Why is that most Pakistani fall in line for leaders who just pop up out of no where, like no body even knew Mushraf before October 12, 1999. Same was the case with Zia-ul-Haq, nobody knew he existed before July 5, 1977. But once they are in power you see a majority from a particular section of the society following them like crazy. In Zia’s case it was the pseudo-religious right and now its the pseudo-secular liberal left.
It’s easy to fall in line with some leader who already grabbed power, but its hard to bring a leader to lead through representation. Its a shame when our educated elite (right and left of political spectrum) falls in line for sake of their interest even though they know that the law has been broken.
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Re: In Line Pakistanis
Its a culture of authoritarianism..most educated middle and upper class pakistanis have very authoritarian mind sets. Its a brown sahib thinking, their thinking goes like this.."they have no problems with democracy..they just think we should wait till literacy increases..at the same time, they support increased military expenditure (so basically the people never get democracy because they never get literate). The other part of the argument they use goes like this: "the Army doesn't want power, it is forced by the situationa nd because of civilians inviting them" again something which has been disproven in both Zias and Musharrafs case, they didn't launch a coup because the Asghar Khans or Benazirs invited them..they did so because it was in their own self interest. Another part of this mentality is being anti feudal..( only those feudals that disagree with them, which is less than 1%)
The most proper understanding of this mentality is the story of a well known politician ...when asked why he kept changing parties..he replied "my party is the government..i've never changed my party!"
Re: In Line Pakistanis
Zakk, its an irony that the same illiterates voted in the 1945 elections, ultimately resulting in creation of Pakistan. But once in Pakistan, they were deemed more illiterate and were stripped of their right to vote for generations, poor "illiterate" Pakistanis.
Re: In Line Pakistanis
whether a ‘democratically’ elected goverment is overthrown for power, ad thus power is gained by illegal means…
or
massive election fraud has taken place, people’s votes have been bought, stolen, fabricated, coerced and thus power is gained by illegal means
I dont like either of the two