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| India-Pakistan |
| This is why they hate you |
| 2008-08-17 |
| By Abbas Zaidi Since 9/11, General Musharraf has systematically destroyed every institution in Pakistan. Thanks to the economic policies of Shaukat Aziz, the Citibank executive that Musharraf imported from New York to run PakistanŽs economy first as finance minister and then prime minister, there has been so much poverty and frustration in the country that few economists are confident that things can improve even marginally in the foreseeable future. Men have been killing their families and then committing suicide because they cannot feed them. Widows and divorcees have been putting up their children for sale, jumping into rivers or in front of trains because they cannot afford a meal. There is one man that the people of Pakistan (85 percent, according opinion polls) believe is responsible for their plight: General Musharraf. It is, however, not just poverty that Musharraf has wreaked on Pakistani masses. He has given another gift to the country and its people: on 3 November 2007 he sacked and imprisoned 60 judges of the Supreme and High Courts of Pakistan. In the words of Aitzaz Ahsen, President of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, sacking and imprisoning 60 judges (along with their families) is unprecedented in the legal history of the world. Since 3 November 2007, the lawyers and the people of Pakistan have been campaigning hard to have the judges restored, but Musharraf has shown no respect for the law of the land. People by and large strongly believe that he has had a hand in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto too. This is borne out from the fact that only days before her assassination, Benazir in her e-mail to Mark Siegel wrote that if she was assassinated, Musharraf would be connected to it. Musharraf is so much hated in Pakistan that no one can praise him in public and not be manhandled. This is why, the Musharraf-backed Muslim League (Q) was thrashed in the national elections held on 18 February. For the success of his party, Musharraf had been campaigning like a man possessed. He declared that peopleŽs vote on 18 February would be a vote for or against him. The result on 18 February brought Pakistan PeopleŽs Party and Muslims League (N) in power, the two parties that Musharraf had demonized for years. The vote on 18 February gave the people of Pakistan hope. They believed that after years of MusharrafŽs misrule, their own representatives would do something for them—in whatever measure. But they also believed that Musharraf was the hurdle which must be removed before any good could come their way. All and sundry demanded that he resign. But then the government of the United States of America jumped onto the Pakistan stage like a Hollywood macho. From John Negroponte and Mark Boucher down to State DepartmentŽs junior officers plus a pack of high ranking military officers began to "meet" (actually bully, as Pakistanis think) the elected representatives of Pakistan even before they had formed the government. Soon Bush and Rice weighed in and the new government of Pakistan was told that Musharraf would stay at all costs. By the first week of June 2008, there was so much pressure on the parliament that it appeared that Musharraf would be impeached. PakistanŽs leaders and ministers gave clear indications—even a date—to this effect. But then suddenly George Bush phoned Musharraf and assured him of his personal support. Next day Musharraf was howling like a wolf amidst a herd of sheep. He held a press conference and not only bragged about his "constitutional powers" (as if he had ever respected PakistanŽs constitution!), but also he insulted the people of Pakistan in a manner that even the heartless Nero would not have even imagined: To a question that the people of Pakistan could no longer afford to eat even pulses (the cheapest commodity in Pakistan), Musharraf responded with an extremely malicious sneer: "They should eat chicken!" On 12 June 2008, half a million lawyers and general public gathered in Islamabad after a two-day Long March in order to force the government to restore the judges. From every city, town, and village people walked more than a thousand miles with their little kids shouting "Hang Musharraf!" Thousands of them had brought the dictatorŽs posters which they spat on and beat with shoes: In Pakistan, these are the most hateful expressions one can make. The huge gathering in Islamabad was addressed by a number of lawyers and politicians, and all of them demanded that Musharraf be tried for high treason, a crime whose penalty is death. Musharraf has been a serial committer of this crime. One can imagine the hatred the people of Pakistan have for the United States for unabashedly supporting Musharraf. People are angry that the sole superpower in the world has undermined democracy even before it could start functioning. It is very convenient for the likes of the CNN and Fox to put innocent-looking American kids on TV with "Why do they hate us?" question. American networks, however, have never asked, say, a Pakistani to answer this question. Instead they have George Bush answering the question: "They hate our freedoms!" Pakistanis do not hate the United States. You will find millions of Pakistanis who have their relations living happily in the United States. Pakistanis are very appreciative of American educational institutions: You will find few Pakistanis who do not want their children to study in America. Many Pakistani parents sell their properties to send their children to the United States to study. American scientific and technological advances awe and astound Pakistanis. They have no reason to hate America or the Americans, but they always say: "We have no inclination even to think ill of your freedoms. DonŽt rob us of our own. Period." Since its establishment in 1947 Pakistan has been a frontline state for the United States. Till the 1980s it played a pivotal role in containing, undermining, and ultimately destroying the Soviet Union. The American-backed Afghanistan jihad against the Soviet Union in the 1980s was launched from Pakistan. And now Pakistan is the "most allied ally" in the American War against Terrorism. As a result, Pakistani society has become the most violent society in the world. Having done so much for the United States, the people of Pakistan deserve support and understanding. The United States