Roedad Khan: Ides of March and Zardari's Presidency
Isn’t it a great tragedy that at a time when the nation is facing a grave crisis, the only office that matters in Pakistan is the Presidency? Democracy is in limbo, Parliament paralysed, the opposition languishes in torpid impotence, the Constitution a figment, and all civil and political institutions remain eviscerated. All power is concentrated in the hands of Mr Zardari. He is President, Supreme Commander and Chief Executive. He wields absolute power without responsibility and is accountable to none.
Today there is no such thing as law and order anywhere in Pakistan. When the administrative machinery breaks down (as it has in Pakistan), law and order is the first casualty. As someone said: “When respect for law and authority declines, the devil of force leaps into its place as the only possible substitute, and in the struggles that ensues every standard of conduct and decency is progressively discarded. Men begin by being realists and end by being Satanists. Sometimes synthesis takes place from within; sometimes it is imposed from without. If the original breakdown of authority is caused by a ferment of ideas, a genuine revolution like the French may result. If it is simply due to the decrepitude of authority, the solution is the substitution of a fresh authority, but whether that substitute is external or internal depends upon local circumstances.” This is the grim situation we face in Pakistan today.
Politics, no less than nature, abhors a vacuum. Perhaps this is one of those moments when a mass movement led by civil society might wrest the initiative from the established political authorities and impose its own agenda on the nation. Who might lead such a movement? Extraordinary times generate extraordinary candidates, and in extraordinary profusion. One thing is clear. The mysterious patience of our people in the face of adversity is showing signs of rubbing thin. The tectonic plates are shifting. Power is evanescent. It can come in a rush, but it also tends to evaporate overnight. These are the cycles of history. Beware the ides of March!
Today there is no such thing as law and order anywhere in Pakistan. When the administrative machinery breaks down (as it has in Pakistan), law and order is the first casualty. As someone said: “When respect for law and authority declines, the devil of force leaps into its place as the only possible substitute, and in the struggles that ensues every standard of conduct and decency is progressively discarded. Men begin by being realists and end by being Satanists. Sometimes synthesis takes place from within; sometimes it is imposed from without. If the original breakdown of authority is caused by a ferment of ideas, a genuine revolution like the French may result. If it is simply due to the decrepitude of authority, the solution is the substitution of a fresh authority, but whether that substitute is external or internal depends upon local circumstances.” This is the grim situation we face in Pakistan today.
Politics, no less than nature, abhors a vacuum. Perhaps this is one of those moments when a mass movement led by civil society might wrest the initiative from the established political authorities and impose its own agenda on the nation. Who might lead such a movement? Extraordinary times generate extraordinary candidates, and in extraordinary profusion. One thing is clear. The mysterious patience of our people in the face of adversity is showing signs of rubbing thin. The tectonic plates are shifting. Power is evanescent. It can come in a rush, but it also tends to evaporate overnight. These are the cycles of history. Beware the ides of March!
posted by temporal at 1/19/2009
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