What do you do if you are a "progressive" South Asian dictator wanting to make a good impression on the Leader Of The Free World as he visits your country? This:
Police detained former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan, the leader of a small opposition party, at his Islamabad home ahead of a planned protest today against the US president’s visit.Khan was leaving a friend’s home after dinner when he was served with a detention order, said Akbar Babar, a spokesman for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or Movement for Justice party.
Khan was driven in a convoy of four police vehicles to his home on the banks of a lake near the Pakistani capital, he said.
An official at the local police station said at least 10 police were posted outside Khan’s home but he could not confirm his house arrest. The official declined to be named as he wasn’t authorised to speak to media.
Earlier this week, Khan had announced he would lead a rally against Bush, marching to Islamabad from the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi. He declared that the US leader was “a symbol of repression whose policies have led to violation of human rights on a massive scale”. He also criticised Bush’s “support for dictatorship in Pakistan”, a reference to Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.
Imran Khan is famous, so we hear about his detention. But he is only one of hundreds of opposition figures preventively detained to prevent them from protesting against Bush's visit. Meanwhile, those who were able to protest are subject to beatings and arrests. This is the true face of President Musharraf's commitment to "progress" and "democracy", and it is made all the more disgusting by the fact that it has passed completely without comment from the man whose self-proclaimed mission is to spread democracy and freedom around the world.
Khan's statement on his detention and Bush's visit is here.
Just think what would happen if true democracy were allowed to occur in Pakistan. Think "Hamas". And Pakistan has The Bomb. And the Taliban originates from Pakistan.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, let's berate Bush for not allowing democracy in Pakistan. Nevermind that the alternative is worse.
Lucyna: and so in order to prevent that, Pakistan must suppress public demonstrations and free speech, and detain and torture anyone who dares speak out. Well, at least you are honest about where you stand, even though the position is completely hypocritical and morally bankrupt. After all, you insist on democracy and human rights for yourself, do you not...?
ReplyDeleteDemocracy is a fundamental human right. The right to control and change your government is a natural extension of the right to control your own life (at least under any remotely modern and plausible theory of government legitimacy). One thing Bush is right on is a deep-seated human desire for both. Unfortunately, he has once again shown that his commitment to democracy and freedomis nothing but empty rhetoric.
I don't think it is total empty rhetoric. I watched the BBC's Doha Debate last night and it was on this very subject. Frum was one of the panelists and and he basically took the "Hamas are raving killers" line. He just didn't see that being democraticaly elected automaticaly made them a legitimate power.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the American government is prepared for the difficulty of living by their ideological convictions of global democracy, and by abandoning their ideals when things become difficult, their evil means destroys their desired good ends.