interests can only be enhanced by terrorising the bureaucracy to a position of compliance to their own bidding and above all, most dangerously (3) that by exercising total control of all the organs of the State even at the cost of the rule of law (and in fact contrary to it mostly), the rule of their master (or mistress) can be perpetuated forever. As Asif Zardari’s large coterie of pocket tyrants found out, their vicious rule lasted for a very limited space of time in the history of this nation and despite their best efforts, the nation survived. Pakistan has had its share of pocket tyrants in every government but probably none so blatant or widespread as in the last regime. Benazir’s government had two faces, where real power was exercised by Asif Zardari, through an army of underlings, even monarchs did not have such absolute authority. Zardari’s courtiers brought the concept of governance into disrepute. The core of entire national institutions were destroyed. Moral bankruptcy did not exclude the Armed Forces, where the Navy and Air Force suffered mightily, both morally and physically, Zardari’s virtual dictatorship was not based on any government notification and the devolution of powers was based on his few pillars of governance viz (1) of “wise” men among bureaucrats, consisting of the brightest, the most effective but unfortunately the most crooked (2) of financial experts, consisting again of the best and the brightest with an inherent knowledge of ways and means of milking the coffers of the State (3) of a core of classmates from Petaro Public School, of varying talent and professional expertise but who were dedicated in blind loyalty to their mentor (4) of opportunistic friends socially well-met, again of varying talent and business expertise, on the make in the same manner that they exploited previous rulers by pandering to their respective egos and greed (5) of landlord friends and relations using this opportunity as has been done in every previous regime to further their selfish interests and (6) of social and business acquaintances abroad, who homed into Pakistan like bees to honey, helping in minting money for Zardari and themselves through a myriad number of schemes even as they structured dummy corporations, off-shore companies, front investment funds, real-estate acquisitions, etc for their newly discovered friend and mentor. The Zardari influence pervaded into every sphere of government and cross-controlled even those who were essentially the Benazir’s appointees initially, these eventually fell into line as they discovered who exercised real power. As an innovation dedicated to acquiring total control over the industrial life of the State the innocuous discipline of Environmental Pakistan was brilliant, one more device in the pyramidical structure run by Zardari through his handful of pockets tyrants dedicated to the flow of power downwards in order to maintain a constant flow of cash upwards.
While Zardari’s monarchical rule cannot be easily replicated, mainly because it is difficult to assemble in this day and age such a vast array of rascals dedicated to the single prime purpose of pondering to their mentor and the secondary consideration of their own greed there will always be elements in any succeeding regimes who will be tempted by the precedent of the enormous wealth accumulated illegally and mode thereof as a good enough incentive for misdemeanours themselves, all at under a holier-than-thou cover. The imperfect confluence between politics and competence allows such compromises to recur, with severe loss to the nation. Unless the elected leader grows out of his inner circle and opts for professional excellence, competent people who will react to situations as necessary and purely on merit, the situation will go from bad to worse.
The reason for Mian Nawaz Sharif’s first departure from the PM’s office is generally said to be his confrontation with the then President, the fact remains that some of his close aides had alienated a fair number of his political colleagues by confining debate about decision-making to a tight inner circle who were Johnny-come-latelies to Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and had no elected basis. In the ultimate analysis a large number of MNAs/MPAs defected to the “dark side” and could very well do so again four years later if they are again kept at arm’s length. One hopes that the PM, whose sincerity and patriotism cannot be doubted, will heed the lessons learnt from the previous episode and not become a captive of his own “kitchen cabinet”. Rasputins have a bad habit of emerging from kitchen cabinets, as history will attest Rasputins also have a bad (and recurring) habit of bringing Tsars down. While no government can do without pocket tyrants, the executive head of government would do well to keep them confined to his pocket. We cannot afford Mian Nawaz Sharif being brought down again for actions other than his own.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment