The End is Coming (and other cynical musings): Darn terrorists ruined my democracy

November 3^rd, 2007 – President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan has declared martial law, sequestered the judges of the “Supreme Court” and has suspended the Pakistani constitution, pausing or perhaps destroying a very precarious democracy. These actions followed an impending court decision that would have declared Musharraf’s bid for his joint responsibility between a continued presidency and as chief executive of the national armed forces illegal. The state of emergency and martial law will be upheld and maintained at least until the summary elections which Musharraf claims he will hold in early January 2008. How and under what circumstances these elections will occur is not known, without a constitution, it could be as simple as outlawing all other parties before sending out ballots with Musharraf as the only option.

If we were to draft up a list of the 10 or 20 ideal world democracies in this day and age according to popular opinion, I am willing to bet that Pakistan would not be even close to entering the proposed nations. Great political upheaval, presidential assassination attempts, coups, active terrorism and constant racial and religious tensions have long been and remain the plagues of a relatively young country (1948). This new action gives a square punch in the middle of democracy and Musharraf’s explanation for it is a square punch in the face of the Pakistani people. He claims that these drastic actions were taken to preserve democracy and to counter an increasingly violent wave of terrorism. He states: “there is visible ascendancy in the activities of extremists and incidents of terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings, IED [improvised explosive device] explosions, rocket firing and bomb explosions and the banding together of some militant groups have taken such activities to an unprecedented level of violent intensity posing a grave threat to the life and property of the citizens of Pakistan’’ (BBC News Service). This is not very convincing on many levels.

Firstly, if this was even the true and only motive for a state of emergency, it is not a very good one. Revoking the people’s right to vote can only keep the head of state in power, it cannot dissuade, reduce or counter terrorism in any way. Secondly, his initial actions against the supreme judges in the nation’s capital, Islamabad, seem to implicate them directly in the crisis situation. Unfortunately, these judges have not been accused of setting up any explosive equipment or of secretly producing anthrax in the Supreme Court basement. Once again, suspending the judiciary branch of Pakistan’s democracy has no impact on the dissuasion, reduction or countering of terrorism. It HAS some unforeseen and, I’m sure, purely coincidental effects on the presidency.

Primarily, suspending the constitution means the elimination of any elections. Thus, the current head of state, and current head of the national army, remains in place indefinitely, personally names the other magistrates of the country’s institutions and effectively gouverns by decree without any accountability. Furthermore, Musharraf’s sequestering and silencing of the supreme judges mere hours before they could have declared his presidency illegitimate is a fantastic coincidence that permits him to carry out a plan of action against the immediate threat of terrorism…..that has existed for decades. Finally, former Pakistani president and new candidate against General Musharraf, Mrs. Benazir Bhutto, has made a triumphant return to the country after a self-imposed exile. The suspension of the constitution has unforeseeably defeated her democratic bid for the presidency along with her massive supporter base. She is now under house arrest and has survived at least 2 attempts on her life in the last month, reportedly perpetrated by Musharraf’s army corps. Heads of State must be careful when governing by decree, if they are not, all sorts of perverted effects could guarantee their indefinite presidency and eliminate their opposition.

I can elaborate a myriad of examples of burgeoning or unstable democracies that quickly turned to a dictatorship under a charismatic and powerful wolf in sheep’s clothing with righteous sounding motives: Pisistrates overturned a young Athenian democracy and became their tyrant to protect the people from themselves in the 6^th century BC, Caius Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony claimed the unlimited dictatorship of Rome to destroy it’s enemies, enemies being whoever opposed them in the 1^st century BC, Napoleon Bonaparte 1^st became first consul and then emperor of an infant French republic to spread his liberal ideas on the continent (Free yourselves of tyranny by joining my Empire?) in the early 19^th century, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin imposed a communist dictatorship on most Eastern European countries to get rid of the yoke of capitalist democracy in the early 20^th century and finally Jimmy Carter financed and sent troops to eliminate a Nicaraguan president (Anastasio Somoza) whom was democratically elected yet socialist, populist and anti-American in the 1970s (the country’s institutions have not fully recovered). The point is, all these people had the best and purest motives…according to themselves. Unfortunately, the small people, you and me, cannot see the genius or dementia that comes into these decisions that seem fundamentally wrong for the world and generally bad for us.

I don’t know about you but I feel that president/general/supreme overlord Musharraf, along with these significant historical personalities, are feeding me grapes with one hand and stabbing me with the other. Suspending the constitution was clearly in the interest of his presidency and ONLY for this goal yet we are made to believe a noble story of anti-terrorist emergency legislation. Keep in mind, Hitler and the German NSDAP claimed that the Jewish populations of the world had to be eliminated to prevent governmental corruption, national treason and to make the European people safe again.