can at least rid Pakistan of the Taliban who have turned Pakistan into a sectarian battlefield of great bloodshed. The United States has had an indirect hand in the creation of the Taliban in the first place. Now it can destroy this evil once for all. But it is very clear that the United States is not interested in wiping off the Taliban, but control and use them in places like Iran and South Lebanon. Given the TalibanŽs hatred of Iran (because the Iranians are Shias, and the Taliban Wahabis/Deobandis like the Saudis), and American malevolence towards the Islamic Republic (one of the few democracies in the Islamic world), making of a US-Taliban brotherhood may not be too far. But sadly, the United States has never done anything that can benefit Pakistan. The billions of dollars of loans (wrongly called "aid") that it has been giving to Pakistan have landed in the generalŽs hands. But it is the people who have been repaying the loans with high interest on them. Instead of helping the people of Pakistan, the United States has strangled PakistanŽs democracy every time it was brought to life by the people of Pakistan. Dictators like Generals Ayub (in the 1950s and the 1960s), Yahya (in the late 1960s), Zia (1980s), and Musharraf (since 2001) were (and are) whole-heartedly backed by the United States despite the fact that their crimes against humanity were blatant, glaring, and persistent. Pakistanis are a very talented people, but years of corrupt rule of the corrupt army have deprived them of most of their civic, constitutional, and natural rights. It appears that the American Empire does no more than invent and reinvent all kinds of slogans about democracy and freedom, and show off the First Amendment and "We, the People" drivel to gain moral superiority. But the people of Pakistan—besieged by depraved generals and bloodthirsty Taliban—will always say: "the Emperor wears no clothes!" |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #11 FWIW: "Pakistan has seen a growing middle class population since then and poverty levels have decreased by 10% since 2001. GDP growth, spurred by gains in the industrial and service sectors, remained in the 6-8% range in 2004-06. In 2005, the World Bank named Pakistan the top reformer in its region and in the top 10 reformers globally." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Pakistan |
| Posted by: Darrell 2008-08-17 20:27 |
| #10 Is the current batch of the poverty-stricken any worse off than poor people in that part of the world going back the last 4,000 years? Are there that many more of the starving poor as a percentage of the population? Raw numbers don't count, because the entire population has grown so throughout the Indian subcontinent. If yes, I would be very interested in the evidence. Finally, just because Benazir Bhutto thought President General Dr. Musharref was behind attempts on her life, that does not mean he was the one to succeed. It could have been the ISI, working for their own portfolio, or the jihadi types disapproving of a woman appearing bare-faced in public, brazenly putting out her hand to regrasp the crown and scepter of Pakistan. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-08-17 19:53 |
| #9 I got tired of the conflation of the Taliban with the actual mujaheddin that fought the Sovs sometime in the early afternoon of 9/11/01. The guy who carried the freight against the Sovs was Masood. It wasn't any Pashtun, to include Hekmatyar, but also including the Jalalabad warlords. The war against the Sovs went from 1979 to 1992, if I recall. That means it ended 16 years ago. The Dog-Eat-Dog lasted until 1994, which was when the Talibs descended from the Pak madrassahs and chased Gul Agha Sherzai out of Kandahar and Hekmatyar out of the country. Prior to that, they were students (taliban) away safe from the fighting. The Arab mujaheddin, by the way, weren't that much of a factor against the Sovs. Because there were Pashtuns involved, most of their time and attention was involved with jockeying for position and knifing tribal rivals in the back, sometimes literally. |
| Posted by: Fred 2008-08-17 19:35 |
| #8 What have they done for us? |
| Posted by: badanov 2008-08-17 19:11 |
| #7 |
| Posted by: badanov 2008-08-17 19:10 |
| #6 Yep, he's right. The Pakistanis are the world's greatest victims. I am sure that without the interference of the eeeeeviillll USA, they would all be leading lifestyles that would make Westerners jealous. (Ok, they'd settle for making the Indians jealous.....but you know what I mean.) Yep, the fact that they refuse to do anything serious to improve education, public health, or their infrastructure has nothing to do with it. Nope, it's all America's fault. |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields 2008-08-17 18:52 |
| #5 Typical Muzzie. Screw things up to a fare thee well themselves, then frantically look for someone else on whom to blame the resulting mess. Sorry, Abbas, I'm not buying it. Want to see the real source of Pakiwakiland's problems? Grab your Koran, then go look in a full-length mirror. |
| Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-08-17 18:02 |
| #4 Maybe 20 years ago I read a Reader's Digest article about these Pakistani schools called Massadras. Pretty scary. I say the chickens have come home to roost. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-08-17 16:56 |
| #3 As we say at Rantburg... Let them hate, so long as they fear. |
| Posted by: regular joe 2008-08-17 15:35 |
| #2 I'm a wee doubtful about people starving to death in the streets, as well. |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2008-08-17 15:22 |
| #1 The United States has had an indirect hand in the creation of the Taliban in the first place. Err.. no. The Taliban were created after the Russians had left Afghanistan and US support ceased. They were the brainchild of Gen. Nasrullah Babar, Benazir Bhutto's Interior Minister and his plan was originally opposed by the ISI. Benazir approved it however and the ISI got on board when the Taliban began to have some success. It is Pakistan that created the Taliban due to its strategic depth doctrine. It is the Pak ISI that has provided funding and training post 9/11. Pakistanis have nobody to blame but themselves for the jihadi monster. To this day ordinary Pakistanis donate money for jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan outside mosques and markets. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-08-17 14:41 |