To tell you the truth there is only one thing and that is his view that he is the only one that can save Pakistan, this bacame more pronounced in the last few years. I, however, do understand why he thinks like this. We as a nation still need some growing up to do. After the ouster of BB and NS, we had an opportunity to rid ourselves of corrupt politicians, yet we brought the same people we hate so much back.
I do not blame Musharraf for siding with the lotas, they through their cunning ways and wheeling and dealing were able to bring about the biggest coalition. I am sure all of us would agree that none of them were smart enough or fit enough to be given the reins of the country and that is why musharraf kept most of the decision making powers to himself. And that is why he is also responsible for the things that went wrong.
Pakistan, is not an easy country to lead. It requires a very delicate power sharing balance between the Army and civil administration. Musharraf, being from the Army, relied too much on its diciplined structure and marginalised the civil institutions. He is also a bad manager in the sense that he is too shy of delegating responsibilities.
One think I do not doubt about the man is his sincerety. He does sincerely believe that he is a messiah and different from the corrupt politicians, unfortunately that has made him into a dictator. If he had been slowly delegating authority in the last five years to civilian administrative institutions, the nation would have progressed much better and things would have been much different now when we are ready to elect the second assemblies.
I think because of thinking that he is the only one that can do the job right, we failed to grow strong institutions. This, unfortunately is a hallmark of dictatorship and I blame the Pakistani politicians for it as much as I blame Musharraf.
I do think the future is bright though. Even without Musharraf’s backing it is clear that PPP will come out as the victorious party in the coming elections. BB has a far stronger personality than the choudhries and will not be as impotent as the current government is/was. This will create that balance where Musharraff can be the check over a strong civil government with less meddling powers. I see good things happening. Lets hope whoever wins the election has the cajones to take some decision making authority from Musharraf and are mature enough to know that the old antics wont work anymore and to retain power they have to show positive results.
I understand that Musharraf's mentality of 'the only one', but you have to understand that he is not acting like Hugo Chavez, Putin and Ahemdinajad. Musharraf's firm believes are the reason we are taking a stand against extremists who were bed fellows with previous democratic governments. Pakistan was a rogue Taliban state. He has to make that clear distinction because the public is still confused just like the lota politicians on terrorism. They do not condemn suicide bombings in parliament add to that our public whole hearted support for Osama Bin Laden. We have yet to consider a clear stand on many issues. In light of that I do support his mentality, which is very clear and consistent
I do not see Benazir's party winning big in election. Expect an upset.
First of all Ahmedinejad is not a dictator himself, he is the democratic face of a more powerful Islamic junta and has a power share with them. Secondly I do not consider hugo and putin as a fair comparison, if any I would compare him with Zia or Ayub and I fully agree with you that he is not like the examples you gave.
The reason I do not agree with the "i am the only one" mentality is because it does not develop institutions. Without stronger institutions we, as Pakistanis, will always be slaves to personalities.
Pakistan never was and will never be a rogue taliban state. Being a country with 96/97 percent muslim population it is only fair that majority sides with relgious issues, rightly or wrongly. One can blame the lack of proper knowledge for people not being able to decide if a certain issue is really islamic or political, however it will always be easy to mobilise the masses in the name of religion in Pakistan, people feel very strongly about it.
One other thing that we may remember is majority of Pakistanis are not true practicing Muslims. Majority does not pray five times a day or fast on all 30 days of ramzan or follow Islam as it should be. Islam, as followed by most Pakistanis is where it is convinient. We steal stationary from the offices yet do not consider that a crime. Not everyone pays zakat or taxes. Majority steals electricity in Pakistan. They are however mostly God fearing. So when a religious issue is brought up we side with it to hide our own religious hypocricy.
As far as the Musharraf government stance on Terrorism is concerned, each and every government in Pakistan would have taken the same decision and steps. It is a fallacy to consider that a true civil government would have taken a different path.
PPP will be the majority party, they may not have enough seats to make a government on their own, but they will have more than anyone else. Again that is my personal view based on media reports and the people I know and speak to.
