Terminally ill

If dispatching the government before completing its term harms democracy & means we can’t criticise it, so be it.

A military coup d’état is often a cure that is worse than the disease, but not all ‘coups’ are bad. A coup de grace, for example, to finish off a dying animal or ending the life of someone with an incurable illness — a ‘mercy killing’, — though seemingly cruel, is actually a kind way of ending the agony caused by fatal injuries or a terminal malady. And that, metaphorically speaking, is the condition of the PPP regime today, as it struggles for survival from countless, mostly self-inflicted, wounds which are no longer treatable, having turned gangrenous.

Many, therefore, were counting on the Supreme Court to administer the coup de grace to this terminally-ill regime. It would have not only ended its misery but also the unbearable suffering its antics are causing us. In any case, the Court has sufficient legal reasons to take such a drastic step given the regime’s defiance of Supreme Court decisions and the lampooning to which the judiciary has been subjected to by the government’s legal eagles. Such antics were reason enough for the Court to act decisively.

When, therefore, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani appeared in Court on January 19 many felt he would be headed for jail. In fact, he not only escaped being branded a contemner but cleverly took advantage of the occasion to treat his audience to what must have been quite an experience of having to listen to a soliloquy about the ‘high regard’ and ‘respect’ in which he held the Court. Actually, when the presiding judge, for some unaccountable reason, considering that Mr Gilani’s presence was mandatory felt moved to praise him for showing up in Court someone present swore he heard sounds of people retching. It seems that make-believe and pretences have become pillars of the state.

And, so, the Zardari-Gilani regime, battered and bruised, but not quite dead yet, remains in office with Mr Amin Fahim babbling on about the government ‘completing its term,’ as if that’s all they were elected to do.

Pakistan is going through an epidemic of uncertainty as the rest of the world watches stupefied, not knowing where it will finally lead and when it will end. As someone once said anyone who is not confused about what is happening in Pakistan doesn’t really understand what’s going on.

And that also applies to the gaggle of Pakistani businessmen I met in Sri Lanka, the other day, eagerly waiting for the judicial axe to fall on this decrepit regime. Each one had his own story to tell of being shaken down by government goons while trying to run their businesses and to what dire straits they had been reduced by such errant practices. All of them also expressed their resolve not to invest at home and said they were scouring other countries for investment opportunities.

One said he had just returned from Malaysia. Another claimed he was en route to Vietnam while a third had attended several meetings in Colombo looking for local partners. All waxed lyrical about respect for the law in these countries and for the officials with whom they had to deal. “Our system, on the other hand,” remarked their leader, “has made crooks out of a whole nation. Even in the worst of these countries officials do not demand a cut before the venture has begun. They wait till the goose starts laying her golden eggs and not ravage the nest at the outset.” Sadly, such talk is now the common thread of most conversations among Pakistani businessmen at home and abroad.

I had initially felt that letting President Zardari complete his term would serve us right for electing him. Besides, a premature end to his regime would likely make him a hero. But there was a more selfish motive, namely, the fear that the freedom we have to criticise government and write and speak as freely as we do at present may all come to an end if democracy is harmed and yet another maximum leader seizes the helm. But not, any longer.

Watching the prime minister pass by in a seventy-car cavalcade even as local investors flee; foreign investments dry up; hunger drives families to suicide and despair takes hold is a cathartic experience. Hence, even if dispatching the government before it has completed its term harms democracy and means that we can’t get to spew criticism at the regime, so be it. The risk is worth taking. As for the public, it is more than ready to trade democracy for bread, a modicum of jobs and a sliver of hope. They’ve had it up to their gills with democracy. All that democracy does is ‘to substitute election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few’.

Of course, to those who are better off such talk may suggest a lack of proportion when discussing our problems and also, perhaps, an intensity that goes too far; but not really. They too should take heed because they are dancing on a volcano.

As for who will deliver the coup de grace, who cares? For the masses, which are leading lives of quiet desperation, it does not matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches the mice. Bring it on, is what they are saying, if only this regime cared to listen.

Finally, it’s worth remembering in the midst of all the cant on TV talk shows the virtues of democracy that the first petition in the Christian prayer is for “daily bread” because no one can worship God, love his neighbour or do anything at all on an empty stomach.

When it comes to governance whether a regime is democratically elected or not, scarcely matters; what matters is performance. Let’s reflect on that, if only because self reflection is the school of wisdom and meanwhile hope that the coup de grace, hopefully imminent, will be quick and painless AND that democracy will continue to thrive.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2012.