Rewriting History?

I monitor a mailing group on google, LooseEndsPakistan, in which a member fervently argued in support of President Musharraf. In response, one member had this to say:

On Behalf Of naushad shafkat
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 7:31 PM
To: looseendspakistan@googlegroups.com
Subject: [ankahi:501] Re: PPPPPPPPPPOOOOOOOOOOOO

It is indeed a very sorry state that we have people like Mr. Wadiwalla who think that a military dictator is better than a civilian government. I prefer to disagree. For more than half of our existence as an independent country we have had the military rule over us and see where we are! The Quaid-e-Azam was done away with within a year or so of our independence and there was no bigger democrat than him. We all know by whom but are unable to say. Within 5 years a military man was penning down his plans to take over the country while on a visit to Washington. No civilian government has been allowed to complete its tenure. In fact the shortest military rule has been almost equal to the longest term of our civilian governments barring one. And that too because the army had suffered a disgrace like no other in the annals of Muslim history and had lost more than half of our country. Mr. Wadiwalla is fully entitled to his views and I can see that our current state of despair has brought him to this view. But before we paint all politicians black we must analyze the causes. Even though the military has held sway for so amny years how many politicians have been ‘brought to book’? Why even the most powerful of rulers has not been able to take even one national politician to task? Because they are in cahoots and they themselves are not Mr. Clean.

It is nothing short of a miracle that, at least on paper, we continue to exist as an independent country. I think that one of the main reasons is that our people are basically good, hardworking, patriotic even though they have got nothing in return, and still believe in miracles.
The last 9 years have brought us to the edge of the precipice and are the politicians to blame? No Mr. Wadiwalla, no. The shoe (in this case the BOOT) is on the other foot.

Because the group is moderated, I am not sure if my reply will reach the list, and so I post it here as well. Let me point out that I have no ties with the Army, and with the exception of a few handful of people, none of my family and relatives are associated in any way with any of the armed forces. In fact, one of Musharraf’s biggest detractors. Lt. Gen Talat Masood is a close relative, and I hold completely opposite views. In response to Mr. Shafkat, I wrote:

Before we rewrite history (as is the case with so many ‘Shaheed’ leaders in this country), we should remember that the army alone is not responsible for our problems. In almost every case that the army has stepped in, it has been at the instigation of a civilian leader that has been ousted from power, or feels he/she does not have enough of it (as was the case throughout the 11 years of ‘Democracy’ after Zia).

We also lost Bangladesh because a megalomaniac (ZAB) was unwilling to concede power to Mujeeb-ur-Rehman from East Pakistan.

Finally, what evidence is there that Democracy is the only ‘right’ way to govern a country? The democracies the West has finally arrived at have been on the back of centuries of oppression and civil war, and a forcible separation of Church and State – a cycle we have yet to go through, and one that seriously deconstructed Religion in favour of civil liberty. While the ideals of Democracy are great, the implementation of it is so far from great in Pakistan, and so easily taken advantage of, that we will eventually reach a point of civil war if we continue without serious reform.

Let us also stop this stupid fiction that all the ills of this country stem from the last government’s management. It’s taken 60 years, and numerous crooks and murderers at the helm of power for us to arrive at this place. We seem to so easily forget the blatant scavenging of our treasury and national resources by the PPP and PML(N) during their tenures; we forget the extra-judicial killings throughout 11 years of ‘Democracy’; we forget Surrey and the Swiss Courts, Rice and Sugar scams by Nawaz and BB, “Qarz Utaro, Mulk Sawaro” and massive capital gathered during that particular scheme (where is that money now?), we forget their rapid (and voluntary) exit from the country when we needed them most… AND, we forget our own joy when Musharraf finally did overthrow Nawaz, and stepped in to rescue us.

I found a quote from Fareed Zakaria in an interview he gave in 2002 – barely 3 years into Musharraf’s reign:

When General Pervez Musharraf took power in Pakistan, there was widespread denunciation of him in just about every major American publication. They said this was not good, that this was a kind of hijacking of democracy. What is interesting is that the press in Pakistan, which is reasonably free, reacted very differently. It was by and large in favor of the coup because they believed the democracy they had was a sham. When George Bush, as you remember, was running for US president, he was asked who was the new leader of Pakistan, and he did not remember the name, but he said he was a general and would add some stability to the region. The Washington Post took it upon itself to declare that the real scandal was not that Bush did not know Musharraf’s name, but that he had the gall to say Musharraf would bring order. Now, two years later, I think it is clear that Musharraff has been extraordinarily brave and courageous, a reformist in almost every dimension– economic, political, religious, cultural-and that he was able to do so because he was not victim to the same short-term interests that modern politicians have to deal with.
http://www.fareedzakaria.com/interviews/hir.html

Like little children, we have the memory span of a fly. When once we were hurling bitter oaths at these same leaders for their ‘Sham Democracy’ and corrupt practices, now we can’t seem to get enough of them. Perhaps what we really need is not democracy (with another round of politicians with short-term interests), but a Suharto, or a Mahathir to bring long-term, real stability and civilization.