Blame Populism not Pakistan’s Military
WESTERN media is blaming Pakistan’s military for the wrong reasons. It is editorial failure. Khokar’s Guardian article on the same lines ignores that West is facing similar democratic, constitutional, political, and economic crises. In West, populism has replaced democracy after sidelining of military from national trichotomy of power. Extremism has also increased in absence of military. A broader view of UK, US and Europe show the West is worse off than Pakistan under civilian control.
It has destroyed state institutions in West. The approval ratings of US President, the Supreme Court and Congress are at record low. Same is true for UK and the EU. There are corruption reports against Biden (Ted Cruz called him Mr. 10 percent in Hunter Biden case), Chief Justice wife earning $10M in consultancy, and their lawmakers. Congressman Santos is convicted for fraud, money laundering and stealing public funds. UK PM’s wife allegedly avoided £20M tax,90 MPS earn £4M annually in second jobs and the EU 14-point anticorruption plan has been rejected as a sham because it fails to punish MEPs in football corruption.
There is hybrid regime in America also. Imran is photocopy of Trump’s rise and fall in America. The article covers Pakistan from 2008 which is like America in terms of election rigging, media blackout, failure of anti-corruption narrative, use of social media (fake news), election results (gerrymandering, swing states, collapse of RTS), no confidence vote, extremism, and populism. Trump and Imran both got help from establishment in elections of 2016 and 2018 and demanded its replay in 2020 and 2024 which have been refused. Others have replaced them.
In 2016, Hillary won 6M more popular votes, but Trump was made president. Face Book and Cambridge Analytica were used to bring Trump to power. FB paid $5b to settle Cambridge Analytica suits which allegedly helped Trump to win elections & Durham Report shows how Russia election meddling was a diversion. Similar tactics were used in Imran’s case including RTS. Both lost their support for which independent observers blame them. Pelosi thanked National Guard on Capitol Hill for helping to indict Trump. Both militaries also saved democracy on 6 Jan and 9 May.
They both are facing similar corruption allegations and using same words witch-hunt to describe their situation. The alleged corruption reports of their family members are also similar in scale and deception. Trump’s son-in-law got staggering $2bn investment for his new company. Trump is facing charges of using$250M donations to PAC Leadership to keep control of the [Republican] Party instead of challenging election results for which he collected them (17 June 2022, VoA). Imran and his wife and her children are also facing corruption allegations including £190M Al-Qadir Trust UK money laundering case. There is no progress on party fund cases of Trump and Imran so far.
They both resorted to violence after losing support of their benefactors. Trump refused to accept election results as ‘Far from Over’ (7 Nov 2020, NPR). Imran refused to accept vote of no confidence result and turned dangerous. In UK, Boris Johnson suspended parliament which Supreme Court ruled unlawful and in retaliation tried to bring judicial reforms allowing ministers to overturn court orders. Political leaders of West have consolidated maximum power without serving masses which is resulting in rise of populism and fall of democracy.
Both Trump and Imran were ‘out of box’ candidates of establishment to drain the corruption swamp in the Capitols, end draconian hold of two-party system to help constitution and democracy serve public on economy, jobs and cost of living including 1 in 5 children living below poverty, five decades of stagnant wages, pensions, taxation and staggering national debts. After failing to produce required results, they rightfully lost support of their establishments.
DeSantis election pitch for 2024 Presidential race is family and faith. It is next level of Trump holding Bible outside a church. Gen Milley apologized for having photograph with Trump on that occasion which sent wrong message because military is apolitical and moderate. Nearly half of Republicans think God wanted Trump to be president (14 Feb 2019, Washington Post). DeSantis is promising tax cuts, anti-woke policies and a police state. Imran used similar policies as ‘truthful and honest’ and acted to be the chosen one with political slogan of State of Madina while blaming women for crowd behaviour and rape victims.
The real challenge of Western democracy is populism and extremism. Western media is responsible for all this because it fails to accept that military is part of democratic check and balance without which judiciary and executive cannot deliver. The absence of military from government power structure has eroded personal rights and freedoms, destroyed economies and fuels forever wars on false pretexts. To win power, politicians will continue to use violence and to subdue state and its institutions, judiciary and media. Democracy cannot deliver without controlling politicians by restoring military’s share in trichotomy power. The media must play its role for having a democracy that serves public not government.
—The writer is senior political analyst based in Islamabad.
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