Under Musharraf's administration we have seen media and courts taking their decision and being more free. Institutions are growing. Moreover, the rouge Taliban state is a western term. I understand your examples on why we not the practicing Muslims, but this should not be the reason why anyone can not paint us as extremists. It is actions that define a nation. As people, we have yet to take a clear and consistent stance on terrorism.
As people we are not together to take a clear stance on anything. Yes Media and courts are 2 examples, but not the best examples. We do have a free media but we by no means have a mature media. Although it is good to see such a media explosion, PEMRA failed to set up proper guidelines in place. These days any person who couldnt get a job has become a staff reporter for these new tv channels, their bias and immaturity shows in their reporting.
Just two decisions at the top most level, in two very highly politicised and covered cases does not make Judiciary free. Judiciary will be free when smaller courts are free of influences. It will only be called a strong institution when the common man starts getting justice. Just two high profiled cases, with one decision against the government and one in favor does not mean that as an institution it has grown.
Its a start, we should be optimistic. I agree that two people can not have same views and clear stance, but at least show some solidarity when your country is attack...when your people are blown up in pieces...when your soldiers are being ambushed.
Education not in sense of academic but general agreement is not there. This election in particular will answer many question with regards to minds of Pakistani people. Where they stand on Musharraf, past leaders, terrorism and economy.
I do not support the President unconditionally, but when the alternative is chaos than you have to go with him. His willingness, even if controversial, to encourage people, institutions and fight against extremists should be applauded.
MWAP, I am optimistic alright. I am just not happy with the slow pace, I strongly believe more could have been done. This being an election year has been a mess for Pakistan. Institutions are still where they were in pre-Musharraf era.
A lot of progress was made, but that came from the private sector. Kudos to Musharraf government for implementing policies but with the mentality of "I am the only one" he failed in succession planning which is the key to churn good leaders. That is where Musharraf became a dictator and that is where national progress is halted because once Musharraf goes we have no clear leaders and the nation will have to experiment for another 10 years.
No body is indispensible and nobody should try and make themselves as one cause the end result is often chaos.
I, however, do understand why he thinks like this. We as a nation still need some growing up to do. After the ouster of BB and NS, we had an opportunity to rid ourselves of corrupt politicians, yet we brought the same people we hate so much back.
Bhai sahib, you have to realize that he is surrounded by dead-meat-eaters (aka vultures) aka Choudhri brothers and the likes. If they keep feeding him "you are God/Messiah" thousand times a day and he will start to believe in it, that is the effect of a company a man chooses. He kicked out one "corrupt" ruler but then he went in bed with other corrupt politicians, what difference did it make on political scene? ZILCH, because now all corrupt elements know that they can get away with their past crimes if they can "negotiate" with Mushy, that is his biggest weakness.
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One think I do not doubt about the man is his sincerety. He does sincerely believe that he is a messiah and different from the corrupt politicians, unfortunately that has made him into a dictator.
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I am pretty confident thats what BB thinks, NS, Ziaul Haq and ZAB did too, unfortunately your thought doesn't make a difference if it is different from your actions.
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I do think the future is bright though. Even without Musharraf's backing it is clear that PPP will come out as the victorious party in the coming elections. BB has a far stronger personality than the choudhries and will not be as impotent as the current government is/was.
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They all have "to-do" list from one place or the other, BB already started bending over giving out the statement "I will hand over AQ Khan", why would she not bend over for other needs?
Musharraf's firm believes are the reason we are taking a stand against extremists who were bed fellows with previous democratic governments.
Musharraf is not as firm believer as you think. For every action he needs a phone call, sometimes he is given a call after an action has already been carried out by someone else. He is just one pawn in that game. His government is not as clean as you think, there are big number of Taliban bed-fellows in his government.
ashtray: You are asking Musharraf to become leader, inspiration, democratic leader and every thing. Disconnect is when people think that he wants to be in power, reality is different. He never intended to be in this position, probably had to take a crash course in running a country, avoid assassination attempts, trusting politicians, avoid assassination attempts, dealing with aftermath of 9/11, a potential war against India, avoid assassination attempts, Lal Masjid and earthquake.
