Destroy Democracy to Save Democracy

You cannot make this stuff up, it is too good. General and President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf held a news conference to discuss the reasons behind his having to call for emergency rule in such proximity to the upcoming elections. The General has obviously been a student at the George Bush School of Political Studies, because he has the lines down. According to the General in order to save democracy in Pakistan, he has to destroy it, temporarily of course. He stated that he has to suspend human and civil rights in order to protect those rights. If I didn’t know any better I would think George Bush had said that line.

He defended the decree issued 10 days ago that scrapped the Constitution, dismissed the Supreme Court and resulted in the arrests of 2,500 opposition party workers, lawyers and human rights advocates, and rejected an appeal by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to lift emergency rule.

General Musharraf said the decree was justified because the Supreme Court had meddled in politics, specifically the validity of his re-election, and because of the serious threat from terrorists.[1]

Ok, this is Pakistan, right? There has to be a new rule that anytime the head of a government is doing something unpopular, illegal, or they are threatened by the truth, they are now allowed to say the word terrorist and all proceedings are to be halted. This includes any legal proceedings, financial dealings, or policy debates that happen to be occurring. The threat of terrorism trumps all other activities, no matter how illegal they may appear to the untrained eye. The problem with Pakistanis and many Americans is that they are making decisions based on not having all the facts. There are an elite few who have been given access to all the facts and they would appreciate you unenlightened people being quiet and letting them handle this. In what smacks of the Bush Administration’s dismissal of dissent and the media headed by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the General used similar rhetoric to deflect criticism of his suspending democracy.

Supreme Court; don’t need it. Opposition Party and dissidents; secret terrorists. Parliament; meddlers and complainers. General Musharraf is demonstrating all that is wrong and has been wrong with American foreign policy. You continue to make deals with the devil, eventually you’re going to get burned. For anyone to now say that we are trying to export democracy the rug has been pulled out, the curtain has been drawn and the world can see the man behind it. Please ignore the man behind the curtain. How can we export what we refuse to allow here in America? We don’t want democracy we want stability. We talk about democracy in public, but behind the scenes we continue to prop up these “strongmen” or dictators all over the world. Why do we do it? Because they provide stability. They keep the trains arriving on time, they keep the oil flowing and the labor cheap.

I don’t have a problem with this being the case, but let’s be honest enough with ourselves to admit it. We could care less about democracy in Pakistan, the Sudan, or North Korea. What we want is stability for our markets and for our products. We want commerce to keep flowing out from them and into our pockets and if that means putting some tough guy in to keep them natives in line then so be it. I mean after all they don’t even understand democracy, nor do they deserve it. Democracy was meant for the northern Europeans, no one else really can understand its intricacies and that’s why they want to destroy it and our cherished way of life.

In the interview General Musharraf was critical of the opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, saying she was confrontational and would be difficult to work with.

Western governments and Western media, he said, misread Ms. Bhutto’s support because they placed too much emphasis on the significance of human rights advocates in Pakistan.

“You go and meet human rights activists,” he challenged his interviewers. “Ninety percent of them may have never cast their votes. They sleep on the day of elections.”

General Musharraf said nearly a dozen independent news television stations that had been closed under the emergency decree would be allowed to re-open if they agreed to a government code of conduct.[2]

Now the General, he understands democracy. Democracy is like alcohol, you don’t want to become drunk with it. He recognizes that the people really don’t want democracy; they won’t even get off their lazy butts and go vote. All they want to do is complain. And the Americans they are just a bunch of hypocrites they complain in public, but privately they support our policies and provide 10 billion dollars of aid.

Hell, we don’t want democracy for Pakistan; we don’t even want it for ourselves. If we did we would have noticed those who are destroying it, so they can save it.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/world/asia/14pakistan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/world/asia/14pakistan.html?hp