Taming The Chameleon
By Mir Adnan Aziz
27 February,
2008
Countercurrents.org
'The persons you consider ignorant and insignificant are the ones who came from God, that they might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom.' Khalil Gibran.
These very persons, taunted and referred to as illiterate and sans wisdom, spoke through their given right with a clarity which left not even an iota of doubt as to what was asked of them. By taming the chameleon they demanded an honest and effective government that represents their values and vision. Their verdict demands a homegrown remedy to our ills. They ask of their leaders to change the tone of political dialogue and of more bipartisan cooperation to solve the serious problems, which have our country in a stranglehold.
The rout of the King's party and their henchmen calls for a new direction at home and abroad. Today, seemingly, as our Presidency winds down to an abysmal flop and President Musharraf makes the last futile gestures of appeasement to the elected leaders, the pitiful story of his rise and fall serves as a timely corrective reminder of our tragic follies. Maj Gen Ehtesham with his 'Zameer's' belated soul call vilifies all who saw the people being cheated and wronged.
The West and our discredited politicians, with a false bravado, lament the imminent fall of President Musharraf, seeing in his fall from grace an 'investment' gone awry and bankrupt. This precisely proves the point that such dictatorial rule only cripples and hobbles a nation in the long run. All these 'investments' do is leave a trail, a long shadow that shrouds the rest of their hapless nation in darkness and misery.
With the elections behind us, a clear verdict given, the true road to democracy must now pass through the screening process of nation building. This asks for much more than slipping a ballot paper into a transparent box and getting the thumb marked. While the globe is made up of some 180 countries, there are very few nations where democracy flourishes. Only those countries enjoy the fruits of democracy, stability, peace and prosperity that have pained with the hard labour of achieving the concept of nationhood.
French historian and philosopher Ernest Renan defined a nation as: 'A large-scale solidarity, constituted by the feeling of sacrifices one has made in the past and of those that one is prepared to make in the future. It pre-supposes a past. It is summarized, however, in the present by a tangible fact namely consent; the clearly expressed desire to continue a secure common life. A nation's existence is a daily plebiscite, just as an individual's existence is a perpetual affirmation of life.'
Within most of the Muslim world, unfortunately, we have unrepresentative governments. The schism that persists between the ruling elite and the ordinary citizen hence creates a common reality; the indigenous populace believes that their leaders do not represent their interests or their identity.
At some point societies reconcile with who they are as a people and who sits at the helm of their nation's government. On the streets the signs of a cataclysmic change in leaderships throughout the Muslim world are becoming pervasive.
In these circumstances it is imperative that instead of trying to institute some foreign element that mirrors alien diktats, our government should be shaped by the aspirations of the people and not by impractical politicians in different lands. It is this homegrown experiment, this endemic democracy that will ultimately move us towards successful progression in the hope of reaching our God-given potential.
Free elections are a necessary condition for democracy, but are not sufficient evidence to ensure that a functioning democracy is in place. Actual democracy depends on how elected institutions function and on everyday citizen involvement in the same.
What is
needed now is practicing real democracy by establishing constitutional
and lawful government. It is also important for the civil society
and media to fulfill their managerial responsibility, neutrally and
with unity. Mainly it is our social obligation to maintain that as
doors are opened for us, they are not closed to others. Dr. Martin
Luther King said: 'Man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated
by the vitriolic actions of the bad, it is also perpetrated by the
vitiating inaction of those who are good'.
Democracy is an evolutionary development and a process that is never
static. It is characterized by change, adaptation and dependent on
local customs, practices and cultural settings. It is therefore an
exercise in futility to forcefully impose 'democracy' custom-made
to the whims of a foreign power.
Made to order governance and how it limits freedom of the governed is an archetypal process which has been endlessly re-enacted throughout our history in various forms. The pathological aspect of this process has become so exaggerated, tamped up to such a degree, that it is just about impossible not to notice its staggering malignancy in all spheres of our lives.
Hopefully, we have learned some lessons from these recent tumultuous
years. It is imperative that we assume responsibility for the crisis
and find our own solutions to rectify it. In recent days we have seen
a flurry of meetings between our elected politicians and American
and European officials.
These meetings and the subsequent statements by the foreign media and politicians smack of manipulation, coercion and an old Western trait-arrogance. They repeatedly assure their readiness to work with any formed Government but at the same time reiterate full support for their discredited 'investment'. The fallacy is there for all to see.
The United State's George Walker Bush, Japan's Shinzo Abe, Spain's Jose Mario Anzar, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, Britain's Tony Blair, Australia's John Howard and our very own Caudillo, Pervez Musharraf. It would be hara-kiri for those recently elected not to learn from the immense political capital floundered by these seemingly unflappable and larger than life 'warriors'. This so because they forgot that they derived strength from their very own people and not an unquenchable personal hubris.
Everyone engaged in these parleys should not under-estimate the will of the people. Any commitments at the cost of our national interests will de-legitimize and discredit those elected at the very onset. Change will only happen if we are united against forces set to exploit us yet again. Keeping in view our catastrophic situation, the time has come to work earnestly towards building our nation.
The most fundamental distortion we face as a nation today is a lack
of mutual respect and dignity. This is why we capitulate so easily
to alien diktats at the cost of our national honour. The scale of
the inherited challenge is enormous, the re-establishing of truly
democratic institutions and rebuilding a shattered national psyche.
The biggest and most long-term challenge, though, will be recreating the sense of lost mutual respect, and in fact, rebuilding society. We will have to cleanse our minds, rebuild our sense of national honour, respect for life, dignity and above all for each other.
( miradnanaziz@gmail.com )