MWAP, Musharraf wants to be in power, how can you deny that? If not he would have mentored somebody or found somebody by now to run the country. My main issue is with his inability to delegate authority ad that is why the common man feels marginalised when they see Army influence everywhere. When Musharraf took over he forgot that now he is the leader of Pakistan and not just heading the Armed forces of Pakistan.
Let me clear it for everyone, I support Musharraf, this is just my feedback on where he failed.
Its just later years he has started to understand his position. From the start he made statements about him wearing 'two hats' because of situation rather his intention. Yes, he could have done better, but situation in Pakistan fluctuates by the day. He has started to delegate the responsibility lately with his intention to resign from army post and general election.
He was never given an advance notice on situation of Pakistan, he had to learn everything on job and make quick serious decisions. There was no system, advisers and strategy to cope with some of the events that I mentioned earlier in my post. He had to come up with solutions on his own.
MWAP are you doing a PCG with me? Abay I reply and you keep bringing up the same thing. Khali khooli ki behes na karo. I am pro-musharraf because I consider him better than the present lot, however I am not willing to give him a free reign and consider everything he does as correct. With his potentioal better results could have been achieved and I consider that a failure. I still want him to be a major part of the next ruling establishment, with check and balance powers but not with ultimate authority. That is what makes me optimistic about coming times because with a stronger civil leader, musharraf will have to share authority.
As far as crash course in leadership goes, I dont agree. He was leading a major army of this world. He was a lot more prepared for leadership than benazir or nawaz sharif when they first came to power. Changes in geopolitical scenario are not just limited to Musharraf, every leader goes through that. This is a dynamic world.
MWAP, Musharraf wants to be in power, how can you deny that? If not he would have mentored somebody or found somebody by now to run the country. My main issue is with his inability to delegate authority ad that is why the common man feels marginalised when they see Army influence everywhere. When Musharraf took over he forgot that now he is the leader of Pakistan and not just heading the Armed forces of Pakistan.
Let me clear it for everyone, I support Musharraf, this is just my feedback on where he failed.
I think that what Musharraf has done is that he is slowly moulding Pakistan politics into 'Party cantered politics' rather than existing 'Person cantered politics'. That is why today we see weaker political person (Jamali in past and Shaukat Aziz at present) as prime minister and stronger political person in party (Shujaat) holding no official post in government (even though his party is in power). Just imagine that such thing cannot be acceptable to BB or NS, that their party is in power and they are not holding any position in government, the way ‘Chaudhri Shujaat’ is doing. If BB had agreed, today Amin Fahim would have been prime minister. If Ganja had agreed, today probably Shahbaz would have been holding some ministerial position in Pakistan government.
In this type of political setup, somebody or some person to be there makes no difference. Party works and people do not give vote to person (head of party, knowing that the person they are voting would become Prime Minister), rather they give vote to party. Today no one can say that if they give vote to PML (Q), they are giving vote so that Chaudhri Shujaat would become Prime Minister. Though every voter know that if they give vote to PML(N), it is for Nawaz to become PM, if they give vote to PPPP than it is BB to become PM, and if they give vote to MMA than it is Fazlu or Qazi to become PM. *.
If President Musharraf would succeeds than this system would succeed too, and thus in future people would not matter but party would.
*
Saleem, I do not think that Jamali being the PM instead of Ch. Shujaat was because of Musharraf's wish to move away from person-centric politics. It was because Shujaat has been and is a King-maker in Pakistani poliics who doesnt want to bring himself into the lime light. There is a lot more but I dont want a Shujaat bashing discussion here. Anyway a weaker prime minister was what Musharraf wanted and whoever had been the PM would have been weak at that time.
Party based political system still requires some clear cut leaders, you cannot have a heard of sheeps.
If that is what Musharraf wanted, he would have let the ML-N and PPP grow in Pakistan instead of marginalising them. With BB and NS out of the picture for five years new leaders should have emerged from those groups so that when the time came for next elections, as it is now, those new leaders were at the helm.
Saleem, I do not think that Jamali being the PM instead of Ch. Shujaat was because of Musharraf's wish to move away from person-centric politics. It was because Shujaat has been and is a King-maker in Pakistani poliics who doesnt want to bring himself into the lime light. There is a lot more but I dont want a Shujaat bashing discussion here. Anyway a weaker prime minister was what Musharraf wanted and whoever had been the PM would have been weak at that time.
