Roll of the Dice
Every military ruler of Pakistan has had an extended honeymoon with the US, Pervez Musharraf is no exception. Ayub Khan’s towering personality was tailor-made for the Cold War period when the US needed staunch friends in the region to counter the spread of communism. His autobiography “Friends, Not Masters” said it all. When the US imposed sanctions on both India and Pakistan because of the 1965 War, Ayub became a very disillusioned and disappointed man. Yahya Khan was tacitly encouraged on his accession to the President-ship in 1969, but it was his facilitating of Pakistan as a bridge to China (for Henry Kissinger’s historic, secret visit in July 1971) secured his position with the US. Even though the US Seventh Fleet never materialized in any Pakistan-supporting posture in the Bay of Bengal in 1971 during the Indo-Pak war as hinted by Henry Kissinger, the US dissuaded Indira Gandhi from expanding the war in the West Pakistan. Ziaul Haq was a pariah to the west when he ascended the throne for any number of reasons and remained so for the hanging of an elected PM, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in April 1979. When US President Jimmy Carter visited India, he pointedly ignored Pakistan. Thanks to the Russian misadventure in Afghanistan in late 1979, Zia became the darling of the west and Pakistan a cornerstone of US policy. It was only after Zia’s death that the US decertified Pakistan because of its suspected nuclear capability. When Pervez Musharraf countered the civilian “coup de etat” of another elected PM, Mian Nawaz Sharif, the US recognized by their diplomatic silence that the masses who thronged the streets were not registering any disapproval but were distributing sweets. In contrast to his imperial visit to India, President Clinton did make very brief whistle-stop stopover in Pakistan during his South Asian tour. And while he did not read out the riot act to his Pakistani military hosts, the US body language conveyed their muted displeasure at the state of affairs in Pakistan sans democracy. Pakistan’s hope of change of heart on a Republican taking over the White House took a nose-dive when the Bush Doctrine made it clear the US was ready to sacrifice Pakistan to gain India’s love, the US desirous that India (a la Chester Bowles May 1965 memo) be a counterweight to China in Asia.
The President Who Never Was
On the afternoon of June 20th, a confident but unsmiling Gen Pervez Musharraf embraced and saluted Rafiq Tarar as he showed him out of the door of the Presidential Mansion in Islamabad. Tarar had ceased to be President a short time earlier vide Chief Executive’s Order No. 3 called Succession Order 2001. To his credit, Rafiq Tarar showed some spunk and did not “resign for personal reasons” as he was most probably encouraged by the Khakis to do. Thereupon legal niceties dictated that Pervez Musharraf assume the office of the Presidency, in his own words at the subsequent oath-taking ceremony “reluctantly but in the supreme national interest”. With that transition, an aberration that had occupied the august President’s office for more than three years rode off into the sunset, in the words of Tarar’s son-in-law, Maj (Retd) Mubassharullah, “there is no need to scandalize when everything has been settled amicably in Islamabad”. In going into oblivion, Tarar joined almost all the former Presidents of Pakistan in failing to travel the whole course. Iskander Mirza was ousted by Ayub Khan, who in his turn was sent packing by Yahya Khan, the events of 1971 did Yahya in. Bhutto remained an executive President and a “Civilian Martial Law Administrator” for only a few months before he became PM, at his own volition, under an Interim Constitution. He was PM under the 1973 Constitution, amended beyond recognition, till ousted by his COAS Ziaul Haq in 1977, who himself died in a yet unexplained air crash eleven years later. Senate President Ghulam Ishaq Khan who succeeded Zia in 1978, outsmarted himself in 1993 and along with the PM was shown the door by the then COAS Gen Waheed, who honourably chose not to elevate himself to the Presidency despite the “call of destiny”. Farooq Leghari resigned honourably because he could not accept the dictation of “democratic” PM Mian Nawaz Sharif. Now Tarar has ridden off into the sunset and like any good Subaltern will probably never be heard of (or from) again, i.e. if he has the guts to risk losing his pension and the comfort that taxpayers will keep in coughing up to keep him comfortable in Presidential retirement for the rest of his life. To paraphrase Shakespeare’s Marc Antony during the funeral oration for Julius Caesar, “the good that men do is oft interred with their bones, the evil lives after them. So let it be with Tarar!”
The Jeepney Experience
Unlike Kuala Lumpur’s traveller-friendly, architecturally beautiful and comfortably modern international airport, Hong Kong’s Chep Lap Kok Airport is a glass and chrome high-tech disaster. This futuristic eyesore will be very convenient for space travel 20-30 years from now. The remote airport check-in facilities at both Hong Kong and Kowloon are excellent, possibly the best one has seen, but even high-tech facilities need comfort as a prerequisite for passengers and it would be nice to have, among other things washrooms, not only in the proximity of the platform but on the train itself because of the 20-25 minute high speed ride to the airport on Lantau Island. The train, with a TV screen for every seat, is an Orwellian dream (or a nightmare without a washroom), the environment is squeaky clean. Both at the remote check-in facilities and the airport, modernity does not condone signposting. From the check-in desk to the train, we twice lost our way within the station, when we got to the airport and despite the rather ambiguous map on the back of the boarding card it took us 45 minutes of walking around in circles before making it to the Cathay Pacific Business Lounge, no help from airport or airline staff who looked as confused as us or probably acted that way, that being the accepted Hong Kong attitude. One was happy to note a PIA vis-a-vis CAA similarity in relationship, when asked why prominently placed signs did not indicate the way, the Cathay Pacific representatives lamented that the airport authorities would not allow it. Who says petty bureaucracy departed with the British in 1997? Except for honourable exceptions Hong Kong residents are generally ruder than ever before. In the “competitiveness” potential, they have rightly slipped from 1st to 6th place in the world. With mega-cities like Singapore and Tokyo, with Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai and a lot of other developed cities coming into line rapidly, Hong Kong will find it hard to stay the course ten years hence unless HK residents get over their severe attitude problem. In any case Shanghai is the future commercial capital of Asia as it once was, the new enclave of Pudong is a high-tech marvel, but comfortably so.
Pre-budget Economic Review – Economic Fortress Pakistan – III
(This is the FINAL instalment in a series of THREE articles)
Unlike Deng Tsao Peng who put economic liberalisation in China far ahead of the gradual awakening of political freedom, Gorbachev was so eulogised (and pampered) by the western media that he went overboard and attempted Glasnost (openness) ahead of Perestroika (economic revolution) in the Soviet Union. An inefficient centralized economy under the strain of the extended Afghan War was pummelled by Gorbachev’s ill-planned denationalisation and disinvestment, raising the expectations of the masses beyond the capacity of the State to fulfil and resulting in economic disaster. By focussing on Gorbachev’s ego, the west succeeded in its aim of disintegration of the Soviet Union, winning a war “without bloodying swords” (Sun Tse Tsu) against one of the two communist Superpowers. The same was precipitated to short-circuit China’s process but failed because of China’s refusal to cow down before student pressure in Tianenamen Square on prime time TV. Germany and Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the western powers, fifty years later they have put the victors to the economic sword without fighting a single battle. Arguably Soviet Union’s economic fate was best depicted by former Warsaw Pact’s Russian Commanders selling arms and equipment in Eastern Europe in order to pay salaries to their soldiers. For those keenly interested in the direction national security is taking in Pakistan, this should serve as a horrible example.