Open Letter to General Musharraf: "Cruel Necessity"
By Tahir M. Qazi, MD
11 November, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Dear General Musharraf:You better wonder why I did not address you as "Mr. President". No offence but I'm sorry, I can't. Civil society has ceased to exist in Pakistan by suspending the constitution at gun point. And, you loose the honor of being called The President, General!
Your way to root out extremism is to lock up judges, detain human right leaders and tighten the military noose around institutions of justice. You do these things to build up democracy in the country. Interesting! You can not fool people. We all know that Pakistan was never a paradise. Its hellish under the barrel of guns now.
Under your watch, military has erected a financial empire within the country. Heavy-handedness has become the logic for asserting rules. Your Gunships are indiscriminately showering bullets on villages and towns. Killing your own countrymen has become your civic value. Deceit has become the surrogate for moral courage and avarice for virtue. Now, guns to the temples of a nation are meant for advancing lessons on citizenship and law and order. It is interesting but unfortunate lesson!
Citizenship in Pakistan is under siege every which way. Everybody is insecure. Criminals are running amok but emergency rule is incarcerating the innocent. Judges, lawyers and students have lost civil liberties by your ill-fated proclamation of black November. War on terror is being waged on the very countrymen who are the source of power while deals are being negotiated under the table with corrupt politicians and gluttonous corporations.
Imperial agenda is your motto when poverty is rising in the country you avow to defend. Yes, you like to be called, the defender. Yes, you are defending but the interests of the most powerful in the world and sell the flesh of poor to bare bones. Tyranny always brings tragedy that pervades through the fabric of poor nations thank to grotesque arrogance of the powerful from the time immemorial.
You have been at the helm for almost a decade navigating the country according the whims and wishes of the powerful to take the country to the midst of storm. Greasing brutal war machine is your ideal. Your ideologic kins run from top to bottom in Pakistan. They are likes of what somebody called, "A Bicycle Personality" – bowing at the top and kicking at the bottom. Soul of military generals is perhaps the real essence of that personality. Even brutality does not gloss over poverty of their moral courage.
Please General listen! Common Joe on the street of Pakistan does not have too many demands. All that he wants is food to put out natural fire in the belly, a sense of security and freedom. These are basic rights that have turned into commodities. They have gone beyond the reach of virtually everyone. That's why passion in Pakistani society moves to calls for violence, which is a perverse way feeling secure. That's why establishment has the most to fear of judges who dispense justice to rich and poor and powerful and weak. The blind folded lady of justice does not discern who the power-elites are and who the martial law administrator is. Equal justice neither discriminates nor does it differentially treat the powerful.
Dear General! The world will perhaps never be able to figure out what were your fears when you snatched freedoms of the whole nation, and when criminals were let loose. But, rest assured justice cannot be silenced and innocence cannot be convicted.
Verdict of history is always against those who dance to the tunes of their masters and behave with expediency. It has never happened in Pakistan but lessons from history book are written on the wall.
The nations that have self respect dig their General Cromwell out of grave and hang his corpse to render justice and avenge cowardice of others. They render justice even posthumously as British did to him in 1661 for crime of disrupting the system and institutions earlier. It is ironic and a strange paradox of history that the words of the very general, Oliver Cromwell are still alive and ring clearly in the ears of self respecting nations, "Cruel necessity" that he mutely uttered while watching over king's execution in January 1649.
Cruel realities of life are fate of the poor but destiny has it: "cruel necessity" for corrupt politicians and power hungry too.
Dear General, with best of wishes; so long.
Dr. Tahir Qazi is a freelance writer of Pakistani origin. He lives in the US. Author's e-mail for feedback, comments or critique: [email protected]
Leave A Comment
&
Share Your Insights
Digg it! And spread the word!
Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So, as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.
Syndicate CC Headlines On Your Blog