** Party based political system still requires some clear cut leaders, you cannot have a heard of sheeps.**
** If that is what Musharraf wanted, he would have let the ML-N and PPP grow in Pakistan instead of marginalising them. **With BB and NS out of the picture for five years new leaders should have emerged from those groups so that when the time came for next elections, as it is now, those new leaders were at the helm.
Well, Musharraf offered PM post to PPP in 2002. Only difference was that it was not to BB but to Amin. If BB had allowed that and Amin had taken the post of Prime Minister, than the situation would have been same as today. BB would have been ruling the party from outside, but Pakistan would have seen a system where Party is ruling but person leading the party is not ruling.
So, you cannot say that President Musharraf did not try to do that with major parties. Actually major parties were not ready for change in the system, where politics should not be 'Person based' but it should be 'Party based'. Musharraf also tried to bring Shahbaz in government as representative of PML(N) and let PML(N) be represented in government without Nawaz, but Nawaz did not agreed.
Pakistani politicians abhor party based politics, and that is why they do not even allow election in their party. These people want ‘person based’ political system in the country, and are so selfish that they do not even trust their most close person (Amin for BB) or even brother (Shahbaz for Nawaz) to represent them. For them, party is just a mean to fool people and serve their personal interest, not country’s interest or interest of their voters.
When the hurricane/cyclone hit Balochistan, and the attention shifted to Lal Masjid, how do you think the nation handled this national disaster? Reports were clear and loud that whatever help the government WAS trying to give Balochis was not reaching them, because the middle men were running off with the goods. Designated, appointed, elected representatives of these people were not taking care of them.
Now, try sitting in Musharraf's position. You have to take care of your people. You can't let them get bombed by the rising "war on terror". You can't give the world an excuse to enter your country, take over government power, and erase national sovereignty. And then you have inefficient middle-men not allowing their own people get the help and assistance they need.
We're talking about people who steal loaves of bread from a fishing village that was fairly wiped out after the cyclone.
HOW do you handle this mess? By delegating power to others? The same people that are there ready to get that power are the same people that have been robbing the country for decades. Before they were born, it was their fathers.
Could you sleep at night giving power to these jerks?
And lets say you were to find honest people and appoint them to the job. In a country where a para likha lawyer finds no problem in disgracing himself by throwing paint on a minister's face, in a country where a para likha primary ISI guy sets up a maulvi gang in a masjid and then holds children hostage, what hope do you REALLY have?
MWAP are you doing a PCG with me? Abay I reply and you keep bringing up the same thing. Khali khooli ki behes na karo. I am pro-musharraf because I consider him better than the present lot, however I am not willing to give him a free reign and consider everything he does as correct. With his potentioal better results could have been achieved and I consider that a failure. I still want him to be a major part of the next ruling establishment, with check and balance powers but not with ultimate authority. That is what makes me optimistic about coming times because with a stronger civil leader, musharraf will have to share authority.
As far as crash course in leadership goes, I dont agree. He was leading a major army of this world. He was a lot more prepared for leadership than benazir or nawaz sharif when they first came to power. Changes in geopolitical scenario are not just limited to Musharraf, every leader goes through that. This is a dynamic world.
MWAP, Musharraf wants to be in power, how can you deny that? If not he would have mentored somebody or found somebody by now to run the country. My main issue is with his inability to delegate authority ad that is why the common man feels marginalised when they see Army influence everywhere. When Musharraf took over he forgot that now he is the leader of Pakistan and not just heading the Armed forces of Pakistan.
Let me clear it for everyone, I support Musharraf, this is just my feedback on where he failed.
I'm beginning to agree with this analysis. I was thinking just the same earlier today. He doesn't realize that dealing with nosy reporters and trouble-mongering lawyers and a corrupt CJ is not the same as dealing with an out-of-line soldier in training.
Sometimes, their solution is just "slap them around, and akal thikaanay aajainge" approach. Nation building doesn't work like that. Army building does.
