Lotfi's comments:Further to the mail I sent before, now this article even boldly implies that Democracy is not so preferable after all, if it leads to the setting up of an Islamic 'monster'!
What else could I say? Muslims must never day-dream!-------------------------------------------- Democracy in Pakistan may endanger west George JonasCanWest News ServiceWednesday, September 05, 2007Democracy may come to Pakistan before long, and with it, catastrophe. That's not because democracy is bad, but because it's so good, so accommodating, that it may open the door to something very bad, even monstrous. And it may do so in a country that has the bomb.Some would say such oversimplification is sensationalistic. It lacks the subtlety and nuance of scholarly analysis, making it the kind of irresponsible statement one expects to see in the popular press. Gen. Pervez Musharraf's quasi-military dictatorship isn't the only alternative to a Taliban-style theocracy in Pakistan.That's true. A sane and friendly strongman isn't necessarily the only alternative to a hostile or insane ayatollah. It's an effective alternative, though. Whether the kind of democracy that may replace it would be equally effective is unproven, and Pakistan is too volatile a laboratory for the experiment.If it ain't broke, don't fix it, some say. Ah, but it is broke, others may counter. Just ask Musharraf. He himself thinks Pakistan needs fixing. Not fixing it isn't an option.The Pakistanis will decide. Here's a potted history of the past few decades.The Islamic Republic of Pakistan (to call it by its official name) used to be West Pakistan until it separated from East Pakistan, now called Bangladesh, during the civil war of 1970-71.This was followed by the briefest but bloodiest of Indo-Pakistani wars, the third since independence (1947), after which civilian rule resumed under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. This lasted until 1977, when Bhutto was deposed and later executed by the country's third military dictator, Gen. Zia- ul-Haq. The general started merging Pakistan's common-law-based judicial system with Shariah or Islamic religious laws, and ruled until his 1988 death in what may have been an accidental plane crash. Or not.The election that followed brought to power the daughter of the executed president, Benazir Bhutto, whose regime alternated with that of Nawaz Sharif, until the next military coup in 1999 brought Musharraf to power. Sharif was jailed and later exiled; Benazir Bhutto wisely fled corruption charges in 1999, not wishing to face the kind of court that hanged her father.Now, both are poised to return to contest a democratic election, Pakistani-style, against Musharraf, who is facing increasing pressure from the Bush administration to allow the exercise.It looks like he might. Perhaps he thinks he can win against Sharif and Bhutto, or perhaps he doesn't care. Surviving half a dozen assassination attempts, punctuated by periodic visits from Condoleezza Rice, might cool anybody's ardour for office. Hell, would you like to be the ruler of Pakistan?Let's look at the track record. Civilian rule in Pakistan has been characterized by chaos and corruption, economic instability, and social injustice. Military rule under Musharraf reduced chaos and instability, though it didn't alleviate - and may even have exacerbated - social injustice. The business classes prospered, but not much trickled down.Under Zia and Musharraf, the country's militant Islamist factions were alternately pandered to and suppressed. Zia pandered to them more enthusiastically, while Musharraf suppressed them with more relish, but both did both. The ostrich-like civilian rulers, the two Bhuttos and Sharif, tried to pretend the problem didn't exist. The militants of Islam, for their part, kept inciting unrest, riots, blowing up things, and giving as much aid and comfort to the Taliban and al-Qaida as they could under civilian as well as military regimes.Iran may wish to have the Muslim bomb, but Pakistan already has it. Under the circumstances, whose finger would you prefer to see on the trigger? The best democrat's in Pakistan - or anyone's, other than Osama bin Laden's?The question isn't whether western-style democracy is a good system. The system is fine. The question is whether western-style democracy can be made to work in an eastern-style culture. On this question, the jury is still out.And when we have a verdict, it may be too late. © CanWest News Service 2007
