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Pakiatan has been plagued by terrible and/or corrupt leaders ever since the premature death of its founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. And frankly, Pervez Musharraf is one of the better leaders.

Unlike neighboring India, serious land reform has never taken place. An almost feudal situation exists in the countryside. And the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan and in the north have never fully come under the control of the central government.
In the province of Sindh there is tension between the Mohajirs, Muslim refugees who fled India and their descendents, and the indiginous Sindhi.
Then there's resentment by non-Punjabis toward the Punjabi elite who control the government, the civil service, and the armed forces.
If all that weren't bad enough, fundamentalist Sunni militants, inspired by the old Taliban régime in Afghanistan, are conducting a terror campaign against Shi'ites and minority religions.

The civilian governments in the ten years before the takeover by Musharraf, were led alternately by Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. They took turns persecuting each other while plundering the country. And like all Pakistani leaders, they tried to maintain support for themselves by whipping the country into a militaristic frenzy over disputed Kashmir. A major portion of Pakistan's huge military budget went into the development of nuclear weapons.

Democracy cannot take root in such a polarized, corrupt, unstable, and fragmented atmosphere.
Voting and elections are just one aspect of democracy. And just how democratic is it when a wealthy landowner simply orders his peasants to vote one way or another.

Musharraf may not be Abraham Lincoln, but he is far from Saddam Hussein. If he can reach a settlement with India over Kashmir, enact meaningful land reform, abate ethnic and religious tensions, and gain control over the tribal areas, that will do more for democracy in the long term than conducting dubious elections designed to placate Western critics.

Posted by: Tim Z at June 27, 2004 11:59 PM

This can't be true. Bush told the Irish correspondent last week that Pakistan was a democracy. Plus, they're our friends in the War on Terror(tm)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/06/20040625-2.html

He's not pulling the wool over our eyes, is he?

Posted by: kerry at June 28, 2004 02:54 PM

Kerry, Bush probably believes that Pakistan, Uzbekistan, etc. are democracies! After all, they're on the "good" (read: Bush's) side, which means they have to have a "good" form of government, right?

Conversely, I wouldn't be surprised if Bush believes France, Germany, and Brazil are dictatorships!

Posted by: Mathwiz at June 29, 2004 11:17 AM

News, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas

June 27, 2004

The Next Saddam?

By Karl-Thomas Musselman