Truthout: A Year-end of Yearning for Democracy

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A Year-end of Yearning for Democracy
By J. Sri Raman
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Tuesday 01 January 2008

At midnight Monday, millions in the region around India will look back upon a year of movements for democracy that has meant deaths on the street for many, including someone widely billed as a woman of destiny. As the new day and year dawn, the winter mist won't let the world see what lies ahead.

Visibility would appear to be poor even for the superpower, the self-appointed crusader for "democracy," which has really played quite a contrary role, if one prefers to believe the region's people rather than Washington and the Pentagon. Let us begin with the primary example, Pakistan. "Musharraf's unhappy new year" - that was the headline of a look-ahead report in The Economist of London on January 19, 2006. Said the report: "For Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, troubles are coming not as single spies but in battalions. An American rocket attack on January 13 on a remote mountain village in Bajaur, a tribal agency near the border with Afghanistan, provoked angry nationwide protests. Army action in Baluchistan province against rebellious tribesmen continues to take a toll of soldiers and civilians." That projected Musharraf as a man whose anti-terror mission pitted him against the masses.

The leading mouthpiece of British conservatism, a long-time ally of George Bush, also lent voice to the West beginning to dislike Musharraf's ways. It added: "Many Pakistanis criticize General Musharraf for making his own life difficult by picking fights on so many controversial fronts. He seems rattled by the opposition he has provoked, and has resorted to bluster. In December he thundered against the rebellious Baluch tribesmen: 'I will sort them out - they won't know what hit them'... " He could not, perhaps, comprehend what kept them going even after his army had killed the tallest Baloch leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti, in August 2006.

The article proceeded to make a pitch for what then became widely known as the Washington formula for restoration of democracy in Pakistan. It said: "Besieged as he seems to be, General Musharraf still shows no inclination to broaden his political base by making friends with the parties of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, two exiled former prime ministers. Rather, he seems to see the presidential elections due next year as a chance to weaken them further, and consolidate his own power. Ruling Pakistan is not at all easy, even for an all-powerful dictator who, most observers reckon, sincerely wants to do well by the country."

The formula, as we all know, has proven a disastrous failure. Very few are left, within Pakistan and elsewhere, for the theory that Musharraf has served his country only as a well-meaning, benign dictator. Under Washington's persuasion, he was supposed to have made friends with Bhutto and at least an arrangement with Sharif. That helped him get re-elected president, but the promised general election remains a remote prospect. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010108M.shtml