Power

[stingingnettle]

I will admit I do not know much about Tony Benn, the left leaning British Labour Party politician who died last year. His political achievements within Westminster politics are of little or no interest to me but what is of interest to me are the five questions he believed we should ask the most powerful of the land. He said;

"If one meets a powerful person - Rupert Murdoch, perhaps, or Joe Stalin or Hitler - one can ask five questions: what power do you have; where did you get it; in whose interests do you exercise it; to whom are you accountable; and, how can we get rid of you? Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system."

()

I am struck by the incredible relevance of these questions to present day Pakistan where unbridled power is exercised by a tiny minority over a fatally compliant majority of citizens. In light of the recent fuel crisis, I find it hard to describe my compatriots in any other way. The long queues of misery-stricken bottle-clutching – tired men, women and children waiting for hours in the faint hope of buying some liquid happiness to run their motorcycles, scooters and cars. What has become of us - the suffering descendants of those who gave us a free country in 1947 – a great chance to live dignified lives free of oppression? The answer perhaps lies in understanding what ‘power’ has come to mean to the rulers of Pakistan; so let us examine this in light of Tony Benn’s five questions.

What power do you have?

The power exercised by the rulers of Pakistan over the people is truly obscene. They not only have a stranglehold over food and fuel production and supply but also on making laws that only benefit them and their families. It will not be too far from the truth to suggest that Sharifs, for example, live and behave like emperors; the laws of the land do not apply to them and never will. It is truly shocking that Sharifs exercise the power of life and death over a population that has to beg for its ‘naan’ and watery ‘daal.’ Unbridled power gives the likes of Sharifs and Zardaris access to an unlimited supply of tax-free money – the single most important resource for enslavement. With money they can buy anything they like; assets, elections, judges, politicians, even more money, power and even life after life in grand mausoleums.

Where did you get it (power)?

The allegation is that Zardari and Sharif got their power from the people via elections but the reality is rather disturbing; Pakistan’s elections are nothing more than an orgy of corruption and robbery conducted under the auspices of a work of fiction called the Constitution of Pakistan. I find it amusing when politicians triumphantly say that they are answerable to people who have voted for them; people with empty tummies and chronic problems of inflation, deprivation, lack of education and opportunities, lack of security and with a strong belief divine intervention can NEVER vote; they can only roll for one disaster to another. To ask the likes of Ayaz Saddiq how he got his power will be laughable; it is akin to a man standing by a bloody corpse, clutching a smoking gun, shouting ‘I am glad I killed the bastard!’ being asked, is there any proof you did it? In case of Parvaiz Rasheed it would be a moronic discussion about how to define the concept of ‘murder.’

In whose interest do you exercise it (power)?

Now that is a really ‘interesting’ question, is it not? Even an uneducated, pavement-dwelling, smelly and revolting pauper in Lahore will be able to answer this question correctly – and there lies the real irony. We all know that Sharifs, Zardaris and their families exercise power solely in the interest of their business and family interests; we all watch televised stories of the daily rape of merit and competence on the 8 p.m. prime time talk-shows but still we find it impossible to progress beyond words. The problem we have is a religious one; we all seem to be resigned to the promised hope of Divine justice in the afterlife as we watch our rulers fornicate with our dignity in this life – yes, queuing up for fuel and food or waiting for electricity or gas to appear with the same regularity as bills etc. are all good examples.

To whom are you (rulers) accountable?

Well, once you have rediscovered you composure, I will dwell on this; once again you can ask any other disgustingly poor citizen of Pakistan as to whom he or she thinks Nawaz Sharif is accountable to and the answer will be to no one. The general rhetoric is that we are all accountable to God and Sharifs will make sure that keep reminding us of that but in actual fact our rulers are accountable only to their greed – at least in this life. The legal system of Pakistan that is entrusted with accountability and in Pakistan we also have something called NAB whose head is appointed by those who it is meant to hold accountable – at least we have not lost our ability to laugh. Iftikhar Chaudary was elevated to the position of CJP but he turned out to be a wonderful salesperson who found it hard to explain his son’s unlimited supply of money. Accountability is the nubile, busty and sexy blonde Fazlu dreams of every one seventh of a second but the fact remains that no amount of drool dripping down his beard will ever make it a reality. The suggestion that our rulers are accountable to the people of Pakistan is as ridiculous as the suggestion that they derive their power from the people.

