When power is afraid

Power systems in the US and Pakistan are afraid of their people for the outcome of elections

In the movie V for Vendetta, there is a popular scene where the masked character is talking to a girl he had abducted the night before in order to rescue her, while making her breakfast. He shares his opinion about the state of democracy in the UK and says that in a real democracy “people should not be afraid of their governments; governments should be afraid of their people”.

Well, looks like the Pakistanis and the Americans have achieved real democracy because in both the countries the power systems are afraid of their people, except not for reasons of accountability but for the kind of outcome that would be achieved if the vox-populi is allowed in the coming elections.

The American power establishment right now is massively fearful of a Trump presidential run because there is a very good chance that he might win. Instead of beating him at the polls, the courts are in full swing at ensuring his demise. There is talk of Trump potentially being arrested and facing up to 136 years in prison for 34 charges, including falsifying business records and paying hush money to silence a porn star about her claim that Trump had an affair with her and that she was paid not to disclose the fact that he was having sex with a pornstar.

It might be worthy to recall that President Clinton had used the public resources to have an affair with an intern named Monica Lewinsky. Trump lied about having sex? Well, Clinton, when asked about the claims Lewinsky made, had said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” which obviously was later found to be one of his many brazen lies. President Bush invaded an entire nation called Iraq and turned it into ashes based on absolute lies, which said that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and that he had links with al-Qaeda. The entire US media went along with those lies and spread sophisticated propaganda to fool the US citizens. All resulted in massive loss of both Iraqi and American lives. Trillions of dollars were wasted in the war on terror of those days. Has anyone talked of prosecuting the former president for those bigger crimes? Has anyone even done so much as hint at prosecuting The New York Times and other publications and broadcast media for doing government propaganda instead of journalism?

Trump’s 34 felonies do not include a single one about murdering another human being or murdering an American without the due process of law. President Obama had killed the American citizen Anwar al Awlaki using a hellfire missile unleashed from an armed drone. His 16-year-old son who had committed no crime was also killed in a drone strike. No due process of law was given to either one. He had also spied on the communications of American citizens violating their civil liberties. He violated another US law by giving aid to Egypt despite a military takeover by General Sisi. Nobody saw him in an orange jumpsuit even though he is half black.

President Clinton is responsible for the deaths of half a million children in Iraq alone because of the crippling sanctions he had imposed on that country. His Secretary of State had called it a worthy price in order to punish Saddam. And those people are not in jail and never saw the inside of a courtroom.

Trump was twice impeached, faced a crazy investigation of Russian collusion, and now this. They say there is a first time for everything. Well, now the USA is learning a thing or two from Pakistan. Imran Khan was removed using the only constitutional method possible: the vote of no-confidence. But the nation knows full well about the real motives. It may have been done right but it wasn’t right. Trump is in the thick of laws and courts but the power system is targeting the people’s voice. And the people know that.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2023.

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