Where Is That Leader? Trickery, Deceit
And Ignoble Machinations
27 May 2011
By Saeed Qureshi
Two indispensible features have all along been lacking
in the political landscape of Pakistan. One is
selfless, motivated and patriotic leadership. The
other is the institution building. The newly born
country had fallen prey to the vandals of worst
pedigree.
It has been wantonly and relentlessly pillaged
financially and crippled institutionally, by
self-perpetuating people and rapacious groups that had
scant concern or interest in its welfare, stability
and its evolution as a modern nation state.
From the dawn of independence, it remained lorded-over
by creepy bureaucrats, ravenous feudal classes,
insidious dwarf politicians, hypocritical religionists
and murderous mafias that kept exacting their pound of
flesh throughout. There has always been severe and
acute famine of leaders with nobility of character and
sublimity of spirit to serve this county for its
greatness and glory.
The foundational and structural flaw was its two wings
that were poles apart in every manner except the
religion. Religion failed as a cohesive and uniting
force between Former East Pakistan and the present
West Pakistan. The dismemberment of Pakistan was
destined to happen sooner or later.
The egalitarian and democratic spirit of the Bengali
nation was a check on the parasitic and fiefdom
mentalities of West Pakistan. However, after 1971,
when East Pakistan seceded, the left over western part
had become an exclusive grazing ground for all
exploitative classes and greedy ruffians to turn it
into a barren land politically, socially and
economically.
The search for a great leader has been elusive so far.
It is a dismaying coincidence that the perpetual
crises in Pakistan have not produced a leader of
sterling integrity and high caliber with powerful
intellect, iron will and lofty ideals to lead Pakistan
towards a splendid destiny. There have been mediocre,
mean-spirited, self-centered, exploitative, oppressive
individuals grabbing power by trickery, deceit and
ignoble machinations.
The leaders on the whole, were infected with the
undying desire of self fortification in the power
citadel, loot of national wealth by every conceivable
devious means, destroy or dibilatate democratic
traditions and nation building institutions.
The political parties and their stalwarts depend more
on intrigues and back door maneuvers to dislodge and
depose the sitting governments and not by established
democratic traditions of fair and free elections. The
political anarchy that interminably hovers over
Pakistan has been the dirty and loathsome work of the
politicians than the army.
The generals always stepped in at the behest of the
selfish political cronies or as a result of a totally
collapsed system of governance. If politicians would
have behaved and adhered to and promoted democracy
culture, the army could have never ruled Pakistan for
half of its post independence period.
The accumulated mess of six decades has to be cleared
by someone or else Pakistan's survival as a viable
state is at stake. You name one institution and you
would lament that it is dysfunctional due to
incompetency, kickbacks, bribery, and lack of funds or
malafide intentions not to make it efficient.
The Parliament, Senate, ministries, police, airlines,
railways, courts, municipal administrations,
industries, presidency, Prime Minister House,
education, health, social services, law and order are
being run on borrowed time.
The state or national institutions are in a state of
complete or near wreck. The worst sufferers are the
majority of the people of Pakistan. The elite classes,
the aristocracy, the ruling cliques, the big
businessmen, and snobbish bureaucarts are immune from
the myriad predicaments and day to day tragedies and
hardships that a common man encounters.
So let us talk about a unique leader who can address
this morbid situation and redeem Pakistan from a
colossal drift and national calamity that if remained
unchecked could push it towards an irredeemable decay
and terminal disintegration.
Such divinely gifted leaders have appeared in history
who changed the destiny of their nations from total
collapse to resplendent redemption. Let us indulge in
a fanciful utopia, and subjective reckoning and
wishful reflection.
Let us ponder that if we have one like Hazrat Omar,
Mamun-ur-Rshid of Abbasid dynasty, Salahuddin Ayub of
medieval Iraq, Kamal Ataturk of 20th century, Imam
Khomeini of Iran, Li Kuan of Singapore, Fidel Castro
of Cuba, founding fathers of the United States,
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan, De-Gaulle of France,
Mau Zedong or Ding Xiaoping of China, Hochi Minh of
Vietnam and so on.
Bhutto was a dazzling flash in the chequered and
tumultuous history of Pakistan but it extinguished for
his own temperamental flaws and by the external forces
in league with the local quislings. His achievements
are distinctive and excel his failings.
He was a trendsetter but fell victim to the work of
local intriguers and the foreign string pullers. On
the political horizon of Pakistan there is no other
lofty figure (leave the founder of Pakistan) who could
be portrayed as a leader of true national stature.
Pakistan needs a radical progressive, reformist, a
firebrand, iron willed revolutionary, chivalrous and
visionary leader. He should be a leader who is
incorruptible, astute and farsighted. He should be the
one who can keep his nose to the grindstone and never
budge or bend on matters pertaining to national honor,
sublime mission for change and reconstruction of
Pakistan as a modern, developed state.
He should be the enemy of status quo, of sectarianism,
of vested interests, of selfish pressure groups and
cartel, corruption, nepotism, feudalism, comprador
classes, and the false and exploitative sainthood. He
could lay down his life but would not dither nor
compromise on his lofty ideals of nation building. He
should be a person hating self aggrandizement, wealth,
personal galore and glorification, live a simple life
and shun ostentation.
He should speak and plead for the masses He should
mobilize the downtrodden and intellectuals and
intelligentsia for a gubernatorial change. He should
stand for consolidation of healthy and efficient
institutions, for equality, unalloyed justice and
social services for all on equal basis.
Am I asking too much for a leader to rescue this
harassed nation from a catastrophic abyss of
sufferings? Well if it is a wishful thinking then let
it be so. There have been such matchless and legendry
leaders who led their nations in the most critical
periods and drove them out of the dire straits of
untold afflictions and rejuvenated them from the ashes
of annihilation. Can this miracle happen in Pakistan
too?
The writer is a senior journalist and a former
diplomat. He can be reached at qureshisa2003@yahoo.com
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