How can we get rid of you (rulers)?

If you have not lost your will to live by now – you should. Let us face it; there is no way of getting rid of our power junkies, is there? Musharraf still has wet dreams of returning to power, Falzu suffers from daily “nocturnal pollutions” of attaining power and Zardari-Bhutto and Sharifs are hell bent on making their hold on power an integral part of their genetic make-up. In civilised countries major and minor cockups are sufficient for rulers to walk away from the corridors of power but never in Pakistan. Even acts of deliberate criminality are not sufficient to get rid of anyone in our country. Model Town murders is only ONE example in a litany of murderous exercise of power by our rulers and yet they are still in power – enjoying trips paid for by tax-payers - to yonder lands even if the trip is of no benefit to the people of Pakistan. The death of a King is of significance to Nawaz Sharif because not because he wants to become a king but because in his mind he already is, except the named title, the King of Pakistan.

Our inability to get rid of our incompetent, corrupt and nepotistic rulers is the clearest sign that our suffering will not end with the fuel crisis we are faced with today. The sacking of incompetent leadership is the defining trait of those nations that have made it and we in Pakistan are still too preoccupied with doctrinal issues of life after death to worry about the stink in life before death.

For those still protesting that Pakistan does have democracy, I leave you with the last line from the Tony Benn quote;

“Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system."

[Mirza Ghalib]

You touched my heart, SN, by quoting Tony Benn in your introduction, one of the rare Brit politicians I ever felt respect for. That he failed to reach the corridors of power the way he should have done is one of the tragedies of the British System. Benn's integrity remained intact throughout.

Our Pakistan, our bloodless, weeping Pakistan and its tortured population is also an example of much to be regretted historical failure. It was not meant to turn out the way it did when our forefathers sacrificed their lives to allow us to create a new country away from the depredations of the Hindus of India. That the end result has been utter failure on our part, who can deny?

You signal out religian as the first culprit - and rightly so. What else do the poorest of the poor have in their hands except their faith in God? That faith should have strengthened them considerably. Instead it has led to their utter slavery to the whims of a few rich men and women.

But our vampire "PM" is not propped up by the slaves alone. Over time, he has created a vast network of compliant thieves and associated criminals - the ones we think of belonging to the status quo - and together they have a merry time killing us off one by one. The Constitution, all things to all rich men, is one big failure on our part. The other obviously is what passes for the judiciary in this country. But, worst of all, I imagine is our blind belief in the "democratic" system, no less fatal to our people than religion has turned out to be. Give me a benevolent dictator who does his duty anyday to fake Democracy, with all due apologies to IK and my fellow Pakistanis.

[Shimatoree]

Where does this POWER is supposed to come from and through what process?

Is the source legitimate and TRUSTWORTHY...........or is the source the PROBLEM ?

And what process give this acquisition of Power legitimacy ?

Quote " I wish to note that this thing called elections do not cease to amaze me.
The day on which
- the vote of the illiterate means as much as the vote of the professor,
- the vote of the idiot as much as the vote of the wise man .
-the vote of the lackey as much as the vote of the potentate,
-the vote of the cutthroat as much as the vote of a virtuous man
is for me CRAZY.
I do not understand how this make believe fantastic act can determine, for the next few years, something as important as the government of a country.
On what sort of fairy tale does this authority base itself?
How can this fallacy constitute the basis of anything- ( Gombrowicz).
End of quote.

So why the shock and why the surprise and indignation as to the accumulation of POWER in the hands of the CROOKS ! so that they might indulge in all these things that they are indulging in.

