Open Season on Co Chairman
But we'll have to do something, and pretty quickly, about our leadership problem. Consider in this context Zardari's performance when he met President Bush in New York. After Bush's opening remarks, Zardari said: "As always you prove to the world that your heart is in there for us Pakistanis." This is embarrassing stuff but wait for the next bit: "We respect your feelings, we respect the American ideals. And we bring to this the whole concept of your promise to the world of bringing democracy to Pakistan."
So Bush promised the world---when did he do this?---that democracy would be brought to Pakistan. President Zardari should choose a good speech writer and keep him close by his side at all times. Ayaz Amir
In New York, the president called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, "the father of modern India". That's no way for Pakistan to prepare for a return to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that is set to take place when Rahul Ghandi takes oath as prime minister next year. Manmohan Singh is a nice old man, but he is simply a more capable and credible version of Shaukat Aziz. He's got no political legitimacy other than what Sonia Gandhi affords him. If anything, it should have been Singh singing President Zardari's praises, a man whose wife was murdered, who served over 11 years in jail, and who is maligned for unproven corruption charges that still weigh over him like a ton of gold bricks. Singh has no such record to his credit. He's a decent economist, and an accommodating bureaucrat to the Royal Family of India, a modern munshi at best. President Zardari, blemishes and all, is the head the Royal Family of the Pakistan, Fatima Bhutto's seething anger notwithstanding. There's no comparison. More importantly, there is only one father of Modern India, and his name is Jawaharlal Nehru, any insinuation otherwise is an insult to the Indian first family, and more importantly an utter misrepresentation of history. It is bad enough that young Indians have forgotten the debt they own to Nehru, bad enough that the mass-consumption Bollywood culture has no time, or space to recognize the enormous imprint Nehru has left on the world, and on statesmanship. Pakistanis need not exacerbate things. Mosharraf Zaidi
So Bush promised the world---when did he do this?---that democracy would be brought to Pakistan. President Zardari should choose a good speech writer and keep him close by his side at all times. Ayaz Amir
In New York, the president called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, "the father of modern India". That's no way for Pakistan to prepare for a return to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that is set to take place when Rahul Ghandi takes oath as prime minister next year. Manmohan Singh is a nice old man, but he is simply a more capable and credible version of Shaukat Aziz. He's got no political legitimacy other than what Sonia Gandhi affords him. If anything, it should have been Singh singing President Zardari's praises, a man whose wife was murdered, who served over 11 years in jail, and who is maligned for unproven corruption charges that still weigh over him like a ton of gold bricks. Singh has no such record to his credit. He's a decent economist, and an accommodating bureaucrat to the Royal Family of India, a modern munshi at best. President Zardari, blemishes and all, is the head the Royal Family of the Pakistan, Fatima Bhutto's seething anger notwithstanding. There's no comparison. More importantly, there is only one father of Modern India, and his name is Jawaharlal Nehru, any insinuation otherwise is an insult to the Indian first family, and more importantly an utter misrepresentation of history. It is bad enough that young Indians have forgotten the debt they own to Nehru, bad enough that the mass-consumption Bollywood culture has no time, or space to recognize the enormous imprint Nehru has left on the world, and on statesmanship. Pakistanis need not exacerbate things. Mosharraf Zaidi
posted by temporal at 9/26/2008
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