LAST week’s column was headed ‘We need to laugh at ourselves’ and today I intended to write a sequel — but it will have to wait.

The majority reacted to what I wrote — by email, mail or telephone — with the question : ‘Do you prefer dictatorship to democracy?’ My obvious answer has to be no. Despite the restraints of democracy and apart from the fact that the world of today dictates that we love democracy, I agree with Winston Spencer Churchill (the best of the bad) and with Basil Liddell Hart who in his very fine book ‘Why Don’t We Learn from History?’ expounded on its pros and cons :

“We learn from history that democracy has commonly put a premium of conventionality. By its nature, it prefers those who keep step with the slowest march of thought and frowns on those who may disturb the ‘conspiracy for mutual inefficiency’. Thereby, this system of government tends to result in the triumph of mediocrity — and entails the exclusion of first-rate ability, if this is combined with honesty. But the alternative to it, despotism, almost inevitably means the triumph of stupidity. And of the two evils, the former is the best.”

The bitter point that faces us today is: what do we have on the political horizon — supposing that we can see any form of horizon through the smog and polluted air that floats over this country? For starters, we have the three democratic exiles — Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Altaf Bhai the Briton, two of them hankering to return to the national fold, the third less bold. And there are those very much with us to our detriment and disgust, political leeches such as the Chaudhri clan of Gujrat who seem indestructible.

Then there is General Pervez Musharraf, president of the republic who, after six years in the saddle, now has a one-point agenda — to do whatever it takes to remain with both feet in the stirrups. This is nothing new, it has been a human failing for as long as the ruling and the ruled have been in this world.

Let us go back three months short of six years, to October 17, 1999, when the general addressed his friends, Pakistanis, his “dear countrymen” :

“Pakistan today stands at the cross-roads of its destiny which is in our hands to make or break. Fiftytwo years ago we started with a beacon of hope and today that beacon is no more and we stand in darkness. There is despondency and hopelessness surrounding us with no light visible anywhere around. The slide down has been gradual but has rapidly accelerated in the last many years.”

He then exhorted us not to be despondent, to hold our faith, and told us that “Ever since October 12, I have deliberated, carried out consultations and crystallised my views about the future course to be adopted. I wish to share these with you today. Our aims and objectives shall be :

“1) Rebuild national confidence and morals. 2) Strengthen the federation, remove inter-provincial disharmony and restore national cohesion. 3) Revive the economy and restore investors’ confidence. 4) Ensure law and order and dispense speedy justice. 5) Depoliticise state institutions. 6) Devolution of power to the grass-roots level. 7) Ensure swift and across-the-board accountability.”

The presidential website has elaborated on this famous seven-point agenda, and now I would like to add my own comments.

On rebuilding national confidence and morals, the general has commented that we are “a dynamic and industrious people” and that “we only have to wake up”. The first traffic jam in Karachi comes at 12 noon. When are we expected to awake?

As for strengthening the federation, and removing provincial disharmony, we have the example of Nawab Akbar Bugti, who has, in Neanderthal-style, gone to live in a cave having been bombed and rocketed out of his ancestral fortress.

The devolution of power to grass-roots levels has so far not proved to be a roaring success. The ministers of a famous party in power bully and extort, the nazims are as corrupt as the ministers of the cabinet over which Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz attempts to hold sway (does he have to check his laptop to find out who of the 80+ is who?). I refer Shaukat to John Kenneth Galbraith who, on leaving India (he was the US ambassador) wrote : “The British left a remarkable system of government which the Indians have followed. They run the country with fewer men than those who serve in the dining halls at Harvard.”

Law and order has been far from ensured, it’s a rare bird, and there has been no speedy justice dispensed. The Hudood ordinances are still with us, as are the blasphemy laws. Jirgas operate and rule unabated, and honour killings are reported daily in our press.

The economy has improved, thanks solely to 9/11, a veritable godsend, but where is the worthwhile foreign investment? What has flowed in has mainly been speculation-geared. Inflation lies ahead. Savings should be encouraged. The banks pay as much as 11 per cent. The special savings certificates should pay more, as they used to.

There has been no progress on the depoliticising front. Accountability has been utterly selective and has turned into a national joke as the cabinet and assemblies are awash with men who have much accounting to do, and are far from as white as driven snow.

Musharraf’s democracy is as good and as bad as democracy has always been in this country, from day one. As far as I am concerned, counting myself amongst one of the few, the general can stay as long as he likes in whichever garb he chooses. He is not a fundo. He enjoys life — a gift of God — as it should be enjoyed, and worries about what is to happen in this world and not in the hereafter. He is also not a grand larcenist.

Email: arfc@cyber.net.pk