Let us just take Imran Khan. In his wedding , he wore a slick shiny Sherwanee..........why ?
Dress up in a splendid coat and step into whatever. To use wisdom, maturity and virue..........well that is not in FASHION Sometimes TRIFLES have more meaning than the MONUMENTS when it comes to judging a person.

Anyone and everyone is complaining about the lack of competence in exercising POWER by the current lot..............ok but who gave these people this POWER and what process made it possible.

An efete copy-cat defective make believe process that has been adopted after importation.

A mouse that has come through the sewers can only be expected to smell of SHIT and not Channel # 5

[stingingnettle]

I begin by borrowing a sentence from Shimatoree Sahib's comment;

"How can this fallacy constitute the basis of anything- ( Gombrowicz)."

So here is my take; there is a serious lack of compatibility between democracy and Islam; the fallacy is in trying to establish an Islamic Republic which is democratic too; it just does not work or exist. The incomprehensible equalities Gombrowicz questions echo the oft quoted qualification for the ruler of an Islamic state; he (note NOT she) has to be the most pious person of the land. It does not require competence, a Ph.D in governance or experience but mere piety and honesty. So what people like Nawaz Sharif has to do is perform a few Haj, get matey with the King and princes of Saudi Arabia, visit a few shrines in India and Pakistan and lo and behold he has earned himself the certificate of piety and this of course then allows him to cheat his way to power via this shit called elections.

I want everyone to have the right to vote but not before they pass a test of ruthless selfishness that is devoid of forgiveness especially for those who fail him or her. Money can nullify the two watchdogs of the people; courts and media; so attaining power becomes easy.

Once we say that we are not interested in a person's religion we strip people like Fazlu, Siraj ul Haq, Nawaz and Zardari to their bare bones. The people of Pakistan can never have any power because of their addiction to religious explanations and solutions. If the law says thou shalt not steal then that is the law and all we have to do is to enforce it.

We need to return POWER back to courts that are actually able to deliver cold justice only then we will empower people.

The real conspiracy is the deliberate drip feeding of dogma to people and teaching them not to ask real questions. As long as the fornication with education system continues we will keep producing people who will seek messianic solutions to problems.

We need to make examples of those who fail us when they are given power to rule us; there - I have said it in one sentence.

We were all born with logical mind; we cannot hide behind the excuse that we victims of propaganda in this age of internet ---- this will of course mean Pakistanis would have to stop looking at porn for long enough (I refer to Google stats saying that Pakistan is the country most hungry for porn) to do something about our lives.

[Shimatoree]

Quote.." We were all born with logical mind "


UNTRUE both on Scientific and Experimental Grounds.

One may only Inherit a Logical mind……IF……….one's biological parents are LOGICAL-( intelligent etc)- ……and IF the environment that one is nurtured in……FACILITATES Logical upbringing.

On the Experimental side……..70 years is enough to have seen in spades what has taken place in the country.

As to PORNOGRAPHY…………..well you may do the MATH of two PLUS two.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are the 2 top PORN on the Internet consuming countries in the world.

One may assign the reason to religiosity but that would not be quite fair………….the more likely reason is that they have nothing else to do………JOBLESS with no access to BIOLOGY in Pakistan or TOO MUCH MONEY in Saudi Arabia-( nothing to do that is )………..and so that is how the shoes fits.

Of course this PORN thing might all be a Jewish/ Indian Hindu conspiracy to malign the 2 Islamic countries!

[LifeH2O]

We keep telling ourselves ancient stories of our glorious ancestors and say to ourselves "we are good because they were" instead of realizing what a mess we are.

- (I refer to Google stats saying that Pakistan is the country most hungry for porn) to do something about our lives. -
- Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are the 2 top PORN on the Internet consuming countries in the world. -
No we are not, that is a propaganda that I don't understand why.
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q= ... cmpt=q&tz=
Go to this link and see the trends yourself for any words you like. Above link refers to only past 12 months, you can change it if you like.