demokratia

I had a most interesting meeting with some one from the other side. On the other side not just because she believes that Musharraf should be ousted, but also because for me she comes from the other side of the border, even though we are all far away from that border.

We had lunch and in the process I got a lot of food for thought. The fact that I still wasn't convinced by my own arguments in favor of Musharraf pushed me to probe deeper. What I am beginning to see now is very sad.

I think my disillusionment with the world's state over the past few years is causing me to lower my expectations from it. I am ready to give in to the lesser evil and forget the dream of creating a non-evil alternative. I am thinking of short-term goals! (but who can blame me if the threat of global warming/nuclear war/Bush is making us see the end of the world as we know it!) But I believe that is not right. My pessimism and pragmatism is taking me down the wrong path - the easier path.

To me it had become a question of one individual against the other - since that is how politics works in Pakistan. So for me it is a question of Musharraf against Benazir. The fact is that in both cases, when their power will begin to decline, they will show us their insecurities - their love and greed for personal power. But that is human nature. That is what Indira Gandhi did when the whole country turned against her - she got everyone with a voice arrested. She was vulnerable and did everything in her power to keep her power. India recovered from Indira. Pakistan will take time. The reason being the lack of a democratic set-up, no matter how rotten and decayed.

Democracy is a noble ideal - in practice it falls short. The question is - is a bad democracy better than a good dictatorship. An answer cannot be produced in isolation of the realities of this extremely varied and complicated society of Pakistan. Though I do not have the answer, I am glad that I'm not the one deciding :) So I have decided to wait and see Pakistan take a new turn in it's history - and hopefully this time there will be more than two individuals deciding the fate of the nation.