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T V R Shenoy
It is hard to find words to describe the world's reaction to General Musharraf's coup -- it barely rates as a rap on the knuckles, perhaps a tap...So I was surprised when the Commonwealth heads of government struck a tougher note in South Africa. I never thought, for instance, that they would insist Nawaz Sharif is still recognised as the prime minister.
All this is fine as far as it goes. But there are a couple of questions that come to mind. First, will words alone have any impact on events in Pakistan? The Common-wealth's influence on Pakistan might, very politely, be described as negligible. The three chief sources of support financial, military, whatever for any government in Islamabad are the United States, China, and the Arab states. Not one of them is represented in the Commonwealth. Small wonder, then, if the Pakistani foreign ministry lost no time in contemptuously rejecting the statement.
Let us now turn from the practical consequences of the Commonwealth's declarations and even that augustbody has given General Musharraf two years to sort out the mess turning to a more theoretical aspect. To put it very bluntly, I am not sure that the Commonwealth took any thought about the kind of democracy that existed in precoup Pakistan.
Leave aside the so-called `larger' issues Nawaz Sharif's sustained assault on the opposition, the judiciary, the media, and just about everybody who stood in his way. Practically every other administration in Pakistan has been just as bad. So what was it that led the man on the street to come out and celebrate when news broke of the coup? Were they really rejoicing at the thought that a new era of judicial activism and or media muckraking was about to dawn? Scarcely!
I put it to you that the average Pakistani was delighted chiefly because the Nawaz Sharif regime had raised corruption to the level of a fine art. General Musharraf's advent, rightly or wrongly, held out the prospect for some relief from that overwhelming burden all those hands that needed to be greasedat every level of life. Pakistanis knew perfectly well that their hard-earned rupees were going into the pockets of Sharif's cronies, who apparently were beyond the law and they resented the fact.
One academic went so far as to tell me, ``Nawaz Sharif didn't lose power because he forced the Army to withdraw from Kargil. No, he lost power because he would not pay back what he owned to the banks!'' This, of course, is an exaggerated analysis. But there is a kernel of truth.
There is a tendency, especially when we analyse Pakistan, to ignore this aspect altogether. We seem bent upon treating it as a zero-sum game, one where the Pakistanis may choose either to battle for democracy or to fight against corruption but not both. Sorry, I totally disagree with this attitude.
Democracy isn't just a matter of being the largest minority (which is what winning an election amounts to in a first-past-the-post voting system). If `government for the people' the most ignored portion of Lincoln's famous definition isto have any relevance at all, battling corruption has to be at the top of the agenda. And a close second would have to be ensuring that everybody is equal before the law.
How bad has the situation become? Think about this: it made the headlines when General Musharraf's car stopped at a traffic-signal. I am sure there are lots of people who will groan at this as an obvious publicity-stunt. So it is why else was this news released to the media? But after you finish groaning, ponder over this: why did such an innocuous act actually become news?
The simple answer: years of `democracy' have produced a gigantic class of scoff-laws. The elite of Pakistan are used to jumping the lights. The super-elite don't think twice of holding up ye olde man in the street while the cavalcade roars past. Can you imagine what a pleasant surprise it must be to finally have a chief executive who actually obeys the laws like any ordinary citizen? Or someone who issues a `pay up or else' threat to a generation of politicians whothink of nationalised banks as a private stash?If the approval of the general populace -- the `mandate of Heaven' as the ancient Chinese phrase goes -- is one prerequisite of democracy, I dare say the military regime in Islamabad is more `democratic' than the one it replaced. How much attention did the Commonwealth pay to this aspect?
Actually, forget about that amorphous organisation called the Commonwealth, and let us look closer home. What are we doing here in India to make the average citizen feel that he or she actually has a stake in democracy? The answer is: precious little. When it comes to corruption, India is (almost) as bad as Nawaz Sharif's or Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan.
Forget (if you can!) the egregious Laloo Prasad Yadav, there are scores of others. I remember one politician who used his stint in the Union Finance Ministry to write off a loan that he himself had taken. In fact, you didn't even have to be in the Finance Ministry -- going by the example of one Janata minister it was enoughjust to be in the Cabinet. And I have lost count of the number of VVIP offspring whose firms suddenly had their debts written off by friendly banks. If we differed from Pakistan at all, it was only in the scale of operations ...
For a long time, some politicians thought they could brush charges of corruption under the carpet by chanting the mantra of secularism. Beyond a point, as the voters of Bihar have suggested, that is a tactic which doesn't work. Let us not replace one adjective with another. I have said it before and I shall say it again winning a poll does not give anyone a blank cheque.
I dislike military regimes. But I also believe that accountability is the key to democracy. In my book, an elected regime that isn't accountable to the people who voted it into power is a regime that has lost its legitimacy. By all means, condemn the methods General Musharraf used to come to power; but the Commonwealth is fooling itself if it equates the restoration of democracy with the restoration of NawazSharif.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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