 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
|
 |
| Allowed to do the damage |
|
|
|
Monday, November 16, 2009
Charles Ferndale
Gibran Peshimam’s article (Nov 8) offered a welcome relief from the timid comments on Zardari’s presidency that I read so often. But I think Mr Peshimam was still much too diffident. He says that the PPP is the only party with national support and that, if it is to survive, Zardari should cease to be its president and Aitzaz Ahsan should become its leader.
I agree with the spirit of his remarks, but would like to question whether the resuscitation of the PPP is even possible; and, if possible, whether it really would be the best solution to Pakistan’s political problems. It is true that the PPP was, until its usurpation by Zardari, the one party in Pakistan with wide popular support. And it is also true that, until now, it has been the only party in the country that even pretends to care about social justice.
It has amongst its members some fine and honest people, who are deeply committed to the welfare of all Pakistanis and have worked hard for years for the common good. But its recent history has been tragic. And, for reasons I shall try to elucidate, the damage done to it by Zardari and his cohorts may be irreparable.
The central problem for the PPP in the last two years has been that its co-chairman has not been amongst those members of the PPP who are committed to social justice and the common good. Quite the contrary: most people see him as being pathologically selfish. For this, and other reasons, he is the most unpopular politician in the country’s history. There is a lesson to be learned from the fact that the most selfish, unpopular politician in the country’s history leads, and may have destroyed, what was once the most popular party and is the only one committed to the sharing of wealth (however modestly).
Members of the PPP should heed this lesson. A party cannot have leaders at odds with their principles: one of the two has to go. In the recent history of the PPP, it was the party’s principles that went. We all know how it happened and the party let him do it. So they all share the blame, which is why they are now so widely distrusted by the people who voted for them. And unless the PPP can explain to the electorate why this will never happen again, their party will never again be trusted.
It will be looked upon as just another, all too familiar, device for toughs to misuse the country and its people for their own enrichment. This will be the legacy of Asif Ali Zadari to the PPP. And all the exceedingly fine people within the PPP, who have struggled for years to improve the lot of ordinary people, will (unfairly) have to share the blame. So it must be obvious to all of them that, if the party is to have any hope of recovery, Zadari must go.
Here is a short sketch of how Zadari ruined the PPP and harmed the country. He usurped the PPP by appointing himself the party’s co-chairman and his son chairman. Neither was he elected to the post, and, if the choice had been put to a vote, it is doubtful that either would have been elected. To the extent that Zadari took the actual chairmanship of the PPP without the evident support of most party members. He also usurped the governance of the country. All theorists of democracy know that, in the political system for which Pakistan’s Constitution was designed, the prime minister and his cabinet are supposed to run the country. The president’s only job should be to check abuses of power by the government, the military and the judiciary. But Zadari now runs the country and so he has usurped the governance of the country.
Any head of the Pakistani state might be forgiven for arguing that he did not hand the country’s sovereignty over to the Americans, but that they seized it without anyone’s consent. This defence would be honest and true, except that a patriotic, responsible head of state would fight hard to limit America’s powers to control Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs. But Zadari seems to have consented to more than any responsible head of state should have allowed. One example. Pakistan is now crawling with what are politely called “private contractors.” These people are persistently breaking Pakistani law and treating its sovereignty and citizens with disdain.
So my contention is that Zardari has been a disaster for the PPP, and for the country, in a tragically wide range of ways. How was he allowed to do all this damage?
The PPP (and its allies all around the country) allowed Zardari to do terrible damage to their party and to the country. In doing so they betrayed all the aspirations of those who voted for them with such optimism two years ago. They betrayed the last hope of the people. The people of Pakistan have for 62 years endured brutal, indifferent, dishonest, self-serving governance. Nevertheless, patient, brave and generous as they are, they retained hope in the PPP. I have always thought it is a baseless hope, but it was their last one, and it was betrayed.
The PPP allowed Zadari to take from most Pakistanis that without which no people can unite in mutually beneficial aspirations, without which people become lost and turn to extremists for guidance out of what becomes a daily hell. Hope is the result of good leadership and of good governance. It is what helps people to pass up short-term gains for better, long-term ones.
Hope helps people to treat others well. It is the lifeblood of a civil society. Hope is what is pumped by the heart of a good government through the arteries of a healthy nation. Zadari and his supporters tore the heart out of the PPP, and, with it, they tore the heart out of the people of Pakistan. And until the members of the PPP accept responsibility for what they allowed him to do, and have shown contrition, and have sought the people’s forgiveness, and, most importantly, have ensured by practical steps (not words alone) that it will never happen again, the Pakistani people will be right to distrust them.
Sacking Zadari and appointing Aitzaz Ahsan head of the PPP will not be enough to restore the people’s trust. And it should not be enough. For their trust to be restored, the PPP will have to do a lot more. And, for many reasons, I doubt that they will be able to do what must be done. Trying to stuff an artificial heart back into a poisoned old body may not work. So what else might be done?
Does Pakistan have a better alternative to the unlikely resuscitation of the PPP? Well, yes, there might be one. It may look like a pipedream to Pakistanis, but is not. All the good people from each party (and elsewhere) should form a fresh, new party: one that breaks with all the dreadful traditions of Pakistani politics, one that throws out the dross, a party that actually dedicates itself to the welfare of the country. This is the sort of party the electorate hoped for when they voted for the PPP. What they got was its opposite. And remember (because the voters will) that Zadari and his pals were not the only ones to blame. They had lots of help.
The writer has degrees from the Royal College of Art, Oxford University, and the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London. He divides his time between the UK and Pakistan. Email: charlesferndale@yahoo. co.uk
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
